As the new school year ramps up, there’s no shortage of conversation about AI. But for CTE and career-connected learning educators, perhaps the more useful question is:

How do we prepare students to work with AI in the careers ahead?

Workforce expert Mark C. Perna points to a growing role in today’s workforce: the “AI Orchestrator”- someone who knows how to combine AI tools with human expertise, judgment, creativity, and problem-solving. Drawing on Upwork’s 2026 Future Workforce Index, Perna makes the case that the real opportunity isn’t simply learning AI - it’s learning how to use it effectively to get meaningful work done.

That’s a natural fit for CTE and career-connected learning. Here are three easy ways to bring that thinking into your classroom this fall:

1. Ask Industry: “How Is AI Changing Your Work?”

Add one question to your next guest speaker, industry panel, or site visit:

Back-to-school season is busy enough without adding “figure out AI” to your already-full to-do list. So this year, we're making it a little easier.

Starting September 15, the Columbia Gorge ESD and Columbia Gorge STEM Hub are hosting weekly virtual AI & Digital Literacy Office Hours.

Learn a Little. Try a Little. Ask a Lot.

We'll kick off the year by working our way through the new Google AI Educator Series - starting with "Introduction to Gemini for Education" - with short, focused lessons designed to build your AI skills and help you work toward Google Educator Series badges and Gemini Educator certification. Each session includes brief, targeted instruction, tool walkthroughs, and time to put what you're learning into practice.

We'll also use our time together for Q&A, discovery, troubleshooting, and hands-on exploration.

Wondering if AI could save you 30 minutes a week on a task you hate?

Welcome to the 2026–27 school year!

With another school year underway and AI continuing to reshape the way we teach and learn, it might be time to retire one of our favorite AI debates: How do we stop students from using AI?

Of course, we still need to talk about academic integrity. Of course, there are times when AI should absolutely be off the table. And of course, students can use AI to do work they should be doing themselves.

But if our AI conversations stop there, we're missing the bigger opportunity.

From “Using AI” to “Applying AI”

Dr. Elizabeth Radday and Matt Mervis recently wrote an excellent piece for ASCD called Sparking Curiosity with Applied Intelligence, and they offer a distinction that I think is worth bringing into our classrooms:

As the new school year gets underway, it's a great time to ask a simple question:

How well does your whole school community understand - and talk about - CTE?

Career and Technical Education is often most familiar to CTE teachers, counselors, and coordinators. But classroom teachers, administrators, support staff, and families all play an important role in helping students connect what they're learning today with the opportunities available after high school.

ACTE's free CTE 101 for Counselors Toolkit offers practical, ready-to-use resources that can help schools start the year with more consistent CTE and career messaging.

And despite the name, it's not just for counselors.

A Few Ways to Use It This Fall

Have you heard the news? Oregon Senate Bill 1596, which takes effect at the start of 2027, officially recognizes play-based learning as valid instructional time for students in grades K–5. The State Board of Education is revising rules so that both free play (child-directed, spontaneous activity) and guided play (adult-supported learning with specific goals) count directly toward required classroom hours (recess and required PE remain separate).

What this means for Elementary Teachers

We often find play-based learning emphasized in early childhood settings, and I'm excited to see more and more of it in elementary school as we are now officially encouraged to make play part of our day. Instead of viewing play as a break from academic content, this bill acknowledges that play is how young children learn best. Importantly, SB 1596 also explicitly states that play opportunities should never be withheld as a behavioral consequence. 🙂

As educators, we can leverage…

Welcome back, educators! 🎉

A new school year means new notebooks, new seating charts, new names and faces to remember… and approximately 47,000 new things competing for our students’ attention.

It also means it’s a good time to dust off one of our most important digital literacy skills: figuring out whether the information in front of us deserves our trust. And that’s where SIFT comes in.

What Is SIFT?

Developed by digital literacy expert Mike Caulfield, SIFT is a simple framework for evaluating information online. Rather than asking students to immediately read, analyze, and decide whether a source is “good” or “bad,” SIFT gives them four moves to help them investigate first.

🛑S — Stop

What if you could build the thing you wish existed?

Not someday. Not after finding someone who knows how to code. Now. That’s the idea behind vibe coding — and it’s something we think everyone in our districts should be playing with.

Start With a Problem, Not a Coding Project

Superintendent Wesley Benjamin of Kalama School District in Southwest Washington is a great example. Kalama serves about 1,200 students, and Wesley has been using vibe coding to tackle real problems across his district.

In this Google EDU On Air conversation, he walks through his process:

• Start with a “What if?” problem.

The countdown is on. The pencils are dull, the coffee mugs have been abandoned in questionable locations, and educators across our 5 county region are preparing to enter their well-earned summer era. 🪩

Before you fully transition into sunscreen, snacks, and pretending not to check your school email, I wanted to send you off with a few AI-in-education resources to toss into your summer beach bag. No pressure. No homework. Just a few things to explore when your teacher brain surfaces from the snorkel dive that is summer break.

Your “Wait, How Does This Actually Work?” Watch

Still wondering about the nuts and bolts of AI? Few people have explained it better — or with better drawings — than Henrik Kniberg. This video is a clear, visual, surprisingly fun introduction to how generative AI works and why it sometimes feels brilliant and sometimes confidently wrong. 🔗 Generative AI In a…

Summer is right around the corner! No need to reinvent the wheel; my favorite ECE idea source, Busy Toddler, has shared her Summer Bucket List and Boredom Busters to keep kids of all ages engaged, active, and learning through play all summer long. You can share these with your class, use with summer school students, or try with your own kids!

First on my list to try are making bubble foam and setting up an obstacle course outside. 🙂