About me
Abida Merchant teaches AP Computer Science, AP Cybersecurity, and Business at Warren High School (Downey USD), where she serves as department lead and, beginning this school year as Teacher Technology Lead specializing in AI. A Project Lead The Way Master teacher since 2016, she has led one or more hands-on teacher training sessions nearly every summer for the past decade. She is also an online instructor with UC Scout, where she has taught AP Computer Science Principles, Java, Introduction to Robotics, and Integrated Math III to asynchronous learners across California. As an Instructional designer, she builds interactive, AI assisted eLearning for her district, staff training and family-facing modules combining Genially, AI-generated avatars, and multimedia design, bringing professional-quality learning experiences to audiences that would otherwise receive a PDF. Her focus is using AI workflows to make differentiated, student-driven instruction sustainable for working teachers, grounded in responsible AI practices: bias review, student data privacy, and transparency with learners. She presented “The Differentiation Problem Solved – AI Did it” in the Profile of an AI-Ready Graduate Pavillion at ISTELive 26.
