The shift is not coming. It is already underway and the pace is about to accelerate beyond what most educators are prepared for. A few weeks ago, I published a piece about how I built a personalized study system using Claude and the principles of the science of learning : retrieval practice, spaced practice, interleaving,ContinueContinue reading “Every Student Will Have AI Agents Sooner Than Later: The Question Is Whether Schools Will Be Ready”
Tag Archives: technology
How to Use NotebookLM to Conduct Smarter WASC Accreditation Reviews and Visits
Over the past year, I have integrated Google’s NotebookLM into my WASC review workflow, and the results have fundamentally changed how I prepare, analyze, and report before, during, and after my visits. This is not a post about replacing professional judgment: it is about amplifying it. What follows is the process I now use, phase by phase, to conduct reviews that are more evidence-grounded, more analytically rigorous, and ultimately more useful to the schools I serve.
NotebookLM as Your School’s Brain: A Mission Control for Leaders Who Are Serious About Improvement
📬 Stay in the loop Join educators getting weekly insights on AI, co-teaching, and instructional leadership. Subscribe Most schools do not have a data problem. They have a synthesis problem of putting it all together in one location. The attendance reports live in one system. The benchmark assessments live in another. The LCAP goals areContinueContinue reading “NotebookLM as Your School’s Brain: A Mission Control for Leaders Who Are Serious About Improvement”
From the Moon to the Mind: How Space Exploration Illuminates Learning
📬 Stay in the loop Join educators getting weekly insights on AI, co-teaching, and instructional leadership. Subscribe “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” — Neil Armstrong (1969) The Mission Control Mindset Picture a professional development session where teachers design instruction the way NASA engineers design a mission. The stakes areContinueContinue reading “From the Moon to the Mind: How Space Exploration Illuminates Learning”
Creating Examples vs. Non Examples Using Nano Banana Pro on Gemini 3 to Amplify Instruction
Learning abstract concepts is difficult because our students are beginners in many cases. This means they primarily understand new ideas in the context of what they already know, which is usually concrete. To build a robust “schema” (a mental structure of organized knowledge), students need more than a definition; they need to see the concept in action through examples vs. non examples. With this said, it is now ever been easier to create examples vs. non examples using Gemini’s Nano Banana Pro image generator that is associated with Gemini 3. In this post, you’ll see how to do this to support your instruction.
From the Sidelines to the Shoulder: Using Co-Teaching as the Engine for Instructional Coaching
The Gradual Release of Responsibility (“I do, We do, You do”) is a powerful framework for instructional coaching, and it can be delivered directly through co-teaching strategies. Instead of a coach modeling and then simply observing, the crucial “We do” phase becomes a hands-on, collaborative partnership. This post explores how to use specific co-teaching models as the bridge from “I do” to “You do.” I share a single-session example of supporting a teacher with multilingual learners, moving from my “I do” (model) to our “We do” (“Team Teaching”) and finally to their “You do” (with me in a “One Teach, One Support” role), all within a single lesson.
From Digital Consumers to Digital Pedagogues: A Framework for Moving Teachers from Digital Consumers to Tech-Enabled Pedagogues
In my work with teachers, I’ve seen firsthand a significant challenge that has only accelerated in our tech-saturated world: the gap between how pre-service teachers use technology and their capacity to teach with it. This is the Consumer-to-Pedagogue Gap, and it is one of the most critical hurdles we must overcome in modern teacher preparation and on-going professional development and coaching as they progress forward in their careers.
This post outlines a framework to bridge this gap, moving teacher candidates from passive digital consumers to active, tech-enabled pedagogues. The central thesis is straightforward: we must replace passive observation with a system of structured, low-stakes rehearsal. This over time will improve instruction as well as the use of technology when integrated together.
This system is not built on intuition; it is grounded in established learning science, specifically the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework and Cognitive Load Theory (CLT). These are the foundational lenses I advocate for in all effective instructional design.
AI Agent Advancements: Google Lens (aka Homework Helper) and Comet Browser
As educators, we’ve navigated the shift from chalkboards to smartboards, from calculators to laptops. But the change barreling towards us now is different. It’s not just a new tool; it’s a new kind of actor in the learning process. I’m talking about AI-powered tools like Google Lens and the emerging class of AI-agent browsers, such as Perplexity’s Comet Browser. These technologies are fundamentally reshaping what it means to “do work” and forcing us to confront a critical reality: we can no longer guarantee the authenticity of any work done outside our direct supervision. As a result, what does this mean for asynchronous online learning and completing graded work outside of traditional in-person classes?
Using AI to Support Interleaving & Spaced Practice and Retrieval in Unit Planning
📬 Stay in the loop Join educators getting weekly insights on AI, co-teaching, and instructional leadership. Subscribe As teachers, we are constantly seeking ways to make learning more durable and meaningful for our students. We want them to not just memorize facts for a test, but to fully understand and retain what they’ve learned overContinueContinue reading “Using AI to Support Interleaving & Spaced Practice and Retrieval in Unit Planning”
EdTech Leadership in the Age of AI: What Matters Most When Everything is Changing
My coffee is still warm when the first alert comes in. A teacher cannot access Canvas, and their students are stuck at the login screen. I walk the teacher through the SSO steps, confirm access, and move on. By midmorning, I have visited classrooms, supported teachers with technology integration, and observed lessons to plan follow-up coaching. After that, I sit with our engineers to review system performance, troubleshoot issues, and test several EdTech tools and updates planned for release.
At two o’clock, there are three messages on LinkedIn about a new AI tool that promises to transform learning. I scan one, note the potential and the hype, and return to the work I already committed to do. The afternoon goes to email, planning professional learning, and reviewing the week ahead.
Sound familiar?
For many of us in EdTech and instructional leadership, this mix of strategic and immediate work is the norm. Some hours go to multi-year plans, budgets, and compliance. Others are dedicated to making sure one specific app works for one teacher so students can keep learning. The pace makes it easy to lose focus when the day is packed and many things are going on simultaneously. I return to a single question: how do people learn, and how can instruction and technology work together to support that? If we cannot answer that question, systems, budgets, and tools will have little impact.
This post shares how I connect what we know about learning with the daily realities of leading technology and instructional change in schools. I will describe several major themes and then provide a summary of the next steps to help you further reflect upon your leadership and programs.