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Joel Smith

Joel Smith

CTE teacher and founder of AI PBL startup TeachCraft

joelsmith
Maryville, Tennessee
Joined October 2025
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Summary

Classroom-first educator who builds tools from practice: Joel is an active CTE/engineering teacher who developed TeachCraft after repeatedly experiencing how time-consuming high-quality project-based learning is. He prototyped and tested the AI co-planner in his own Maryville High School classroom before sharing it with colleagues. teknovation+1
Teacher-turned-founder focused on AI for PBL: He founded TeachCraft (an AI-powered PBL lesson generator) and has actively pitched the product in the Knoxville startup ecosystem, winning the local 'What's The Big Idea?' competition and presenting at regional events. knoxec+2
Advocate for practical, sustainable PBL adoption: Through writing and public speaking, Joel argues for realistic approaches to implementing PBL (micro-projects, strong scaffolds, backward design) and positions tools like TeachCraft as practical supports to help teachers scale authentic learning without added burnout. medium+1

Work

Education

Projects

Writing

What If Project-Based Learning Didnt Feel Like One More Thing?

April 1, 2025

A medium-length essay arguing that project-based learning (PBL) is powerful but time-consuming, offering practical frameworks and scaffolds to make PBL sustainable for busy teachers and describing how TeachCraft can act as a 'co-planner' to reduce planning time.

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Hobbies

Coaching and mentoring students in robotics and hands-on engineering projects. teknovation+1