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. 🙂

This spring, I had the pleasure of racing groups of middle school students from across the region to find out which of us is at the top of the food chain (spoiler alert... not me!).

CGCC's 5th annual Math Day was a huge hit! Middle schoolers got to learn hands-on, applicable math from professors, industry professionals, and local STEM geniuses. Topics ranged from How Not to Kill Your Patients to Stomp Rocket Science. Leaning into this year's "Math in the Wild" theme, I brought an Animal Speeds activity.

First, students recorded three of their own speeds (tortoise crawl, normal walk, and all-out sprint) on a 20-meter track. They then calculated their speed for each using the formula speed = distance/time.

The best part was comparing our results to different animals. While most of us landed somewhere in the neighborhood of a chicken or a pig (a humbling realization), one student actually reached "Almost Elephant"…

As graduation season approaches, many educators are asking an important question: Are students truly prepared for what comes next - not just academically, but professionally and personally?

A recent Forbes article by Mark C. Perna, “How The Class of 2026 Can Launch Successful Careers,” offers timely insights for educators supporting students as they transition into college, careers, apprenticeships, military service, or training programs. Perna is widely known for his work connecting education, workforce development, and career readiness for younger generations.

One of the strongest themes from the article: technical knowledge alone is no longer enough. In an AI-influenced workforce, durable human skills matter more than ever. 

1. Prioritize Durable Skills Daily

Communication, critical thinking, adaptability, teamwork, and problem-solving consistently rise to the top of employer expectations.