AI isn’t coming — it’s here, and it’s reshaping how we work, learn, and build careers. Two recent pieces — Alex Kotran’s “A Letter to Teens About AI and Jobs” and Mark Perna’s “The Top 5 AI Skills to Build Your Personal Competitive Advantage” — offer a powerful, practical roadmap for helping high school students navigate this future.

🧠 1. This Isn’t a Distant Future — It’s Now

Alex Kotran emphasizes that AI is already disrupting the job market and will only increase in impact as teens enter the workforce. Rather than sugarcoating it, he points out that we don’t know exactly what jobs will look like, but we do know that the old playbook of “study this major → secure a safe job” doesn’t apply anymore — and that uncertainty is a signal, not a barrier. alexkotran.substack.com

➡️ Message to students: It’s less about picking the “right job” and more about building the…

A new federal workforce plan, America's Talent Strategy: Building the Workforce for the Golden Age, released, and even though it lives at the national level, the ideas inside it land directly in our classrooms. The theme running through the entire document is simple: students need relevant, hands-on learning and clear connections to the world they’re entering.

Here’s the quick breakdown - what this plan is really about, what it means for our work, and where it may lead.

1. What the plan is trying to address

Businesses across the country are struggling to find skilled workers, and AI is reshaping nearly every career field. The federal response emphasizes:

The Power of Teacher–Student Relationships

Every few weeks, a new headline pops up predicting the “end of teaching as we know it.” AI lesson planning! AI grading! AI tutoring! Surely the robots are coming for our jobs… right? Not so fast.

A brand-new review of over 70 years of research—covering 2.6 million students—just landed, and it has something important to say about what really drives student success. And spoiler alert: it isn’t shiny tools or cutting-edge algorithms. It’s something far simpler, far more human, and far more powerful:

🥰Teacher–Student Relationships (TSR).

Across decades of studies, age groups, and school settings, positive teacher–student relationships consistently predicted improvements in eight major areas of student success:

1. Better classroom behavior

MIT A Guide To AI In Schools : Perspectives for the Perplexed https://tsl.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/GuideToAIInSchools.pdf

State of Utah Portrait of a Graduate Extension

Portrait of an AI-Infused Learner

Portrait of an AI-Infused Educator OECD AI Literacy Framework https://ailiteracyframework.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AILitFramework_ReviewDraft.pdf

ODE Digital Learning: https://www.oregon.gov/ode/educator-resources/teachingcontent/pages/default.aspx ODE Digital Learning Cadre https://www.gorgestem.org/group/ai-cs-digital-literacy/discussion/10f9a63e-0d0a-452b-ba47-5e7a2fafe840 December's meeting: https://www.zoomgov.com/meeting/register/9hKl-ZjASW-g-_CmYHr1Vg Gorge STEM Hub After The Bell PD (starting in January) https://forms.gle/EEH47vgVzqgYqAVd9

Self-Paced PD And Additional Resources:

I love when I find something in the AI-in-education space that makes me stop mid-scroll, refill my coffee, and think "This, I gotta share!". Utah just did that.

They’ve released two beautifully clear, surprisingly grounded documents:

• Portrait of an AI-Infused Learner

• Portrait of an AI-Infused Educator
  

And honestly? They’re good. Not flashy. Not fear-based. Not 90 pages of “don’t do this.” Just thoughtful, practical vision for how students and educators can navigate an AI-infused world with curiosity, ethics, and confidence.

Here are the big themes that stood out — and why I think they’re worth paying attention to.

🍌 With the release of hyper-realistic AI media tools like Nano Banana Pro (released today) and OpenAI’s recently released SORA video app, the line between authentic and AI-generated content is getting thinner by the minute. Images and videos that once required teams of experts can now be created in seconds — by anyone, including students.

The challenge for educators isn’t teaching students how to use these ever-evolving tools — it’s helping them navigate a world where the media they consume is being shaped, altered, or fully generated by AI, whether they realize it or not.

👉 This is where aiEDU’s newest resource — AI Snapshots: Evaluating AI Outputs — comes in. These “plug and play” slides are designed for quick, meaningful discussions about the media students encounter every day. And most importantly: no AI or computer-science experience is required. These snapshots aren’t technical lessons — they’re conversation starters about the ethical and societal implications…

We're just a week out from Thanksgiving! 🦃🥧 Check out this fun Pie Preference Pictograph activity from Data Science Learning Progressions. This activity, designed for grades K-5, walks learners through the data collection and analysis process in a fun, hands-on, relevant way.

Try this activity before or after the holiday, or change up the theme based on your students' interests!

Artificial intelligence is quickly reshaping Career and Technical Education, and this recent Education Week piece offers a useful look at how CTE teachers are blending AI into hands-on learning:https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/classroom-view-how-ai-is-influencing-teacher-approaches-to-career-and-technical-ed/2025/11

One of the educators highlighted in the article is Leah Ferguson, a local CTE Graphic Design & Digital Media teacher at The Dalles High School. Leah’s inclusion is a proud moment for our region - her classroom is featured as an example of how CTE teachers are helping students use AI creatively and responsibly. Her students treat AI as an early-stage design partner, while the real creative and technical work still happens through thoughtful human skill.

Practical Ways CTE Teachers Can Use AI Today

Use AI for early drafts and ideation.

• Generate quick sketches, concepts, or outlines.

• Have students critique the AI outputs, then build their own versions.

OpenAI released ChatGPT for Teachers today, and it’s a big deal for K–12 educators that love using ChatGPT. This new, free (for now) workspace is built specifically for teachers and designed to fit real classroom needs — with FERPA-aligned protections at the core.

🍎 5 of the top benefits 🍎

1️⃣ FERPA-Aligned Data Protections Teacher content isn’t used to train models, and the workspace is designed to help protect student information. Huge win for educators and schools worried about privacy and compliance.

2️⃣ Personalized for Your Classroom You can set grade level, subjects, curriculum style, and teaching preferences — and ChatGPT adapts its responses to match your context.

3️⃣ Built-In Integrations (Google Drive, Microsoft 365, Canva) Easily pull in your files, generate lesson materials, and even build slide decks directly inside the tool.

4️⃣ Create & Share Custom GPTs Teachers can build specialized bots (rubric builders, warm-up generators, lab report helpers) and share them with colleagues or…