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Yesterday I did not like my lesson planned for US History.

Not in the “this is boring but necessary content” way. This was in the “I taught this to one section yesterday and it was painful for everyone in the room” level of dislike. The classroom was dead silent with boredom.

During my 90-minute planning period before seeing a different section of the same class, I uploaded my slides to @diffitapp to see what it suggested.

Within minutes I had a fully structured station-rotation activity built from my own materials. Differentiated. Structured. Classroom-ready.

During 7th period my students were more engaged than they had been by anything we had done so far this year.

Diffit to the rescue.

This post is the full story — why differentiation is a time problem not a belief problem, how Diffit evolved from a differentiation tool into a full lesson design engine, and why every teacher should be using it whether they have significant differentiation needs or not.

Choice boards. Station rotations. Sub plans. Vocabulary activities. 3-2-1 summaries. Discussion prompts. Unit tests. All from whatever source you already have. With the push of a single button.

Free plan. Fifteen-minute learning curve. Link in bio. 🛠️

#teachersplaiground #Diffit #YearZero #differentiation #lessonplanning #edtech #teaching #educators #historyteacher #socialstudies #IEP #ELL #stationrotation #freeteachertools

Yesterday I did not like my lesson planned for US History.

Not in the “this is boring but necessary content” way. This was in the “I taught this to one section yesterday and it was painful for everyone in the room” level of dislike. The classroom was dead silent with boredom.

During my 90-minute planning period before seeing a different section of the same class, I uploaded my slides to @diffitapp to see what it suggested.

Within minutes I had a fully structured station-rotation activity built from my own materials. Differentiated. Structured. Classroom-ready.

During 7th period my students were more engaged than they had been by anything we had done so far this year.

Diffit to the rescue.

This post is the full story — why differentiation is a time problem not a belief problem, how Diffit evolved from a differentiation tool into a full lesson design engine, and why every teacher should be using it whether they have significant differentiation needs or not.

Choice boards. Station rotations. Sub plans. Vocabulary activities. 3-2-1 summaries. Discussion prompts. Unit tests. All from whatever source you already have. With the push of a single button.

Free plan. Fifteen-minute learning curve. Link in bio. 🛠️

#teachersplaiground #Diffit #YearZero #differentiation #lessonplanning #edtech #teaching #educators #historyteacher #socialstudies #IEP #ELL #stationrotation #freeteachertools

Let me describe a scene that every teacher reading this has lived through.

You find the perfect video. Twelve minutes. Covers exactly what you need. You press play and spend the next twelve minutes watching students do one of three things: take notes with varying degrees of engagement, stare at the screen with the particular glazed expression that means the content is entering one ear and leaving immediately through the other, or quietly do something else entirely while technically facing the screen.

The video was great. The learning was optional.

This is the fundamental problem with video as a classroom tool. Watching is not learning. Watching while thinking is learning. And getting students to think while watching requires something the play button alone cannot provide.

@edpuzzle Live Mode is that something.

Here is what it does: it projects the video to the whole class while students follow along and answer questions on their own devices in real time. When a question appears, the video pauses on every screen. Students answer. You see the data. You move on when everyone is ready.

I use it primarily with @retroreport documentaries in my World History and US History classrooms — short-form, high-quality journalism that traces historical events into the present. Dense enough that passive watching misses too much. Perfect for Live Mode.

Full post covers the setup, the connection to retrieval practice, and how to run your first Live Mode session in less time than it takes to find the video.

Passive watching is not learning. Link in bio. 🎥

#teachersplaiground #EdPuzzle #LiveMode #RetroReport #videoinstruction #historyteacher #socialstudies #edtech #teaching #educators #YearZero #retrievalpractice #interactivevideo

Let me describe a scene that every teacher reading this has lived through.

You find the perfect video. Twelve minutes. Covers exactly what you need. You press play and spend the next twelve minutes watching students do one of three things: take notes with varying degrees of engagement, stare at the screen with the particular glazed expression that means the content is entering one ear and leaving immediately through the other, or quietly do something else entirely while technically facing the screen.

The video was great. The learning was optional.

This is the fundamental problem with video as a classroom tool. Watching is not learning. Watching while thinking is learning. And getting students to think while watching requires something the play button alone cannot provide.

@edpuzzle Live Mode is that something.

Here is what it does: it projects the video to the whole class while students follow along and answer questions on their own devices in real time. When a question appears, the video pauses on every screen. Students answer. You see the data. You move on when everyone is ready.

I use it primarily with @retroreport documentaries in my World History and US History classrooms — short-form, high-quality journalism that traces historical events into the present. Dense enough that passive watching misses too much. Perfect for Live Mode.

Full post covers the setup, the connection to retrieval practice, and how to run your first Live Mode session in less time than it takes to find the video.

Passive watching is not learning. Link in bio. 🎥

#teachersplaiground #EdPuzzle #LiveMode #RetroReport #videoinstruction #historyteacher #socialstudies #edtech #teaching #educators #YearZero #retrievalpractice #interactivevideo

A @getknowt a day keeps the IDK away.

I will see myself out.

Actually, no. I will not. The research behind that terrible pun is genuinely extraordinary. And we need to, *really remember*, the power of memory and old-school pedagogical techniques to augment our reliance on technology.

Ask most students how they study and they will describe some version of the same thing. Reread the notes. Highlight things. Make a beautifully color-coded study guide that took three hours and contained almost no active thinking.

The problem is not that these strategies feel bad. The problem is that they feel good. And that comfortable sense of recognition, “I know this," is exactly what students mistake for mastery.

Retrieval practice is different. Pulling information out of memory rather than putting it back in strengthens the neural pathway that leads to it. A single session can generate memory improvements that persist for 9 months. Multiple sessions over time? Eight years.

This Friday post covers the full research case: drawing on @edutopia, @pepsmccrea, and the @eduprotocols framework from Monday’s Fast and Curious post, and explains exactly how @knowtteacher makes retrieval practice accessible, free, and built for real classrooms.

A Knowt a day keeps the IDK away. Link in bio. 🧠

#teachersplaiground #retrievalpractice #studyskills #memoryresearch #Knowt #EduProtocols #edtech #teaching #educators #historyteacher #brainbasedlearning #growthmindset

A @getknowt a day keeps the IDK away.

I will see myself out.

Actually, no. I will not. The research behind that terrible pun is genuinely extraordinary. And we need to, *really remember*, the power of memory and old-school pedagogical techniques to augment our reliance on technology.

Ask most students how they study and they will describe some version of the same thing. Reread the notes. Highlight things. Make a beautifully color-coded study guide that took three hours and contained almost no active thinking.

The problem is not that these strategies feel bad. The problem is that they feel good. And that comfortable sense of recognition, “I know this," is exactly what students mistake for mastery.

Retrieval practice is different. Pulling information out of memory rather than putting it back in strengthens the neural pathway that leads to it. A single session can generate memory improvements that persist for 9 months. Multiple sessions over time? Eight years.

This Friday post covers the full research case: drawing on @edutopia, @pepsmccrea, and the @eduprotocols framework from Monday’s Fast and Curious post, and explains exactly how @knowtteacher makes retrieval practice accessible, free, and built for real classrooms.

A Knowt a day keeps the IDK away. Link in bio. 🧠

#teachersplaiground #retrievalpractice #studyskills #memoryresearch #Knowt #EduProtocols #edtech #teaching #educators #historyteacher #brainbasedlearning #growthmindset

Monday morning. Students shuffling in. The weekend is not quite over for anyone in the room, including you.

Here is a fifteen-minute routine that requires almost no prep once you have set it up and will produce some of the most visible evidence of student growth you have ever seen.

It is called the Fast and Curious @eduprotocols, and paired with @waygroundai @waygroundpinata , it might be the most satisfying thing you do all week.

Here is the week in five lines:

👉 Day 1: Cold start. No instruction. Just the quiz. Low scores expected. That is the point.

👉 Day 2: Review the answers together. Take it again. Scores go up. They always go up.

👉 Days 3 and 4: Same quiz. More repetitions. Class average climbs. Students start rooting for each other.

👉 Day 5: If the class hits 95% or better, it is a free day. If not, you reteach whatever the data says needs attention.

Secondary science teacher Ariana Hernandez once saw her students go from 54% to 97% in one week. Her students told her after their state science test that it felt easy. Because they had already seen the content so many times it had moved into long-term memory.

The quiz is the vehicle. The growth mindset is the destination.

Fifteen minutes a day. Five days. Start on Monday. Full post linked in bio. 📊

#teachersplaiground #EduProtocols #FastAndCurious #Wayground #retrievalpractice #growthmindset #edtech #teaching #educators #mondayroutine #formativeassessment #classroomculture

Monday morning. Students shuffling in. The weekend is not quite over for anyone in the room, including you.

Here is a fifteen-minute routine that requires almost no prep once you have set it up and will produce some of the most visible evidence of student growth you have ever seen.

It is called the Fast and Curious @eduprotocols, and paired with @waygroundai @waygroundpinata , it might be the most satisfying thing you do all week.

Here is the week in five lines:

👉 Day 1: Cold start. No instruction. Just the quiz. Low scores expected. That is the point.

👉 Day 2: Review the answers together. Take it again. Scores go up. They always go up.

👉 Days 3 and 4: Same quiz. More repetitions. Class average climbs. Students start rooting for each other.

👉 Day 5: If the class hits 95% or better, it is a free day. If not, you reteach whatever the data says needs attention.

Secondary science teacher Ariana Hernandez once saw her students go from 54% to 97% in one week. Her students told her after their state science test that it felt easy. Because they had already seen the content so many times it had moved into long-term memory.

The quiz is the vehicle. The growth mindset is the destination.

Fifteen minutes a day. Five days. Start on Monday. Full post linked in bio. 📊

#teachersplaiground #EduProtocols #FastAndCurious #Wayground #retrievalpractice #growthmindset #edtech #teaching #educators #mondayroutine #formativeassessment #classroomculture

I was always the headphones kid.

From my first walkman to a revolving door of MP3 players to whatever earbud I have in right now, I have always needed music in the background. I was even the kid who broke my over-ear headphones to run them up my sleeves so I could sit with my head on hand and listen while I worked.

To this day I am a headphones adult. The variety of rhythms, tones, and even all of the screaming helps cancel out the noise that distracts me from tasks or pushes me toward overstimulation. Disconnecting from the ambient noise is exactly what allows me to connect to the task and the people in front of me.

I say all of this because I know exactly what that student in the back row looks like. The one with the hoodie up and one earbud in. The one a colleague describes as disengaged or disrespectful.

I was that student. I am still that person today.

What I needed was not to be told to take the earbud out. What I needed was a teacher who understood that the music was not the problem — the noise of everything else was — and that the jankity earbud was the solution I had engineered for myself before anyone had taught me the word regulation.

Our students are still doing the same thing. And the research says they are onto something.

New post covers the science, the gap between what we know and what we do, and five specific ways to bring music into your classroom intentionally. Link in bio. 🎵

#teachersplaiground #musicandmentalhealth #studentwellbeing #headphones #neurodivergent #emotionalregulation #edtech #teaching #educators #historyteacher #classroomculture #teenmentalhealth

I was always the headphones kid.

From my first walkman to a revolving door of MP3 players to whatever earbud I have in right now, I have always needed music in the background. I was even the kid who broke my over-ear headphones to run them up my sleeves so I could sit with my head on hand and listen while I worked.

To this day I am a headphones adult. The variety of rhythms, tones, and even all of the screaming helps cancel out the noise that distracts me from tasks or pushes me toward overstimulation. Disconnecting from the ambient noise is exactly what allows me to connect to the task and the people in front of me.

I say all of this because I know exactly what that student in the back row looks like. The one with the hoodie up and one earbud in. The one a colleague describes as disengaged or disrespectful.

I was that student. I am still that person today.

What I needed was not to be told to take the earbud out. What I needed was a teacher who understood that the music was not the problem — the noise of everything else was — and that the jankity earbud was the solution I had engineered for myself before anyone had taught me the word regulation.

Our students are still doing the same thing. And the research says they are onto something.

New post covers the science, the gap between what we know and what we do, and five specific ways to bring music into your classroom intentionally. Link in bio. 🎵

#teachersplaiground #musicandmentalhealth #studentwellbeing #headphones #neurodivergent #emotionalregulation #edtech #teaching #educators #historyteacher #classroomculture #teenmentalhealth

Happy #techtshirttuesday everyone! Today I’m rocking one of my favorite shirts ever, and think @waygroundai should make an updated one with the ninja version of the @waygroundpinata #eduguardian5

Happy #techtshirttuesday everyone! Today I’m rocking one of my favorite shirts ever, and think @waygroundai should make an updated one with the ninja version of the @waygroundpinata #eduguardian5

Every August I tell myself this will be the year I stay ahead of my own lesson plans instead of writing them at 10pm the night before.

This year I tried something different.

Before I planned a single lesson for tenth grade Modern World History, I spent an afternoon building the planning space itself. A dedicated Claude project loaded with the documents that actually govern how I teach — so every lesson plan I generate from here on out is grounded in my district’s curriculum, the right standards, and how I actually run a classroom.

Not a generic world history teacher. Mine.

Here is what went in:

👉 The district curriculum map — the authoritative one, not my memory of it
👉 The NCSS C3 Framework PDF
👉 Two lesson plan templates — standard period and block
👉 The department scoring rubric
👉 A teaching philosophy document capturing everything that only lives in my head
👉 An instructions file with one rule I care about most: never invent a source

The fix was not a better prompt or switching tools. It was giving the tool a permanent memory of the specific things that make my classroom mine — so unlike in the classroom, I never have to repeat the directions.

Full post on exactly what I built, why the order mattered, and what changed when I used it for the first time. Everything is now linked on the World History resource page.

Link in bio. 📚

#teachersplaiground #YearZero #AIinEducation #lessonplanning #worldhistory #historyteacher #edtech #Claude #C3Framework #teaching #educators #AItools #freeteacherresources

Every August I tell myself this will be the year I stay ahead of my own lesson plans instead of writing them at 10pm the night before.

This year I tried something different.

Before I planned a single lesson for tenth grade Modern World History, I spent an afternoon building the planning space itself. A dedicated Claude project loaded with the documents that actually govern how I teach — so every lesson plan I generate from here on out is grounded in my district’s curriculum, the right standards, and how I actually run a classroom.

Not a generic world history teacher. Mine.

Here is what went in:

👉 The district curriculum map — the authoritative one, not my memory of it
👉 The NCSS C3 Framework PDF
👉 Two lesson plan templates — standard period and block
👉 The department scoring rubric
👉 A teaching philosophy document capturing everything that only lives in my head
👉 An instructions file with one rule I care about most: never invent a source

The fix was not a better prompt or switching tools. It was giving the tool a permanent memory of the specific things that make my classroom mine — so unlike in the classroom, I never have to repeat the directions.

Full post on exactly what I built, why the order mattered, and what changed when I used it for the first time. Everything is now linked on the World History resource page.

Link in bio. 📚

#teachersplaiground #YearZero #AIinEducation #lessonplanning #worldhistory #historyteacher #edtech #Claude #C3Framework #teaching #educators #AItools #freeteacherresources

The first two days of school are a negotiation.

Students figuring out who you are. You figuring out who they are. Everyone performing slightly more than they will for the rest of the year.

I have done the syllabus reading. The procedure walk-through. The icebreaker where everyone shares their name and a fun fact. I have watched students’ eyes glaze over in August with the same quiet patience they bring to every other thing they are required to sit through.

This year is different. This year is Year Zero.

The theme running through everything I am building is one I brought home from the Adobe Education Summit: your story matters. Not as a slogan. As a design principle.

Seven self-paced activities across the first two days — students move through them in their own order, at their own pace. Paper activities available immediately. Digital activities unlocked through Google Classroom.

👉 Student Interest Survey or About Me Grid (student’s choice)
👉 A Big Moment — personal narrative opener
👉 What Is History? Does It Matter? — prior knowledge activation
👉 Log in to Google Classroom
👉 A conversation with me
👉 All About Me graphic (Adobe Express)
👉 Class Culture Poster (Adobe Express)

All free. All linked in the post. All built around one idea.

Your story matters. Link in bio. 📚

The first two days of school are a negotiation.

Students figuring out who you are. You figuring out who they are. Everyone performing slightly more than they will for the rest of the year.

I have done the syllabus reading. The procedure walk-through. The icebreaker where everyone shares their name and a fun fact. I have watched students’ eyes glaze over in August with the same quiet patience they bring to every other thing they are required to sit through.

This year is different. This year is Year Zero.

The theme running through everything I am building is one I brought home from the Adobe Education Summit: your story matters. Not as a slogan. As a design principle.

Seven self-paced activities across the first two days — students move through them in their own order, at their own pace. Paper activities available immediately. Digital activities unlocked through Google Classroom.

👉 Student Interest Survey or About Me Grid (student’s choice)
👉 A Big Moment — personal narrative opener
👉 What Is History? Does It Matter? — prior knowledge activation
👉 Log in to Google Classroom
👉 A conversation with me
👉 All About Me graphic (Adobe Express)
👉 Class Culture Poster (Adobe Express)

All free. All linked in the post. All built around one idea.

Your story matters. Link in bio. 📚

Year Zero update. And it is a good one.

When I wrote the Year Zero post back in June, I made a promise: everything I build gets shared. Two dedicated resource pages. Not a highlight reel. Everything.

It is almost August. Here is what has actually been built.

A Notion workspace with course hubs for both World History and US History. A Google Drive folder organized per unit and per lesson, linked rather than embedded so every update stays live. Two lesson plan templates — one for single periods, one for block scheduling. Two curriculum correlation spreadsheets mapping the district scope and sequence against OER Project and TCI, with alignment gap flags for the places where the resources do not quite cover what the district expects.

And Unit Zero: Narratives and Frames. Four complete lessons built on the district template, aligned to the C3 Framework, connected to OER source materials, and designed to give students the disciplinary thinking tools they need before they need them.

0.1 — History Stories
0.2 — What Is World History?
0.3 — History Frames
0.4 — History and Memory

The primary building space for all of it has been a dedicated Claude project — a sustained collaboration that understands the Kansas standards, the C3 Framework, the OER scope and sequence, and the specific gaps between all three. Human in the loop. Every pedagogical choice mine. AI making the building faster and more connected to the frameworks it needed to be connected to.

The World History resource page drops Friday. Unit Zero, the templates, the correlation spreadsheets. Free. Downloadable. Built for actual classroom use.

US History comes next week.

The promise was everything gets shared. Friday is where we start keeping it.

Link in bio. 📚

#teachersplaiground #YearZero #WorldHistory #socialstudies #historyteacher #lessonplans #C3Framework #OERProject #AIinEducation #edtech #teaching #educators #freeteacherresources

Year Zero update. And it is a good one.

When I wrote the Year Zero post back in June, I made a promise: everything I build gets shared. Two dedicated resource pages. Not a highlight reel. Everything.

It is almost August. Here is what has actually been built.

A Notion workspace with course hubs for both World History and US History. A Google Drive folder organized per unit and per lesson, linked rather than embedded so every update stays live. Two lesson plan templates — one for single periods, one for block scheduling. Two curriculum correlation spreadsheets mapping the district scope and sequence against OER Project and TCI, with alignment gap flags for the places where the resources do not quite cover what the district expects.

And Unit Zero: Narratives and Frames. Four complete lessons built on the district template, aligned to the C3 Framework, connected to OER source materials, and designed to give students the disciplinary thinking tools they need before they need them.

0.1 — History Stories
0.2 — What Is World History?
0.3 — History Frames
0.4 — History and Memory

The primary building space for all of it has been a dedicated Claude project — a sustained collaboration that understands the Kansas standards, the C3 Framework, the OER scope and sequence, and the specific gaps between all three. Human in the loop. Every pedagogical choice mine. AI making the building faster and more connected to the frameworks it needed to be connected to.

The World History resource page drops Friday. Unit Zero, the templates, the correlation spreadsheets. Free. Downloadable. Built for actual classroom use.

US History comes next week.

The promise was everything gets shared. Friday is where we start keeping it.

Link in bio. 📚

#teachersplaiground #YearZero #WorldHistory #socialstudies #historyteacher #lessonplans #C3Framework #OERProject #AIinEducation #edtech #teaching #educators #freeteacherresources

I talk a lot about being intentional. About deliberate practice, deliberate design, deliberate teaching.

And then I struggled to book flights for the Adobe Education Summit and accidentally had the most unintentionally intentional six days of travel I had never dreamed of.

A summer that included NSDA Nationals in Richmond, ISTE in Orlando, and the Adobe Education Summit in San Jose ended with five trains, two connecting buses, and the American West rolling past my window at sixty miles an hour.

Henry David Thoreau went to Walden Pond to live deliberately. I bought a train ticket because I forgot to book a flight. And somewhere between San Jose and home, I understood something about what he was after.

The train strips you of control entirely. The rails go where they go. The schedule is what the schedule is. You do not negotiate with the train. You surrender to it.

And surrender, it turns out, is exactly what I needed.

With less than fourteen hours left in my journey, I can tell you that I am bouncing back focused. Not because I pushed through. Not because I couldn’t hang and found the door. Because I stopped.

New post on what the rails taught me about slowing down — and why I am taking the train to TCEA in February. #RimmeyOnTheRails

Link in bio. 🚂

#teachersplaiground #RimmeyOnTheRails #teacherwellbeing #teacherburnout #mentalhealth #neurodivergent #Thoreau #traintravel #deliberateliving #ISTE2026 #AdobeEDU #YearZero

I talk a lot about being intentional. About deliberate practice, deliberate design, deliberate teaching.

And then I struggled to book flights for the Adobe Education Summit and accidentally had the most unintentionally intentional six days of travel I had never dreamed of.

A summer that included NSDA Nationals in Richmond, ISTE in Orlando, and the Adobe Education Summit in San Jose ended with five trains, two connecting buses, and the American West rolling past my window at sixty miles an hour.

Henry David Thoreau went to Walden Pond to live deliberately. I bought a train ticket because I forgot to book a flight. And somewhere between San Jose and home, I understood something about what he was after.

The train strips you of control entirely. The rails go where they go. The schedule is what the schedule is. You do not negotiate with the train. You surrender to it.

And surrender, it turns out, is exactly what I needed.

With less than fourteen hours left in my journey, I can tell you that I am bouncing back focused. Not because I pushed through. Not because I couldn’t hang and found the door. Because I stopped.

New post on what the rails taught me about slowing down — and why I am taking the train to TCEA in February. #RimmeyOnTheRails

Link in bio. 🚂

#teachersplaiground #RimmeyOnTheRails #teacherwellbeing #teacherburnout #mentalhealth #neurodivergent #Thoreau #traintravel #deliberateliving #ISTE2026 #AdobeEDU #YearZero

The @Amtrak train to Bakersfield was almost 50 minutes late. Luckily the bus driver has announced that we will still get to union station about 10 til 4. So crossing me fingies! I still haven’t eaten anything yet today, so we will see if I hulk out while in LA #RimmeyOnTheRails

The @Amtrak train to Bakersfield was almost 50 minutes late. Luckily the bus driver has announced that we will still get to union station about 10 til 4. So crossing me fingies! I still haven’t eaten anything yet today, so we will see if I hulk out while in LA #RimmeyOnTheRails

The second leg of #RimmeyOnTheRails begins! Today’s journey takes me from San Jose to Merced via bus, Merced to Bakersfield via train and then Bakersfield to LA via bus again to then hop on the Southwest Chief to make the 2 day jaunt back to Lawrence! At some point this afternoon, I’ll post my reflection on the #AdobeEduCreative #AdobeSummit!

The second leg of #RimmeyOnTheRails begins! Today’s journey takes me from San Jose to Merced via bus, Merced to Bakersfield via train and then Bakersfield to LA via bus again to then hop on the Southwest Chief to make the 2 day jaunt back to Lawrence! At some point this afternoon, I’ll post my reflection on the #AdobeEduCreative #AdobeSummit!

Day 1 of the #AdobeSummit is in the books and getting to tour parts of @adobeforedu @adobe really turned my world upside down!!

Day 1 of the #AdobeSummit is in the books and getting to tour parts of @adobeforedu @adobe really turned my world upside down!!

STOP THINKING ABOUT DRAWING AS AN ARTISTIC PROCESS. IT IS A THINKING PROCESS.

Manuel Herrera (@manuelherrera33) said it at ISTE 2026. I wrote it in all caps in my notebook because it deserved all caps.

I have never been a confident drawer. I have never thought of myself as someone who uses visual thinking as a pedagogical tool.

I left that session planning to change both of those things.

Here is what Joe Merrill (@themerrillsedu) and Manuel Herrera taught a room full of educators at ISTE 2026:

Drawing is not about artistic skill. It is about identifying what makes something recognizable. What are the essential elements? What does the thing actually need to read as the thing it is?

That is not an art question. That is a thinking question.

The session built around two modes: concrete drawing using simple shapes for visible things, and abstract drawing for feelings, thoughts, and emotions — anchored by the New York Times bestselling book Invisible Things by Andy J. Pizza and Sophie Miller, which asks what hope looks like, what shape gratitude is, and what you would see if you could see an itch.

And then — the part that made the room audibly react — students bring their hand-drawn characters to life using AI animation tools in Adobe Express and Canva.

The student’s hand is still the first instrument. The AI is what makes the hand’s work move.

Post 13 in my ISTE 2026 series. Video of the finished result linked in bio — you need to see it to believe it. ✏️

#teachersplaiground #ISTE2026 #visualthinking #sketchnoting #drawing #AdobeExpress #Canva #edtech #teaching #educators #TheMerrillsEDU #ManuelHerrera #InvisibleThings

STOP THINKING ABOUT DRAWING AS AN ARTISTIC PROCESS. IT IS A THINKING PROCESS.

Manuel Herrera (@manuelherrera33) said it at ISTE 2026. I wrote it in all caps in my notebook because it deserved all caps.

I have never been a confident drawer. I have never thought of myself as someone who uses visual thinking as a pedagogical tool.

I left that session planning to change both of those things.

Here is what Joe Merrill (@themerrillsedu) and Manuel Herrera taught a room full of educators at ISTE 2026:

Drawing is not about artistic skill. It is about identifying what makes something recognizable. What are the essential elements? What does the thing actually need to read as the thing it is?

That is not an art question. That is a thinking question.

The session built around two modes: concrete drawing using simple shapes for visible things, and abstract drawing for feelings, thoughts, and emotions — anchored by the New York Times bestselling book Invisible Things by Andy J. Pizza and Sophie Miller, which asks what hope looks like, what shape gratitude is, and what you would see if you could see an itch.

And then — the part that made the room audibly react — students bring their hand-drawn characters to life using AI animation tools in Adobe Express and Canva.

The student’s hand is still the first instrument. The AI is what makes the hand’s work move.

Post 13 in my ISTE 2026 series. Video of the finished result linked in bio — you need to see it to believe it. ✏️

#teachersplaiground #ISTE2026 #visualthinking #sketchnoting #drawing #AdobeExpress #Canva #edtech #teaching #educators #TheMerrillsEDU #ManuelHerrera #InvisibleThings

We ready? WE BRING THE NOISE, WE BRING THE RUCKUS #USA #LFK #ScoreLawrence #worldcup2026

We ready? WE BRING THE NOISE, WE BRING THE RUCKUS #USA #LFK #ScoreLawrence #worldcup2026

There is a phrase that kept appearing across multiple sessions at ISTE 2026, so consistently that it started to feel less like a talking point and more like a genuine shift in how the education technology industry is thinking about AI.

From shortcut to scaffold.

@microsoftedu made it the title of their session. Anoo Padha from Microsoft and @beckykeeneedu from Phygital Labs, whose book The AI Optimist I have been a fan of for a while, spent their time making an argument I have been making on this blog all year: the goal is not to stop students from using AI. The goal is to redesign how AI is used so that it strengthens thinking rather than replacing it.

At ISTE 2026 Microsoft announced new and/or updateds to two tools worth knowing about:

Study and Learn — a Copilot-powered AI agent that works from your own course materials rather than the open internet. Summaries, flashcards, quizzes. The quizzes don’t send scores to the teacher. They are true self-checks — private, formative, designed to show students where their understanding has gaps before the real assessment. Available to all users.

Copilot Notebooks — Microsoft’s answer to NotebookLM. Bring all your course materials together, generate a multi-page interactive study guide grounded entirely in those sources, with editable Loop pages students can personalize and make their own. The AI does the organizational heavy lifting. The student takes ownership of the result.

That is the scaffold. Not the shortcut.

Full post, including notes about what is gated, linked in bio.

#teachersplaiground #ISTE2026 #Microsoft #CopilotNotebooks #StudyAndLearn #AIinEducation #edtech #teaching #educators #MicrosoftEDU

There is a phrase that kept appearing across multiple sessions at ISTE 2026, so consistently that it started to feel less like a talking point and more like a genuine shift in how the education technology industry is thinking about AI.

From shortcut to scaffold.

@microsoftedu made it the title of their session. Anoo Padha from Microsoft and @beckykeeneedu from Phygital Labs, whose book The AI Optimist I have been a fan of for a while, spent their time making an argument I have been making on this blog all year: the goal is not to stop students from using AI. The goal is to redesign how AI is used so that it strengthens thinking rather than replacing it.

At ISTE 2026 Microsoft announced new and/or updateds to two tools worth knowing about:

Study and Learn — a Copilot-powered AI agent that works from your own course materials rather than the open internet. Summaries, flashcards, quizzes. The quizzes don’t send scores to the teacher. They are true self-checks — private, formative, designed to show students where their understanding has gaps before the real assessment. Available to all users.

Copilot Notebooks — Microsoft’s answer to NotebookLM. Bring all your course materials together, generate a multi-page interactive study guide grounded entirely in those sources, with editable Loop pages students can personalize and make their own. The AI does the organizational heavy lifting. The student takes ownership of the result.

That is the scaffold. Not the shortcut.

Full post, including notes about what is gated, linked in bio.

#teachersplaiground #ISTE2026 #Microsoft #CopilotNotebooks #StudyAndLearn #AIinEducation #edtech #teaching #educators #MicrosoftEDU

There is a particular kind of excitement that happens when a tool you already trust announces something new.

It is more like watching a favorite restaurant add a dish to their menu that you did not know you needed until you saw it — and then immediately understanding that it has always belonged there.

I am a @kamiapp user. Have been for a while. At ISTE 2026, Kami announced Kami Coach — an AI-powered coaching tool that guides students through math problems with hints and check-ins, and simultaneously gives teachers real-time insight into student understanding, misconceptions, and progress.

Not after the test. Not when the homework comes in. Right now, while the thinking is happening.

But here is the part that hit me hardest: last year I was an academic interventionist with a Social Studies background trying to support students in math. I could see when a student was stuck. I could recognize the shutdown. What I could not always do was identify precisely where the mathematical thinking had broken down.

Kami Coach would have changed that year for me.

Interventionists. Special education teachers. Paraprofessionals. Reading coaches pulled into math support. Every one of them has sat next to a student with a math problem and wished they had more than their instincts to work with.

Coach gives them something to work with.

Currently in beta for math. Sign up link in the post. Link in bio.

#teachersplaiground #ISTE2026 #KamiCoach #Kami #mathcoach #AIinEducation #edtech #teaching #educators #interventionist #specialeducation

There is a particular kind of excitement that happens when a tool you already trust announces something new.

It is more like watching a favorite restaurant add a dish to their menu that you did not know you needed until you saw it — and then immediately understanding that it has always belonged there.

I am a @kamiapp user. Have been for a while. At ISTE 2026, Kami announced Kami Coach — an AI-powered coaching tool that guides students through math problems with hints and check-ins, and simultaneously gives teachers real-time insight into student understanding, misconceptions, and progress.

Not after the test. Not when the homework comes in. Right now, while the thinking is happening.

But here is the part that hit me hardest: last year I was an academic interventionist with a Social Studies background trying to support students in math. I could see when a student was stuck. I could recognize the shutdown. What I could not always do was identify precisely where the mathematical thinking had broken down.

Kami Coach would have changed that year for me.

Interventionists. Special education teachers. Paraprofessionals. Reading coaches pulled into math support. Every one of them has sat next to a student with a math problem and wished they had more than their instincts to work with.

Coach gives them something to work with.

Currently in beta for math. Sign up link in the post. Link in bio.

#teachersplaiground #ISTE2026 #KamiCoach #Kami #mathcoach #AIinEducation #edtech #teaching #educators #interventionist #specialeducation

I teach a series called Vibe Coding for Educators.

I present sessions arguing that AI has fundamentally lowered the barrier to building classroom tools and that teachers do not need to know how to code to create something functional and useful.

I believe all of that. I am not walking any of it back.

But at ISTE 2026, I sat in a @codeorg classroom for 45 minutes and built a website with a Socratic AI partner that refused to just do it for me. Every time I was about to receive an answer, I received a question instead.

I asked for a navigation bar. The AI asked me what a navigation bar needs to do.

I asked for a color change. The AI explained what a hex code is and asked what I thought the code might look like.

By the end of 45 minutes I had a website. But more importantly, I understood why it worked.

The criticism of vibe coding is not wrong about the risk. If students use AI to generate code without understanding what it does, they are not developing computational thinking. The question is whether the answer is removing AI from the coding process or designing the AI’s role so that understanding is built in rather than bypassed.

Code AI’s answer is the second one. And it is the right one.

Post 6 in my ISTE 2026 series. Link in bio. 💻

#teachersplaiground #ISTE2026 #CodeAI #vibecoding #coding #edtech #teaching #educators #AIinEducation #computationalthinking #cseducation

I teach a series called Vibe Coding for Educators.

I present sessions arguing that AI has fundamentally lowered the barrier to building classroom tools and that teachers do not need to know how to code to create something functional and useful.

I believe all of that. I am not walking any of it back.

But at ISTE 2026, I sat in a @codeorg classroom for 45 minutes and built a website with a Socratic AI partner that refused to just do it for me. Every time I was about to receive an answer, I received a question instead.

I asked for a navigation bar. The AI asked me what a navigation bar needs to do.

I asked for a color change. The AI explained what a hex code is and asked what I thought the code might look like.

By the end of 45 minutes I had a website. But more importantly, I understood why it worked.

The criticism of vibe coding is not wrong about the risk. If students use AI to generate code without understanding what it does, they are not developing computational thinking. The question is whether the answer is removing AI from the coding process or designing the AI’s role so that understanding is built in rather than bypassed.

Code AI’s answer is the second one. And it is the right one.

Post 6 in my ISTE 2026 series. Link in bio. 💻

#teachersplaiground #ISTE2026 #CodeAI #vibecoding #coding #edtech #teaching #educators #AIinEducation #computationalthinking #cseducation

I just want to say that
@nothingnowhere had a @spotify cover of Replay land on my "Release Radar" playlist for today, and I may or may not have loudly yelled "AYYYYYYY" in the middle of a @bahamabreezeislandgrille at
@flymco. Am I embarrassed? NO BECAUSE BOTH TRACKS ARE BANGERS!!!!

I just want to say that
@nothingnowhere had a @spotify cover of Replay land on my "Release Radar" playlist for today, and I may or may not have loudly yelled "AYYYYYYY" in the middle of a @bahamabreezeislandgrille at
@flymco. Am I embarrassed? NO BECAUSE BOTH TRACKS ARE BANGERS!!!!

I stopped at this booth for every student I have ever taught with dyslexia.

Past and present. The ones who sat in the back and pretended the worksheet wasn’t defeating them. The ones who worked twice as hard as everyone else to produce half as much on paper and knew it.

I stopped because I saw the word dyslexia on a small booth at the edge of the expo hall. And what was there was MYdys.

Here’s what it does: a student points their phone camera at any text — a textbook page, a restaurant menu, a museum sign, a job application — and MYdys hands it back transformed. Font size. Letter spacing. Word spacing. Background color. The letters most commonly confused by dyslexic readers highlighted or color-coded so they stop moving. Built-in audio so the text can be listened to instead of read. Instant translation into 70 languages.

Every single adjustment made by the student. Not pre-set by a teacher. Not locked by a system. Their font. Their colors. Their pace. Their terms.

That is not accommodation. That is autonomy.

MYdys works on any text, anywhere — not just in school, not just on a testing day, not just when an IEP is in hand. It works at the restaurant. At the museum. At the kitchen table at nineteen years old filling out a job application alone.

Post 4 in my ISTE 2026 periphery series. This one is the one I most needed to write.

Link in bio. 📲

I stopped at this booth for every student I have ever taught with dyslexia.

Past and present. The ones who sat in the back and pretended the worksheet wasn’t defeating them. The ones who worked twice as hard as everyone else to produce half as much on paper and knew it.

I stopped because I saw the word dyslexia on a small booth at the edge of the expo hall. And what was there was MYdys.

Here’s what it does: a student points their phone camera at any text — a textbook page, a restaurant menu, a museum sign, a job application — and MYdys hands it back transformed. Font size. Letter spacing. Word spacing. Background color. The letters most commonly confused by dyslexic readers highlighted or color-coded so they stop moving. Built-in audio so the text can be listened to instead of read. Instant translation into 70 languages.

Every single adjustment made by the student. Not pre-set by a teacher. Not locked by a system. Their font. Their colors. Their pace. Their terms.

That is not accommodation. That is autonomy.

MYdys works on any text, anywhere — not just in school, not just on a testing day, not just when an IEP is in hand. It works at the restaurant. At the museum. At the kitchen table at nineteen years old filling out a job application alone.

Post 4 in my ISTE 2026 periphery series. This one is the one I most needed to write.

Link in bio. 📲

Where in the #ISTE is Rimmey today? Aside from trying to catch the @codeorg classroom experience, you can find me sharing how I'm planning for Year Zero at the @briskteaching booth at 10:30 and my love of @eduprotocols at the @genially_official booth at 11:30!

Where in the #ISTE is Rimmey today? Aside from trying to catch the @codeorg classroom experience, you can find me sharing how I'm planning for Year Zero at the @briskteaching booth at 10:30 and my love of @eduprotocols at the @genially_official booth at 11:30!

Wondering where in the #ISTE, now known as #ISTE I'll be today?

I'm also excited to do a podcast recording with @edtechbites and I'm going to try to interview a couple of community managers from some of my Edtech favorites throughout the day!

All of my resources for the first 3 days of the conference are LIVE at: https://www.teachersplaiground.com/iste-2026

Wondering where in the #ISTE, now known as #ISTE I'll be today?

I'm also excited to do a podcast recording with @edtechbites and I'm going to try to interview a couple of community managers from some of my Edtech favorites throughout the day!

All of my resources for the first 3 days of the conference are LIVE at: https://www.teachersplaiground.com/iste-2026

My #ISTELive begins tomorrow, and if you wonder where you can find me, I'll be spending most of my day in the Microsoft Elevate for Educators Community Summit.

I do get to sneak away for an hour in an epic session with my friends @baconedtech, @dramatickat , @mannydiscotech, @DavidHinrichs, and so many more, showcasing how you can leverage short-form debates in your classroom!

@MicrosoftEDU @MicrosoftAISkills #MicrosoftElevateforEducators

My #ISTELive begins tomorrow, and if you wonder where you can find me, I'll be spending most of my day in the Microsoft Elevate for Educators Community Summit.

I do get to sneak away for an hour in an epic session with my friends @baconedtech, @dramatickat , @mannydiscotech, @DavidHinrichs, and so many more, showcasing how you can leverage short-form debates in your classroom!

@MicrosoftEDU @MicrosoftAISkills #MicrosoftElevateforEducators

I have finally made it to my hotel, and this was a nice surprise after a long day @marriottbonvoy

I have finally made it to my hotel, and this was a nice surprise after a long day @marriottbonvoy

Well, for the next 2 hours on loop it’ll be “welcome to Atlanta where the players play”

Well, for the next 2 hours on loop it’ll be “welcome to Atlanta where the players play”

Pack the sunscreen. Charge the laptop. Tell the family I'll see them in a week. ✨

ISTE 2026 starts virtually tomorrow and lands in Orlando on Sunday — and I have been looking forward to this since I booked my flights approximately five minutes after finding out I was accepted to present.

Here's the honest version of what this week looks like: five scheduled sessions, five expo hall booths, three sessions being recorded and streamed by ISTE for distribution to their broader membership.

It is, by any reasonable measure, a busy week.

But being busy at a conference is not the same as being present at one. The plan is to present with everything I have and then sit in someone else's session and remember what it feels like to be the person in the audience.

Here's what you can expect from me this week:

👉 Session recaps after each day
👉 Tool and idea spotlights when something stops me cold
👉 Honest reflections — not highlight reel content

Oh, and I'm hoping to drop the very first issue of my newsletter by end of day Monday. If you've been waiting for a reason to subscribe, a newsletter from the middle of ISTE feels like a pretty good one.

Link in bio for the full preview. Let's go. ✈️

#teachersplaiground #ISTE2026 #Orlando #edtech #AIinEducation #teaching #educators #teacherlife #conference #professionaldevelopment

Pack the sunscreen. Charge the laptop. Tell the family I'll see them in a week. ✨

ISTE 2026 starts virtually tomorrow and lands in Orlando on Sunday — and I have been looking forward to this since I booked my flights approximately five minutes after finding out I was accepted to present.

Here's the honest version of what this week looks like: five scheduled sessions, five expo hall booths, three sessions being recorded and streamed by ISTE for distribution to their broader membership.

It is, by any reasonable measure, a busy week.

But being busy at a conference is not the same as being present at one. The plan is to present with everything I have and then sit in someone else's session and remember what it feels like to be the person in the audience.

Here's what you can expect from me this week:

👉 Session recaps after each day
👉 Tool and idea spotlights when something stops me cold
👉 Honest reflections — not highlight reel content

Oh, and I'm hoping to drop the very first issue of my newsletter by end of day Monday. If you've been waiting for a reason to subscribe, a newsletter from the middle of ISTE feels like a pretty good one.

Link in bio for the full preview. Let's go. ✈️

#teachersplaiground #ISTE2026 #Orlando #edtech #AIinEducation #teaching #educators #teacherlife #conference #professionaldevelopment

Every year, approximately two million high school seniors sit down to answer one of the most absurd questions in American education.

In 650 words or fewer, tell us who you are, what has shaped you, what you have learned from your greatest challenge, and why you are worth our investment.

You have until January.

Strip away the anxiety and the stakes and the Common App portal that crashes every November, and what you have is one of the most sophisticated writing tasks we ever ask of anyone. It requires self-knowledge, narrative construction, thematic awareness, and the ability to make a stranger care about your specific, weird, irreplaceable experience in the time it takes them to drink half a cup of coffee.

So I asked myself: what if the subject doing the applying wasn’t a seventeen-year-old?

What if it was the Louisiana Purchase, making the case for why 828,000 square miles of itself deserves admission to the United States?

What if it was Zero, finally applying for recognition from a mathematical community that spent centuries pretending it didn’t exist?

What if it was the Oxford comma, applying for mandatory status in the AP Style Guide?

Welcome to the College Application Essay activity. Population: every subject, concept, figure, and phenomenon that has ever deserved more credit than it received.

Free template + two fully written exemplars linked in bio. The Louisiana Purchase’s essay is genuinely moving. Zero’s is righteous. The Oxford comma’s is… a lot.

Tag me when your students apply. 🎓

#teachersplaiground #collegeapplication #commonapp #edtech #teaching #playfulpedagogy #creativeclassroom #educators #historyteacher #ELA #mathteacher #oxfordcomma

Every year, approximately two million high school seniors sit down to answer one of the most absurd questions in American education.

In 650 words or fewer, tell us who you are, what has shaped you, what you have learned from your greatest challenge, and why you are worth our investment.

You have until January.

Strip away the anxiety and the stakes and the Common App portal that crashes every November, and what you have is one of the most sophisticated writing tasks we ever ask of anyone. It requires self-knowledge, narrative construction, thematic awareness, and the ability to make a stranger care about your specific, weird, irreplaceable experience in the time it takes them to drink half a cup of coffee.

So I asked myself: what if the subject doing the applying wasn’t a seventeen-year-old?

What if it was the Louisiana Purchase, making the case for why 828,000 square miles of itself deserves admission to the United States?

What if it was Zero, finally applying for recognition from a mathematical community that spent centuries pretending it didn’t exist?

What if it was the Oxford comma, applying for mandatory status in the AP Style Guide?

Welcome to the College Application Essay activity. Population: every subject, concept, figure, and phenomenon that has ever deserved more credit than it received.

Free template + two fully written exemplars linked in bio. The Louisiana Purchase’s essay is genuinely moving. Zero’s is righteous. The Oxford comma’s is… a lot.

Tag me when your students apply. 🎓

#teachersplaiground #collegeapplication #commonapp #edtech #teaching #playfulpedagogy #creativeclassroom #educators #historyteacher #ELA #mathteacher #oxfordcomma

I think my schedule of presentations, booth sessions, and volunteering for @isteconnects 2026 is now complete! Want to know where I'm going to be, when I'm not lurking in the audience and making my brain grow? Check it out!

I think my schedule of presentations, booth sessions, and volunteering for @isteconnects 2026 is now complete! Want to know where I'm going to be, when I'm not lurking in the audience and making my brain grow? Check it out!

A student opened her PowerSchool account, saw a 95, and came to ask what she could do to raise it.

I knew I didn't turn my poker face on fast enough.

That moment lives rent-free in my brain next to two others: the Kleenex boxes we hand out points for (no educational value, just transaction), and the year-long Standards Based Grading book study where nobody, including the facilitator, had actually read the book.

Three neighboring sections of my brain that knocked down the walls to build a penthouse apartment of absurdity.

Here's something that should change how you think about every grade you've ever given or received: the modern grading system is barely over a century old, and it was never built to tell you what a student knows. It was built to sort students efficiently during the Industrial Revolution. In 1913 — over a hundred years ago — a researcher called it "an absolutely uncalibrated instrument."

We are still using essentially the same system today.

This week's post covers:

👉 The actual history of why we grade the way we do
👉 What happens when a grade becomes a measure of self-worth (the research is sobering)
👉 Why I believe in Standards Based Grading — and the institutional fear keeping it from happening
👉 What we can actually do, even without overhauling the whole system

A 95% was never the problem. Link in bio.

#teachersplaiground #grading #standardsbasedgrading #teacherwellbeing #studentmentalhealth #edtech #teaching #educators #teacherlife

A student opened her PowerSchool account, saw a 95, and came to ask what she could do to raise it.

I knew I didn't turn my poker face on fast enough.

That moment lives rent-free in my brain next to two others: the Kleenex boxes we hand out points for (no educational value, just transaction), and the year-long Standards Based Grading book study where nobody, including the facilitator, had actually read the book.

Three neighboring sections of my brain that knocked down the walls to build a penthouse apartment of absurdity.

Here's something that should change how you think about every grade you've ever given or received: the modern grading system is barely over a century old, and it was never built to tell you what a student knows. It was built to sort students efficiently during the Industrial Revolution. In 1913 — over a hundred years ago — a researcher called it "an absolutely uncalibrated instrument."

We are still using essentially the same system today.

This week's post covers:

👉 The actual history of why we grade the way we do
👉 What happens when a grade becomes a measure of self-worth (the research is sobering)
👉 Why I believe in Standards Based Grading — and the institutional fear keeping it from happening
👉 What we can actually do, even without overhauling the whole system

A 95% was never the problem. Link in bio.

#teachersplaiground #grading #standardsbasedgrading #teacherwellbeing #studentmentalhealth #edtech #teaching #educators #teacherlife

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