Falling Into Fall Break

I shared this note with my team on our last day before Fall Break. I hope you find encouragement here, as well.

“Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence. Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.”

Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now
boy walking on wooden pathway beside plants during day
Photo by Harrison Haines on Pexels.com

Fall Break

You may have already figured this out, but Fall Break is my favorite break of the year. We’ve navigated the busyness of beginning a new school year and made some progress toward our goals. For me, this break comes at the perfect time. The weather cools, mornings begin on the back porch with a cup of coffee, and evenings end with a backyard fire. It’s not so much a break as it is a pause—the deep breath before diving into winter. I need this break. You need this break. We all need a moment away.

Blaise Pascal wrote, “All of humanity’s problems stem from our inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Most adults lead very busy lives. Teachers, arguably more so. Rarely do we have a moment during our day to call our own, even if it means we just have the chance to catch our breath.

During the break, I encourage you to find time to call your own. Amidst all the plans we make for fun and family, find some time to hide away from it all. Forget, for a few moments, the demands of the classroom, of testing, of dealing with parents, and the demands of your administration and coaches.

You need rest. Spirit, soul, and body all need a break from time to time to face this madness we call life.

The great Stoic philosopher Seneca said, “The mind must be given relaxation; it will rise improved and sharper after a good break.” Stephen Covey reminds us of the 7th habit of Highly Effective People to “sharpen your saw.” Make sure to take care of yourself. We all did this pretty well during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but I fear we may have lost some of these lessons in our return to the world of deadlines and demands.

Please take time for yourself over the break. You won’t regret it.


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Larry Cuban on the “F” Word

depressed woman having headache and stress
Photo by Alex Green on Pexels.com

No, not that “F” word.

Larry Cuban shared his thoughts on leveraging failure as a valuable step in the learning process, something I’ve tried to convey to teachers and students over the years.

Cuban begins by recounting his career journey, which spans from his start as a high school teacher in 1955 to his time as a district superintendent and later as a professor at Stanford. He emphasizes that his career, while marked by many successes, was also filled with failures, which he believes are often overlooked in discussions about career progression.

Cuban writes, “While on the surface my long career as an educator appears as an unvarnished success albeit a modest one, it was a zig-zag path with cul-de-sacs and, truth be told, a road pitted with potholes of failure.” He argues that failures are an integral part of success and that society’s tendency to avoid discussing failures does a disservice to the reality of most people’s career trajectories.

He shares several instances of his own failures, including being rejected for teaching positions, struggling to connect with certain students, failing to reduce racial tensions in a department he administered, and being turned down for numerous superintendent posts and a deanship at Stanford’s School of Education. He also discusses his failures in getting published, with many of his submissions being rejected by publishers and editors.

Cuban emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and learning from failures. He quotes several famous figures to illustrate his point, including basketball star Michael Jordan, Winston Churchill, and Maya Angelou. He writes, “Defeats were doors that closed in my face. Yet other doors opened.” He explains that failures can lead to new opportunities and that persistence in the face of failure can lead to eventual success.

In conclusion, Cuban states, “Looking back at my career and the mix of success and failure make clear to me how complex the interaction between winning and losing is.” He underscores the importance of adopting a growth mindset and learning from failure, making it clear that success and failure are integral parts of any career journey.


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Teaching AI Ethics

Leon Furze’s blog post titled “Teaching AI Ethics: The Series” presents a comprehensive guide to understanding and teaching the ethical implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The series, initially a single post, has been expanded into nine detailed posts, each focusing on a unique ethical concern related to AI, including bias, discrimination, environmental issues, truth and academic integrity, copyright, privacy, datafication, emotion recognition, human labor, and power structures.

Designed primarily for K-12 education but also applicable to tertiary-level discussions, each post provides case studies, discussion questions, and lesson ideas to facilitate a deeper understanding of these complex issues. The aim is to equip students with the necessary knowledge to navigate the ethical landscape of AI in an increasingly digital world.


Thanks for taking the time to read this post. If you’ve enjoyed the insights and stories, consider showing your support by subscribing to my weekly newsletter. It’s a great way to stay updated and dive deeper into my content. Alternatively, if you love audiobooks or want to try them, click here to start your free trial with Audible. Your support in any form means the world to me and helps keep this blog thriving. Looking forward to connecting with you more!

Innovating Pedagogy 2023: Exploring New Forms of Teaching, Learning and Assessment

The Innovating Pedagogy 2023 report, published by The Open University, explores ten innovations that have the potential to provoke major shifts in educational practice. The report is designed to guide teachers, policymakers, and educational technologists in making informed decisions about new forms of teaching, learning, and assessment.

  1. Learning through Open Data: Open data is publicly available information that can be freely used, modified, and shared. The report suggests that open data can be used as a teaching tool to develop students’ data literacy skills, critical thinking, and understanding of complex issues.
  2. Student-led Analytics: This innovation involves students in the process of collecting, analyzing, and using their own educational data to support their learning. It empowers students to take control of their learning and make informed decisions.
  3. AI Teaching Assistants: AI teaching assistants can provide personalized learning experiences, answer students’ questions, and give feedback on assignments. They can support teachers by taking over routine tasks, allowing teachers to focus on more complex aspects of teaching.
  4. Micro-credentials: Micro-credentials are digital certificates that recognize small amounts of learning or skills. They offer flexible pathways for lifelong learning and can be stacked to form a larger qualification.
  5. Learning through Multisensory Experiences: This approach uses technologies such as virtual and augmented reality to provide immersive learning experiences. It can help students understand complex concepts and develop skills in a safe and controlled environment.
  6. Humanistic Knowledge-Building Communities: These are online communities where learners and teachers collaboratively create knowledge. They foster a sense of belonging and support the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
  7. Learning from Robots: Robots can be used in education to support learning in various ways, such as teaching coding or providing social and emotional support to students.
  8. Blockchain for Learning: Blockchain technology can be used to create secure, transparent, and tamper-proof educational records. It can also support the recognition of micro-credentials and facilitate the sharing of learning records across institutions.
  9. Decolonizing Learning: This involves challenging the dominant Eurocentric perspective in education and incorporating diverse knowledge, cultures, and ways of knowing into the curriculum.
  10. Action-Oriented Learning: This approach involves students in real-world problem-solving and social action. It develops skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, and civic engagement.

The report (available here) emphasizes that these innovations are not standalone solutions but should be integrated into a broader pedagogical strategy. It also highlights the importance of considering ethical issues, such as data privacy and the risk of AI bias, when implementing these innovations.


Thanks for taking the time to read this post. If you’ve enjoyed the insights and stories, consider showing your support by subscribing to my weekly newsletter. It’s a great way to stay updated and dive deeper into my content. Alternatively, if you love audiobooks or want to try them, click here to start your free trial with Audible. Your support in any form means the world to me and helps keep this blog thriving. Looking forward to connecting with you more!

Using Multiple Tools for Content Creation in the Classroom

We’re wrapping up the 2022-2023 school year, and several teachers in my district are continuing their journeys into deeper learning.

Rather than freaking out and focusing on end-of-year testing that means nothing (you know I’m right), I’m working with several 8th-grade classes on worthwhile projects.

One class is designing tourism resources for Bardstown. If you’re not familiar, the tourism industry is HUGE in this area thanks to two things: history and bourbon. Kentucky tourists spent $5.9 billion in 2020, and many of those dollars can be traced to bourbon tourism.

Students are working in groups to create materials for different tourist destinations in Bardstown. They got to choose the location, the format for their materials, and how they will ultimately present them.

Let’s connect this work back to the 4 Shifts and how we’re using it to foster deeper learning in classrooms:

Deeper Thinking and Learning

  • Students are researching famous local places. Some of them are taking tours after school hours, conducting interviews, and doing independent research
  • Students are discussing what information needs to be included in their information. What should be in a brochure? What do we need to mention in a video?

Authentic Work

  • Students are using design tools that are used in the real world to create and publish their work: Canva, YouTube, CapCut, etc.
  • Could these projects be used as part of a tourism promotion? Perhaps. This work will likely be a “first draft” of a potential business or tourism department collaboration.

Student Agency & Personalization

  • Students chose the format and tools.
  • Students chose the topic

Technology Infusion

  • Any technology usage is secondary to the research and information presented. Technology is merely the tool conveying the message, not the message itself.

I could go on, but I’ll save a further discussion for the project completion. Suffice it to say the kids are very interested in these projects and what they are learning about their hometown.

Student working on a brochure for a local restaurant
Student work on a brochure for a local restaurant

I came in to assist in the combination of technology with content. Students are creating on different platforms and need to tie the information together. Several have made videos that we’ve uploaded to YouTube. We created QR codes and added them to the brochures. We’ve used royalty-free music for the videos. Some students even used AI (yep) to help write the script before recording voiceovers.

My point for sharing this work is this: diving into deeper learning can be fun for you and your students. Will some resist? Yes. Will some still find ways to disengage and not really accomplish anything? Yes.

But it’s all part of the adventure of learning. For them, and for us.



Thanks for taking the time to read this post. If you’ve enjoyed the insights and stories, consider showing your support by subscribing to my weekly newsletter. It’s a great way to stay updated and dive deeper into my content. Alternatively, if you love audiobooks or want to try them, click here to start your free trial with Audible. Your support in any form means the world to me and helps keep this blog thriving. Looking forward to connecting with you more!

Would AIs make better professionals than humans?

Doug Johnson posits:

One quality that AI may put to extremely positive use would be objectivity – a lack of personal biases or prejudices. Properly programmed, my financial advisor AI should not be advising me to invest in areas where the advisor would get the biggest fee, but where I would stand to make the biggest return at the lowest risk. Would my AI dentist or doctor only recommend those procedures and medications that have proven rate of effectiveness not the most kickback from pharmaceutical companies? Would an AI intelligence agent be more likely to uncover double-agents in the office?

Of course, the burning question in education is “Would AIs make better teachers than humans?”

We Need Easier EdTech Integrations

I won’t spend my time here griping about the overuse of technology for standardized testing and other “necessary” tests. That fight is for another day.

Today, let’s talk about how frustrating it is to use many testing services. I’ve spent most of the past two weeks getting two grade levels into two different online testing systems.

One system required an SFTP upload of a CSV file. I kept getting errors even using the company’s template and data tool. After trying a few dozen times, I gave up and sent the file to the company. The next day, the data was uploaded and corrected. I still have no clue what was wrong.

The second company uses Clever to sync students and teachers. But not to log students in for the test. No, no, they require a lockdown browser for their exam. Conveniently, they autogenerate usernames and passwords for the students.

Did I mention these elements are 11 characters or so each? And the students using them are in kindergarten?

Yep. Smiles all around.

Mind you, I have a decent amount of experience with all the tools I used to make these data uploads happen. I would venture to say that the person at most schools responsible for this process is NOT as experienced. Just a hunch.

There has to be a better way.

I Hate Lecturing, but I Love Lectures

I am no fan of a traditional lecture. Whether I’m presenting at a conference or teaching a class of students, my goal is never to stand there and talk without interaction from the audience for a long time.

But I love listening to lectures. I love watching them. I love podcasts that are essentially lectures. I love listening to an expert dive deep into their favorite topic.

Yes, there is a place for lectures inside and outside of our schools.

So, again, what is a lecture?  In a discussion I participated in on twitter recently, it was posed that a lecture is “one-way instruction that is at least 5 minutes in time.”  That is certainly one definition…but there are countless other definitions. My question is, so what should we call one-way instruction lasting 4 minutes, 59 seconds?  Like most aspects of education, it is quite difficult to reach consensus on a term as universal as ‘lecture’. Maybe my interpretation of the lecture is too liberal, but it is difficult for me to comprehend the disdain for this method of instruction.  I simply don’t understand how it is passive or simply creates an environment of rote-learning and memorization (By the way, what is so wrong with memorization and knowledge?). Again, this could simply come down to a misunderstanding of the basic definition.  

In Defense of Lecture in the Classroom

I don’t think anyone would argue that forcing students to focus on a single person for 45 minutes as they drone on about a topic that holds no interest for students is a bad idea.

But are there specific purposes a lecture can serve? Yep.

When considering whether a lecture might be the right choice for a particular lesson, this resource from the University of Tennessee offers some guidelines. It advises that lecture is a good fit when:

  • The background information is not available or accessible to students
  • The content may be confusing (and therefore need explanation)
  • The teacher’s expertise will help make the material more clear
  • The material needs to be delivered quickly 
10 Ways to Give a Better Lecture

How do you use lectures in your class? Or do you avoid them at all costs?

Respecting Solitude and How Students Work

I finished Susan Cain’s Quiet this week and came away with several notes. Of course, my interest in this book on all things introverts was personal. I’m the introvert’s introvert. Yes, I stand in front of students and teachers every day. And I have given more in-person talks than I can remember, but I pay a price for that work.

I’m more comfortable at home. I curl up with a good book or build something in Minecraft. Both are more comfortable for me than being in front of people. I’m more expressive in my writing than I am while talking. I have time to collect my thoughts, and even now, I still worry about sounding like an idiot when I’m in front of people.

I’m much better in public now than when I was a kid, but I still have to put on my super-suit to make it through the day. And I often come home and collapse from the weight of being around people.

Reacting to the World

Turns out, there’s a reason why introverts like me respond to the world in the way we do. Cain presents research on people who have low- and high-reactive nervous systems. At first glance, you’d think that introverts are low-reactive and extroverts are high-reactive.

My friend, it’s the opposite. Introverts have high-reactive nervous systems. We have visceral reactions to the smallest events. Extroverts are extroverts because they’re looking for external stimulation. They need the excitement.

Introverts? We have plenty of excitement walking out the door in the morning, thank you very much. We don’t need anything else.

Now, put yourself in the place of one of your introverted students. How often do we do things in our schools that will throw this student’s nervous system into chaos?

I often think about why we do so many things in education the same way for every student. Yes, we provide interventions when students aren’t meeting achievement standards. But why do we make them sit in overfilled classrooms when we know some of them would rather be alone or in a small group?

We’re stifling great students by putting them in situations that wreck their world. And sometimes, we keep them from learning all they can.

Photo by Robynne Hu on Unsplash

Group Work isn’t Always the Right Choice

Teachers ask students to collaborate all the time. We’re trained that collaboration makes for great student experiences. And that “we’re better together than we are apart.” I’m the first to admit that I follow that motto when working with students and teachers. Many times we’re right to put folks in groups.

But sometimes we’re not.

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Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, Inc., created the first Apple computer alone. He worked early mornings and late evenings around his job at HP. No workgroup, team, or other souls to talk with about his ideas. But he created the computer that began a revolution.

Musicians, especially professional musicians, know what makes or breaks their careers. It’s not the time they spend practicing with their ensemble. It’s how much time they spend in solitary practice. Great musicians practice around 4 hours a day alone, then practice more with their group.

Students sometimes don’t want to work in groups because they don’t want to do the work. Sometimes, it’s because they know they work well alone.

Flexible Collaboration

What if we allowed students to collaborate as they see the need? How could we design our classrooms and schools to facilitate this option?

We can use tools like instant messaging or chat tools. These tools create spaces where students can share ideas as needed. Jason Fried from 37Signals tells his employees to practice “passive collaboration.” Don’t meet unless you have to do so.

As a matter of fact, Jason tells people to cancel meetings. If you attend the same meetings I do as an educator; you know this is a good idea.

Microsoft has offices that offer sliding doors and removable walls. When appropriate, people can chat with their peers on a project. But then, they have the control to retreat into solitude and work.

closeup photo of body of water in timelapse photo
Photo by Dave Hoefler on Unsplash

Getting Into a Flow

Cain speaks about the “flow state” that people enter when they can concentrate and work. I experience this myself often when I’m working. It isn’t easy to get there without planning to do so, but when I can, oh my.

For me, I put on my headphones and crank up a playlist of techno, lo-fi, or some other repetitive music. It’s always in the background but never in the front of my mind. Sometimes I’m like Tim Ferris, and I’ll repeat a movie or TV episode repeatedly.

When do we allow students to get into a flow state? Do we ever? Introverts love to get into this flow state of uninterrupted work. They hate distractions.

Yet, we break it up every 50-60 minutes of every school day. Imagine how frustrating this is for some of your students.

Finding Your Restorative Niche

Your restorative niche is the place you go to rebuild your strength. This holds true for introverts and extroverts alike; their restorative niches look different. It doesn’t have to be a physical place; it can be a mental state of being.

Regardless of what it looks like, our students have restorative niches they need to visit. Many times per day. Likely, you have a restorative niche yourself that you need to visit.

What Now?

I don’t have answers for what I’ve talked about, but I know that we need to be more aware of how we take care of our introverts. Because I’m one of them, I know how terrible my school experience was all those years ago.

Is there a place for collaboration and group work among students and teachers? Yes. Is there also a place for solitude and quiet focus? Yes, and yes.


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