Tuesday, July 14, 2026

AI Assisted Grading: A Teacher’s 30-Second Checklist

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

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AI assisted grading, I predict, will be a hot topic — even hotter this school year as more teachers move towards this approach. That said, we have to understand how to train it, how it works, and how to select tools in order to safely do AI assisted grading.

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Key Takeaways for Teachers from Steve Swanson

  • He built the auto-grade button — then deleted it. Steve could push one button, pull every assignment out of Google Classroom, grade them all, and send them straight back to students. He describes that as “sort of like what you would call a black box. You don't see it happening.” He took it out. As he puts it, that decision wasn't only the thinking process — “it's 22 years of teaching as well. It just doesn't feel right.” When the person who built the shortcut refuses to ship it, teachers should pay attention.
  • Ask one question before any AI tool touches student work: where does the data go? Steve says he built ClassLens around FERPA and student-data privacy from the ground up, and that the only thing he stores is an obscure ID number Google assigns each student. That's the question — not “how fast is it,” but “where is it stored, what is being stored, and who keeps it?” Ask the vendor. Make them answer.
  • The teaching assistant analogy reframes the whole debate. Steve points out that professors have used TAs to grade for generations — but the professor has the final say. Vicki was a TA in college and graded everything, then handed her notes to the professor. AI can suggest. It cannot decide. As Steve says, “because we're the final say in their grade, I think every single assignment, every comment, should pass through our eyes and be editable so we can change it.” Relate to educate — and the relationship runs through the gradebook too.
  • Your rubric is the input that determines the output. “AI, the more context you give, the better output they can give you,” Steve says. “So if you write a really good rubric, they'll grade it pretty much spot on to what you're asking.” The work you skip on the front end shows up as garbage on the back end.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

About Steve Swanson

Steve Swanson the creator of Class Lens.

Steve describes himself and his tool this way:

Steven Swanson teaches engineering in the four-year engineering academy at Whittier High School (California)— design/drafting, mechatronics, and senior capstone. He also teaches AP Computer Science and AP Physics online. Steven is the founder of Evolved Academics, LLC (https://www.evolvedacademics.com) and the builder of ClassLens (https://www.classlens.com), the only K-12 AI grading tool with Google's restricted-scope OAuth verification, SOC 2 Type I attested, CASA Tier 2, and CISA Secure by Design Pledge signatory. He built ClassLens while teaching full time, because he needed it for his own gradebook.

(The compliance and certification claims above are Steve's own description of his product and have not been independently verified by Cool Cat Teacher. As always, run any tool through your own district's privacy and security review before using it with student work.)

Connect with Steve:

Other Shows for Teachers Navigating AI in the Classroom

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Episode Transcript

This transcript was generated using AI and has been reviewed by humans for accuracy. Minor errors or artifacts may remain but I worked my best to find any issues with the transcript as I reviewed the show. – Vicki

Click to read the full transcript

Vicki Davis: Happy Tech Tip Tuesday. Today we'll be talking about AI assessment. For me, this summertime is the time that I spend training the AI so that it can help me assess. Always have you in the loop. You should be the one giving grades, as well as disclose to your students how you're using the artificial intelligence and how you are training it. This helps you have both credibility with your students and helps you save time in your modeling how you want artificial intelligence to be used. I hope you enjoyed today's Tech Tip Tuesday here on the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast.

Announcer: This is the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast with your host, Vicki Davis.

Vicki Davis: Today we're talking with Steven Swanson. He is a high school engineering teacher at Whittier High School and also an AP Computer Science and AP Physics teacher. He built a tool called ClassLens, an AI grading tool he made because he needed it for his own gradebook. He is unique in the fact that he deleted a feature to automatically return AI-generated grades to students. And that requires that teachers review everything that AI has suggested for feedback. And we're going to get into that.

Vicki Davis: Steve, ClassLens started because you needed it for your own gradebook. I want you to take me back to the moment in your teaching where you said, “I can't keep doing this. There's a better way and I can build it.”

Steven Swanson: The very first day that hit me was — I take a lot of days off because I run an academy. I'm off maybe fifteen days a year for field trips. And I missed one or two days in a row, because sometimes we do our field trips back to back. And I remember I gave one extra assignment than usual to my sophomores. And I did that because they can be a little squirrely and I thought this better keep them a little bit busier. So I gave them that extra one.

Steven Swanson: And when I came back — I said, “You know what, let me grade this.” The night before I went back, actually. And I started grading, and I saw there was like 150 individual things to look at. You might know this too: a lot of teachers, we try to become efficient. We'll sometimes give credit or no credit. If they turn this in and they did the work — sometimes homework is like that, I just check whether they do it or not. Then they have the high-stakes assignments where you're checking every little thing.

Steven Swanson: But I don't feel like that was valuable. They were drawing CAD — computer-aided drafting, for those who are wondering what CAD is. I teach engineering in this class. And I looked at them and I wanted them to be not only accountable, but mainly I wanted them to know what they did wrong if they were doing something wrong. They spent two hours doing it. I wanted them to know.

Steven Swanson: I started it and I said, this is going to take me all night if I want to actually give feedback too. Think about that — writing each individual comment. I have a hundred and fifty-something students. So I was like, this is going to take a long time. So I thought, let me try to create something where maybe I could just take a glance at it and give them a comment on whether they did it right or not. So that's where it started.

Vicki Davis: And I've written lots of things to help me, because when you have something — I mean, I always review it — but when you have something and you have a lot of little boxes to check, if it can at least check the boxes for you, then that tells you where to guide. And it just speeds it up.

Steven Swanson: Yeah. Through all my work I did on it, I did find most recently that making them rubrics — so if you build a very good rubric, and you might know this too, and some of your listeners: AI, the more context you give, the better output they can give you. So if you write a really good rubric, they'll grade it pretty much spot on to what you're asking.

Vicki Davis: Recently I had Christian Miller, author of The Honesty Crisis, on my show, and he says — this is a great quote — that when students get feedback from the teacher and aren't told that AI did it, and it looks like it's coming from the teacher, he said, quote, “It's not right. They're actually being dishonest towards their students, and that's a violation of trust.” What's your opinion on what he said?

Steven Swanson: I 100% agree. In fact, I talked to an administrator about it. We were chatting as I was building it. He said, “I can see this as a really good tool. And I see it as a great tool for low-stakes, high-volume assignments, where you just want to give a little bit more back to the kid, but you just don't have the time.” He suggested — I think this is a good idea — that teachers who use this should put something in their syllabus that says, “Hey, I do use an AI grading tool for assignments, and sometimes the feedback may be given back for assignments.”

Steven Swanson: So definitely, that's a great idea. And I think that's always the case. Even the grade itself — even if it's assisted, even though I got rid of the auto-return feature, it passes in front of me and I'm looking at each grade and I'm looking at each comment. I still think there should be something. I don't know if it's per assignment. I don't know if you need to have every single one say this was written by an AI tool. I don't know about that — that could be argued either way. But definitely it should be stated somewhere, whether it's on your website, syllabus, or assignment paper.

Vicki Davis: So you just said something that we're going to dig into. You turned off the auto-grade — I hate to use the word “grade,” because for me, I feel like as the teacher, every grade passes through me. Now, feedback, I can have it help me write, and then I need to adjust it. But I should look at everything, which is basically what you've done. But most AI-assisted grading tools allow a teacher just to hit a button and just send it back. So why were you willing to — take me through the mental process of “okay, I'm going to turn this off, and I know everybody else does it, but this is why.”

Steven Swanson: First off, for some of the listeners, it's called “human in the loop” now. That's what it's often called — does this pass through human inspection or not? I don't want to say it was a mental thought. It was more of a gut feeling. In the process of building this, you start building feature upon feature upon feature. And when you're in product development — and this is for any product — what you want to do is just make the easiest environment for the end user, a teacher or whoever it is. And then you think, how can I make their life the easiest, where everything is efficient and everything's done for you, because automation is key to a lot of things.

Steven Swanson: As you're pushing the envelope of development, I could get to a point where I could say, “Hey, I could just push a button.” It sucks all the assignments out of whatever you're using — say that's Google Classroom — and it pulls the assignments out, grades them all, and then sends them right back to the student. That's sort of like what you would call a black box. You don't see it happening. Upon creating it, it almost felt immediately wrong. “Hey, this doesn't feel right.” And that's not only the thinking process, it's 22 years of teaching as well. It just doesn't feel right.

Vicki Davis: We want help. We want to save time. But we also — I mean, we have a relationship with students. That's a relationship of trust. Even when I'm not there, when my sub is there and I'm not, I want to know what went on, you know? I don't like to just hand something over with no supervision. Do you think that's why maybe it felt icky? Or have you talked to other teachers and how they feel about it?

Steven Swanson: I did talk to another teacher about it. But I think if you think of like a multiple choice — I can push a button, it grades them all, but you have faith that when I say the correct answer is A, then a student chooses A, it will get it right. And if they chose B, they will get it wrong. And you have faith in that, correct?

Steven Swanson: If you had that same faith with an AI — and nobody does right now — that it's going to do everything right every single time… that faith doesn't exist right now. It's building that way. Could they get to that point where you just go, “Wow, everything it does is correct”? Maybe 10 years from now, I don't know. But it's not here today.

Vicki Davis: So I want to say this. First of all, ClassLens is not sponsoring this. The reason I accepted your pitch to me — and I have to say that, or else everybody in the world will just send me emails — but you're a teacher, and in your email, you said something that I really want to know the answer to. You said that there is one question every teacher needs to ask before they let any AI tool grade student work. What is that question?

Steven Swanson: When you're doing it, you want to know what's happening to it. Like, where does it go? Where is it stored?

Steven Swanson: I know when I built it — just because I know about FERPA and privacy with student data — I built that from the ground up. That's where I started. And then I realized, okay, where is this going to go? And then I realized, no, it's not going to go anywhere. It's not going to even be stored on my server. It goes to a trusted LLM company. It's a Google one, made by Google — and because Google Classroom created it, I chose that one.

Steven Swanson: And they also are one of the only companies where they will approve a zero, where they hold none of your data, and it immediately deletes it. And I delete it from my server immediately after grading, and the teacher approves it and it goes back in. And on my end, I don't need to sell it. I don't need to collect data. That's not my forte. And I definitely don't have the money to pay for that.

Steven Swanson: So no, definitely that was something you should always look at. And for the most part, a lot of districts, before they even approve the use of this — and some districts do require that and others do not, depends on your state — a lot of them will actually look at that for you. They're going to look and say, okay, they want to know every spot of where this is stored, what is being stored. Is it their name? What is it?

Steven Swanson: The only thing I do store is an obscure number that Google assigns to each student. And I only keep that because I'm planning the next feature, which is if a student wanted to opt out, you would be able to check that box for the student and say, okay, when the grades pass through, it doesn't do anything for that student. I can foresee that happening in the future where districts might allow opting out, or even a state might say it's required.

Vicki Davis: If you could change one thing about how the ed tech industry sells AI to schools right now, what would it be?

Steven Swanson: I haven't thought too much about that, but I do know that it's being flooded. They're adding AI tools to everything. I would say that anything — and if this isn't already true for the company — I think they have to have human in the loop for teacher stuff. I mean, if it involves students and their grades and the grades they're getting, I think human in the loop has to be every part of it.

Steven Swanson: And that's why I pretty much reached out to you: you need to have a teacher look at this stuff. You can suggest whatever you want. Here's a comment it should be. Here's a grade that I think it should be. But all of those should be editable by the teacher before they click “Okay, I agree to all this,” and then send it to my students. That's kind of how ClassLens does it. It just lists all the grades, the comments, and you can click on them and see the work and double-check and say — like, every once in a while I'll see something that's a little low grade, and let me see, why is that getting such a low grade? Let me look at that assignment and see if I agree with that grade.

Steven Swanson: You definitely want that. Can you have somebody suggest grades? Sure. People have forever used — what? — teaching assistants. Colleges use that, where they have somebody grade a lot of their professors' work and stuff like that. But because we're the final say in their grade, I think every single assignment, every comment, should pass through our eyes and be editable so we can change it.

Vicki Davis: Steve, that's such a great analogy, because I was a TA in college and I graded everything and then wrote my notes and gave it to the professor, but he had the ultimate say. Obviously I wasn't the professor. So what a great analogy — because we have used people to help us. It's just that most of us classroom teachers in K-12, most of us don't qualify for any help. And so we're so desperate and overworked that we want that help.

Vicki Davis: Let's shift to this. Pretend that a teacher is listening to this in their car and they're saying, “Okay, I think I'm going to try to use an AI tool to grade work tomorrow.” Could you give them a 30-second checklist? What should they be looking for as they prepare to do that?

Steven Swanson: One, obviously make sure the Google auth — we talked about that. Make sure that when you sign into Google, or whatever your sign-in is, that there's no warnings or anything like that. Make sure there is a privacy agreement that they're not doing anything with the data.

Steven Swanson: And I think the best advice I can give them is: the first time you use it — and hopefully nobody's using it in a bind where they need their grades turned in 30 minutes — you should be able to provide yourself with enough time when you're using this for the first time. Grade it. Read every single comment. Read every single one. Even if you go, “Hey, this is just as long as grading” — yes, but you want to make sure it grades correctly. So look at every grade, look at all their work, look at all the comments and go, “How off is this from what I would have given?” Do that. Don't just trust it right off the bat. And do that for as many assignments as it takes before you start to feel comfortable with it.

Steven Swanson: Like, if you passed this work on to a human, like we just talked about — would you trust them right off the bat? I know I wouldn't. Even if the district said, “Hey, I've got somebody who'll grade your stuff for you, they sit right next to you” — I know that's never going to happen — but they'll grade your stuff. Yeah, I would still want to glance through it and look through it and kind of try to grasp if they were doing it correctly or the way I would have been assigning them, right? So I think they should do the same thing.

Vicki Davis: So Steve, you've been really emphatic: human in the loop. Is there anything else about the movement to try to give us AI assistance for assessment that makes you angry or really concerns you?

Steven Swanson: I wouldn't say angry. This is for science in general — I think they're building very quickly. They're almost trying to fly a plane while they build it at the same time. I'm talking about the AI companies themselves. And it's like an arms race.

Steven Swanson: I take that quote from — what is it — the dinosaur movie, where he says, “Your scientists are too busy thinking whether they can do it rather than if they should.”

Vicki Davis: Jurassic Park.

Steven Swanson: Jurassic Park. There you go. Jurassic Park.

Vicki Davis: I love that one, too.

Steven Swanson: Yeah. And it sometimes feels like that. It's like, “Hey, we have stuff. Let's try to figure out — one, just how can we use them right now? Where are we going with this? What is the plan next?” A lot of people don't know that. And I know it's uneasy for everybody, and it's uneasy for me. And I think most of your listeners — and probably you would agree — if I could snap my fingers and just go back before AI and say there was no AI, that life was easier. It's only going to get more complex as these AI models get more powerful and sharper and more capable.

Steven Swanson: Now you just take an LLM — a large language model, that's what they're called — and you give it tools that can do stuff, and then you call them agents, and then, you know, what's next? So I guess that's the stuff where — it's uncertainty, and everybody is uncomfortable with uncertainty. So I wouldn't say I'm angry about it, but uneasy about it, because it is uncertainty. And we don't know where this is all heading. I know where it is now, but I think the thing that keeps me up at night is: where does this all go? That's what's uneasy for most people.

Vicki Davis: It is. And it's something we talk about a lot on all my shows, because I believe that nobody's smart enough to be king of the hill. We've got to make a bigger hill. And particularly, we've got to make room for classroom teacher voices. And that's what you're giving us. I think it's great to have classroom teachers develop apps, just like classroom teachers having shows, right?

Vicki Davis: So we've been talking to Steven Swanson. He's a high school engineering teacher at Whittier High School and an AP Computer Science and AP Physics teacher. And he created ClassLens. And I can't finish the show without saying — tell us what movie was filmed at Whittier High School, for our listeners, as we finish.

Steven Swanson: Yeah, so if you've got any Back to the Future fans — the high school I work at is actually the home to Hill Valley High, which was the high school in Back to the Future.

Vicki Davis: So you've got some Back to the Future going with your AI-assisted grading. So good luck, Steve, and thanks for reaching out. Thanks for coming on the show and sharing your perspective.

Steven Swanson: Yeah, and thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

Announcer: Thanks for tuning in to the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. Watch the video version of this podcast and catch my new radio and TV show, Cool Cat Teacher Talk, on YouTube and a radio or TV station near you. Join my Cool Cat Teacher Classroom Matters newsletter at coolcatteacher.com/newsletter. Leave a review if you found this helpful. See you later, educator.

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Monday, July 13, 2026

Habits of Hope to Help Educators

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Subscribe to the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast and Cool Cat Teacher Talk anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Sometimes things hit so hard it takes a moment. For Motivation Monday, today's show is about having hope. I have to admit, however, I recorded this with Dr. Julia Garcia in October, shortly after my dad died. I remember thinking, “Wow, how am I going to record this show on hope and have it be encouraging to educators when I'm crying so much and struggling?” Wow, I never could have known what would happen.

Watch on YouTube and subscribe for new episodes every week.

Key Takeaways for Teachers from Dr. Julia Garcia

  • Hope isn't a feeling — it's a practice. Julia redefines hope as something you build with habits, not something you sit and wait to feel. When your feelings aren't lining up, you can still practice your way toward hope — “you can't let the caboose drive the train.”
  • The habit of reflection: pause long enough to feel what's real. If you cope by distracting yourself — doom-scrolling, staying busy, keeping the mask on — the first move is to stop and connect with something true instead of numbing it.
  • The habit of receiving: learn to name what support looks like. Julia once asked a principal what support would feel like, and he couldn't answer. Caring people take on all the care until they're overwhelmed. Hope grows when we let others come alongside us.
  • You can't have hope without honesty. The most hopeful thing in this episode is an honest one — telling the truth about grief out loud. Your beginning date and ending date are set; the dash in between is up to you.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

About Dr. Julia Garcia

Dr. Julia Garcia about the 5 habits of hope
Dr. Julia Garcia shares about the 5 habits of hope.

Dr. Julia Garcia is a psychologist, author, and renowned speaker dedicated to empowering people through the science of mental health. For nearly two decades, she has worked with educators, students, business leaders, and individuals facing life's toughest moments—helping them break through fear, doubt, and hopelessness to build lasting habits of healing and hope. Dr. Julia weaves her real, lived experiences with behavioral science to create practical, transformative strategies for lasting change. Whether through her TEDx presentations, her interactive workshops, or her book The 5 Habits of Hope, Dr. Julia's mission remains the same: to prove that hope isn't just something you feel—it's something you practice, one habit at a time. She additionally hosts a live-audience talk-show style podcast, The Journey with Dr. J, which blends conversation and poetry.

Connect with Julia: Website | Instagram (@drjuliagarcia)

Other Shows for Teachers Who Care About the Whole Child

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If this episode encouraged you, share it with a teacher friend who needs a little hope today. And if the show has helped you, I'd be grateful if you'd leave a review wherever you're listening — it helps other educators find us.

Episode Transcript

This transcript was generated using AI and has been reviewed by humans for accuracy. Minor errors or artifacts may remain but I worked my best to find any issues with the transcript as I reviewed the show. – Vicki

Click to read the full transcript

[10 Minute Teacher Podcast intro] (00:00): This is the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast with your host, Vicki Davis.

Vicki Davis (00:05): Dr. Julia Garcia is a psychologist, author, and renowned speaker known for blending real-life experiences with the science of behavioral change. She works with audiences like schools, communities, and organizations. And she is the author of The 5 Habits of Hope and the interactive podcast The Journey with Dr. J. Thanks for coming on the show, Julia.

Dr. Julia Garcia (00:27): I'm so grateful to be here, and thank you, everyone, for listening.

Vicki Davis (00:30): In The 5 Habits of Hope, you redefine hope as something that people can practice. So how do we practice having hope?

Dr. Julia Garcia (00:38): The million-dollar question, right? I think about it like this. If I were to ask you what hope meant, and then I were to ask 100 people around you what hope meant, I bet no one's going to say the exact same thing, probably in the same way. No one's probably going to say it's a cognitive science, but we're all mostly going to think and relate to hope as a feeling. Would you agree?

Vicki Davis (00:40): Yeah. I once had a pastor who said you can't let the caboose drive the train — that feelings have to be the caboose. But ultimately it is a feeling that you have to understand: do I have it or not? And use it — read books and do things. This summer I've been studying hope, just because my dad was fighting pancreatic cancer. Okay, I know my feelings aren't lining up. So I need to figure out: how do I practice hope? Don't you think that people can learn to better have hope?

Dr. Julia Garcia (01:32): That's really why I wrote the book, because I work with educators all over the country. And I work in every kind of demographic you can imagine. And what I was experiencing and seeing and witnessing firsthand from the educators, the parents in the community, the mental health community around them, and the students were stories of hopelessness. So I'm going to actually read a couple of them, if that's okay, to paint more of a picture of why I got to this place of hope as a practice.

When I work and facilitate keynotes and things working with educators and students, I walk them through the five habits of hope in real time. It takes two minutes. And one of the prompts they're asked is to think about a time that they've struggled where they didn't open up. Because what I realized is that most people who are struggling — feeling any kind of struggle, like overwhelmed or a trauma they're experiencing — we hold it in. We have this ability as human beings to hold so many struggles at once. So in their own words — this is their handwriting, their words, and these are educators around the country:

This one's from a first-grade teacher who says, “I struggled because my best friend told me he couldn't forgive me, and I was devastated.” One's from an elementary principal: “I struggled to get out of an abusive relationship and past trauma, overwhelmed by the role in my community.” This one's from a teacher, an ELA teacher: “I struggled because I felt like an imposter. I didn't feel like I knew enough or was able to take care of what I needed to.” This is a math teacher who shares, “I struggled because I couldn't give up control and just be.” “I struggle because I try to help everyone else except myself.”

I feel like there's got to be a lot of people who can relate to that. There's so many different struggles people were saying. And then the next prompt is, can you identify a feeling you felt? And overwhelmingly, it was hopelessness. Those feelings, along with loneliness, just kept resurfacing.

Vicki Davis (03:14): Yeah. Me.

Dr. Julia Garcia (03:29): And I'm like, if we can get to a place of feeling hopeless, then we must be able to get to a place of feeling hopeful. And how can we do that? And that is really what my work in the book has been about: if we can get to hopelessness, we definitely can get to hopefulness. And that's about navigating our emotional habits and well-being.

Vicki Davis (03:48): But you know, sometimes there are really hard situations. So how do we move toward hopefulness — be full of hope instead of having none?

Dr. Julia Garcia (03:58): The first thing to do is to recognize the power of our thought patterns, right? And to know that we have the ability to reshape the neural pathways in our mind. So we get in this thought train. It's a thought pattern like, “I'm not good enough. I'm not good enough.” It's the same old story, new day, right? And it's a thought cycle. So we have to recognize: is our thought cycle harmful or helpful?

And we have to see, when it comes to our feelings and our emotions, what are we doing? Do we have a process to process them? Because I realized growing up, I did not have a process to process my feelings. So even when I started my career, I was still a mess in the background, because I wasn't dealing with my feelings, but I was showing up and putting on this mask and this facade. It came to a place where I couldn't hold all the things anymore. It came to a head.

And for me, my head came to the point where I was drinking and doing drugs and things like that after I was working with students, because I didn't have a way to process my own emotions. So I was just masking and holding, and our bodies and our minds and our spirits and our souls can only hold so much in. So how we take those first steps — it can be any of the habits, right? But it's about taking an emotional habit that's probably going to be the opposite of what you're doing. So if you don't like feelings, if you like distracting yourself from them, if you're a doom-scroller, whatever — then habit number one might be for you. It's a habit of reflection: how can I actually pause long enough to connect with something real and not distract myself from it?

I think for educators, one of the number-one habits I hear is the most useful — and it has been for me — is number four, which is the habit of receiving. And this is identifying what support would look like or feel like for me. I once asked a principal this after a full day of workshopping with his entire staff. I said, come on up here with me on stage and let us know what support would look like or feel like for you and your community. He couldn't think of anything. Can you imagine why?

Vicki Davis (05:59): Wow. Did he already have support, or did he just not want to tell anybody anything?

Dr. Julia Garcia (06:03): He didn't know how to ask for support. He was such a “I'm going to do it all, I'm going to figure it out, I'm their leader, I must figure this out” person. And they're standing there waiting and wanting to support, and he still was feeling like he had to do everything. That begins in our mind — that's our perspective. So it's these subtle perspective shifts in the culture we're creating.

And I always check in with myself, and even the students I work with, and my kids: what would it feel like or look like to feel supported right now? To feel like I'm coming alongside you in your journey and your work — instead of saying, I'm just going to take it all and solve all the problems, which a lot of caring people do. They take on all of the care, and then it becomes overwhelming. So that one's a really simple way.

Dr. Julia Garcia (06:52): You shared with us earlier about the loss of your father, and thank you for sharing that. I'm sure a lot of people listening are grieving right now, and you're still creating from that grief, and you're still doing the things you believe in. And I'm really grateful that you came today and did this with me. I would love if you can also maybe share something you're hopeful for, even in spite of this loss.

Vicki Davis (07:16): Thank you for asking that. That's so thoughtful. My dad was president of the American Soybean Association, but he was also a farmer. And so he traveled the world trying to make the world a better place for farmers. But he was also a big leader in the conservation movement, protecting wetlands. He was a big part of the 1990 Farm Bill that allows us here in the US to set aside wetlands and protect the birds and the lakes and the trees and all the things that he loved so much. And he always told me, “Vicki, if you can stay in a profession and speak for that profession, you can have a much greater impact.”

He made me promise to continue to tell the truth even when it's hard, and to continue to speak. He got to hear that the show went from five cities to 16 cities, and he was so proud. Telling the stories — I know that being vulnerable and being open about things is part of what we do. And my mom passed away in 2020 from dementia. She said, “Vicki, when you're struggling, find people to help — find things that are your talent to help people.” Now, you also have to obviously balance that — be in touch with your feelings and have your support group, and get counseling if that's needed.

I'm very hopeful, because I know that my life has purpose. I know that my students' lives have purpose, and the people I work with — and I can see such great hope and opportunity. And I try not to let the caboose drive the train, because I was so close to my dad. I was a daddy's girl. I was his oldest. But I try to take all of that relationship and who he was and become more like the good things that he was. Thanks for asking that question, because it's a hard space to be in when you're grieving so deeply. But I've always been grateful to have the kinds of parents who are worth grieving deeply. And I want to be the kind of person that's worth grieving deeply. So if you have somebody that you are grieving deeply, what a blessing it is to have that person. But one thing I know is that my parents raised me to live, not to suddenly die when they did.

Vicki Davis (09:33): You have your beginning date and your ending date, and the dash in between is up to you. And so I want to make the most of the dash, because it's over before you know it. I also have faith in the Lord, and He's taking me through a lot. There's your kind of long answer to a question. I'm really glad somebody asked me, because truthfully, Julia, I have been struggling with how do I share this with my audience. It's like you writing your poetry and sharing the way you did. That was a way you could do it. And in an interview is a way I can share.

Dr. Julia Garcia (10:04): If that was the only thing you shared on this interview, I feel like that is all it even needs to be. That was enough, because that was so real and so honest, and we can't have hope without honesty.

Vicki Davis (10:15): But the book is The 5 Habits of Hope, Dr. Julia Garcia. Thanks for coming on the show, and thanks for asking me a question for a change. It's been a long time since somebody's asked me a question.

Dr. Julia Garcia (10:26): Thank you so much.

[10 Minute Teacher Podcast outro] (10:28): Thanks for tuning in to the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. Watch the video version of this podcast and catch my new radio and TV show, Cool Cat Teacher Talk, on YouTube and a radio or TV station near you. Join my Cool Cat Teacher Classroom Matters newsletter at coolcatteacher.com/newsletter. Leave a review if you found this helpful. See you later, educator.

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Wednesday, July 1, 2026

What I Learned on Day 3 (Tuesday) at ISTE 2026 #ISTELive #notatISTE

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

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I got up early so I could get downstairs to the Greek yogurt. It's awesome. Don't judge me — a conference runs on small joys and that yogurt is one of them.

And then I saw him. A man in a shirt for a printer named Eddie. Eddie prints edible ink. I wanted to chase him down right there, but I behaved myself (I sent my son after him later in the expo hall — more on that). I did, however, text my sister about a whole new way to eat my words. You could eat your words. You could put your foot in your mouth. The possibilities are endless. Oh yes, I love it. But I digress!

Then I headed to the lazy river for a few quiet minutes — alongside my new antagonist, Napoleon the short squirrel, who is unafraid of humans. I named him. I think he likes it. He wouldn't tell me. He's too busy plotting how to take over the little island in the middle of the lazy river. He doesn't know it's actually called Elba. Probably not the best place for a Napoleon to set up camp, but I'm not going to be the one to tell him. OK. I digress yet again. This is supposed to be about ISTE, not about an ancient emperor who took over the world.

Yet, we're talking about a new trend taking over the world. AI. Is it a tyrant? Is it the greatest assistant ever invented? Does anyone even know? No. But we do know that kids are struggling to learn because this “helper” ain't helping. At least not in the form it is in now.

So I headed over to learn, to grow, and to interview some pretty remarkable people. You never know where you'll find the amazing stories. They are everywhere. Even inside the conference center after you just made the hot walk from the Hilton.

A professor from Nebraska and the power of shorts

One of those stories found me before the day even really started. I met a remarkable professor from Nebraska — Evi Wusk, EdD at Nebraska Wesleyan. Evi is using short-form video to engage her students in learning. (I always go up to people with presenter badges and ask what they're presenting about. It is like a personal interview. We got to talking and I knew right away. I'm booking her for the show.)

That's ISTE for you. The best connections are not on the schedule!

A deep dive into Renaissance Intelligence with Todd Brekhus

Then I headed to the media center for a real deep dive into Renaissance Intelligence with Todd Brekhus, Chief Product Officer at Renaissance and General Manager of Nearpod. We both got started in the 1990's helping people learn how to use the Internet. Ok, this is cool, he actually worked at MCI along with Vint Cerf. That Vint Cerf. The one who helped invent the Internet. I've always wondered, shouldn't it have been that we Cerf the Internet? OK, again, you can hear me. I digress.

Disclosure: I'm doing some work for Renaissance at ISTE this year. I've used Nearpod for years and always do my class presentations with it. I like to do formative assessment every eight minutes. That's my goal anyway.

As I'm writing this, Renaissance Intelligence has just gone live. Everything – all of their tools -are pulled into one place. It is really exciting. I had a person demo it at the booth and it is really remarkable. I do recommend if you use any of their products to take a look at the demo on their site. It also integrates all of the testing data with how teachers can assign content.

They are focusing with the AI on the teacher side first. Keep the teacher in the middle. That is great.

Brandie Wright and the keynote on curiosity

I got to sit down with Brandie Wright, who gave the ISTE main-stage keynote on curiosity. She teaches at YELLOWHAB, the tuition-free micro-school Pharrell Williams founded in Norfolk. She talked at the mainstage on Sunday. She told the story of a student who was sitting right there with his dad on the front row.

Oddly enough, I hate to admit. I wondered if the story wasn't real but was about a generic kid and AI generated. When, before the interview, I asked her, she admitted that quite a few people have been asking if the student was real.

Are you kidding? What is wrong with us? Are we so frustrated with AI that we now all think a perfectly believable teacher needs to make up a story about some generic kid to tell us? Are we that cynical? Am I that cynical?

So, I know I've “fallen for” those fake AI stories that are all over facebook. Well, I don't like it this way either. To mistake a real human for AI is so insulting to the human. (The side of AI detection nobody talks about enough, me thinks.)

Tony Frontier: stop being the AI police

And that is what Tony Frontier talked about. There are kids who never touched AI and got a false positive. Then, they started using AI so that they could see if a false positive would happen and are REWRITING their papers to make it not be flagged as AI? Do we see what we're doing??? Seriously. The games we're playing.

So I sat down for a delightful conversation Tony Frontier, PhD, author of the best selling book, AI with Intention (and the earlier Five Levers to Improve Learning). He has been running focus groups with students all over the country. He says that they're using AI for between a quarter and 40% of their school work. Most of them are receiving no guidance from adults. They're figuring it out. But they are alone.

Hear that. Alone. Like do we want that?

Tony talks about integrity, transparency, and explainability. We have to have integrity. We need to be transparent about AI use. And can we explain the learning behind anything and everything we create and share and turn in?

He says this “AI police” thing is not good. He says the arms race to detect AI cheating is one we can't win. Instead, the real question isn't did you use AI, it's does this work represent what you actually know.

I would rather have learning detectors than AI detectors any day. I've got a lot to learn from Tony — and John Hattie said his book is the best one out there on productively using AI for learning. Wow. That's some education cred right there for me. He's my next read.

The BBC Learning Hub — free and awesome

The BBC Learning Hub has a pile of free resources that are genuinely wonderful — Bluey, Walking with Dinosaurs, amazing digital field trips. So many cool things, and free for teachers. This is a fantastic free resource and their booth has been super busy. I'll be sharing more about them as well. I love their resources!

Disclosure: the BBC is one of the sponsors of my work at ISTE this year. As always, I tell you when there's a relationship — and I only point you to things I actually love.

Where I Was On Wednesday

I had two sessions today. I was going to post this Wednesday morning. It didn't happen but for posterity, here they are. I'll write more about it on my Wednesday recap.

  • 🎬 Empowering Digital Storytelling from Pitch to Publish (with AI) — 10:00–11:00 a.m., Room W206BC (also streamed). My son John is co-presenting this one with me. We'll take you from idea to finished story using AI at every step — pitch, produce, publish — plus the gear, the gadgets, and the projects I use to teach it.
  • 🧰 50+ AI/Edtech Tools and Teaching Tips to Transform Your Classroom — 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., Room W312AB. A practical rundown organized by the teaching job each tool helps you do — assessment, creativity, coding, productivity — with the pedagogy to match. This one isn't streamed, so you have to be in the room for the goodies. Resources: bit.ly/50AI-EdtechCCT.

How the day ended

It was a full day, and we ended it with sushi. Oh yes. Sushi.

My son John — aka Cameraman, aka Producer, aka the guy I send into the expo hall to track down Eddie the edible-ink printer — reports back that yes, it prints on Rice Krispies. Anything flat, apparently. Which got me wondering about Mochi. (I'd never had it before this trip. I think I'd print “yum” right on the outside.)

I'll never forget that John's whole life changed in tenth grade when a teacher assigned him to record a podcast. And that teacher's life changed too — because now he's my editor. We sure do have fun together. Wednesday he co-presented the digital storytelling session with me. He knows more about it now than I do.

I have to wonder what would have happened if John had not had a teacher willing to let him tell stories digitally. Would he be working for me now? Would I be talking about digital storytelling today?

Well, it thundered and rained like crazy as Tuesday came to a close. I figure Napoleon got to plot his takeover of Elba island in the middle of the Lazy River somewhere in his snug nest. I hope that today, as I write this on Wednesday, that I'll get to interact with this little feller one more time. If you wonder – yes, in the South we name animals all the time. Especially ones with odd little quirks. In my family, they have always been historical names. The last Napolean I knew was Napoleon Bone a Bark and his nemesis was a little puppy named Lady Astor. They didn't like each other but somehow made us laugh. Sometimes history repeats itself. I wonder if Napoleon the squirrel has secretly named me Lady Astor. I hope not. The original Lady Astor didn't seem so nice.

It has been an amazing conference. The tools are cool. The people are remarkable. And the squirrel is short.

I was about to post this post on Wednesday morning before everything began but someone came up to me. He is awesome. I am posting after I'm back in my room but I do think posting matters. Conversations matter. Thoughts matter. You matter. (Hat tip to my friend Angela.) OK, I'm not so sure about squirrels. But I digress. Time for a nap.

See you later, educator.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, and Renaissance and the BBC are among the sponsors of my ISTE coverage this year. If you buy through an affiliate link, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you — it helps support this blog. I always tell you when there's a relationship, and I only recommend what I actually use and love.

A squirrel wearing a tricorne hat peeks out from a tree hole next to a sign with an inspiring message for ISTE 2026.

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Tuesday, June 30, 2026

What I Learned on Day 2 (Monday) at ISTE 2026 #ISTELive #notatISTE

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Subscribe to the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast and Cool Cat Teacher Talk anywhere you listen to podcasts.

This morning was so sweet as I joined my friends Eric Curts, Jaime Donally, Rachelle Dené Poth, Gabriel Carrillo, and Victoria Thompson for our Edtech and AI Supershare. The crowd was awesome and had so much energy! (That was surprising for a 9 am session!) That really started the day on an up note!

In today's post I'm going to share some of the cool things I saw, the conversations in the hallway, and just some general observations about what people are talking about. I will tell you one frustration. Social media is not making it easy to connect. The algorithms they use now don't help us connect with others who are there very easily. There was a day when most educators were on Twitter, but now people are in a variety of places. It just makes it harder. One day someone will invent something, that's for sure.

First Stop: Edtech and AI SuperShare

I think we should focus on detecting learning not whether AI was used.

I wish we could focus on detecting if learning is happening rather than detecting AI. The question is does a student know and understand what they are doing. I don't care as much if they use AI to get there.

In five years, AI will be just be everywhere. It will be like asking if we use a calculator on a math problem. It is really irrelevant if we did and more relevant if we can work the problem. I hope we'll have the controls we need to focus on learning and that every tool we use will help us get there and not distract from the process.

For example, let's look at how I'm writing this post:

  1. Voice AI. Throughout this conference I'm recording my day on Plaud Note Pro. I also record my thoughts and big takeaways and what I want it to focus on pulling out from my day. I love the
  2. Compliation and Conversation. Then, I use Claude Cowork to go through the day using my voice notes as a guide. I have it interview me and give my words and thoughts on each aspect of the day.
  3. Draft. Then, I have it pull it all together along with links.
  4. Fact Check. I have Claude Cowork fact check everything. I mean everything. (See below! Sigh!)
  5. Push the Draft to Wordpress. Then, after I read over the draft and am happy with it, I have it push the draft to my blog.
  6. Rewrite. Then, I go through it and rewrite in my own words. Why? Because even with all of my writing, it still sounds like Claude. I really try to get it to sound like me but it doesn't. It puts “stakes in the ground” it em dashes where I wouldn't em dash (and I will use them and not give them up. I wrote about that recently.)
  7. Check links. OK I try to check every link. I really do. Might I miss some? Sure. But most of them, I'll have them.
  8. Add pictures. Then I figure out what pics I want and *gasp* I might even AI generate the featured image. Why? Because I want to!

So, let me ask you this — does it matter that I used AI? Is it relevant that without these tools my blog posts often die in the land of good intentions and digitally rot away to irrelevance because in the rush I can't pull them together?

I really want to help all those teachers not at iste! And some of the most important things are the CONVERSATIONS people are having and one of those conversations is about WORKFLOWS.

So, at this point, I could care less if AI touched something because *double gasp* AI touches everything these days. The qeustion I want to ask is “did this student learn.”

Portrait of an AI Graduate from ISTE, Credit ISTE.org.

ISTE's Profile of an AI-Ready Graduate

I really enjoyed ISTE's new Profile of an AI-Ready Graduate, and I'll admit it — I like the roles humans are playing in it their pavilion. Now, it took me forever to find it as it is on the bottom floor near the entrance.

The framework names six things ISTE says we should want students to become: Learner, Researcher, Synthesizer, Ideator, Connector, and Storyteller. (Here's the framework.)

But I love the booth! Educators from the STEM SIG / SIGTEL were demonstrating how they teach their students to be each of those things! It is so fun. Nothing mass-manufactered here. Lots of small groups of humans talking about what this looks like. Educators teaching educators. In small groups. Human to human talking about the tool. That is the way to go (Karim Meghji from CodeAI says it best below.)

Karim Meghji and Code AI: glass box, not black box

Speaking of Karim Meghji,, one of favorite conversations was sitting down with him! Karim is one of my interviews of the day and is president and CEO of Code AI.

Disclosure: CodeAI is one of the sponsors of my time at ISTE this year as I'm recording a few things for them. Companies like CodeAI make the work I do possible and I always disclose that. Although I've talked about this organization for years because I love what they do!

One of my favorite conversations of the day was sitting down again with president and CEO of Code AI — the nonprofit formerly known as Code.org, the people behind Hour of Code (which is what got me started in Python) and now Hour of AI.

Earlier in the day, John and I took one of their classes in their activation space. I loved the designs of the lessons.

For example, I can stand up front in class and tell my students all day that “AI is biased.” But when they work to generate foods, you can see the bias. For example, when I said to “make the meal appeal to kid” it put a smiley face of food on the baked chicken. One instructor commented that somehow AI thinks kids like to eat smiley faces! See — bias. And that is the point — we see it. We feel it. We talk about it.

CodeAI is free and has built these moments on purpose. I was even amazed as Kari says they have built some lessons where AI answers incorrectly so students learn to inspect it.

The safety controls are pretty awesome as well with multiple steps between students and the AI tool and back from the AI tool. The I highly recommend these free tools for teaching about AI even if you have other tools in place just because of the way they have set it up.

Karim also pushes past the usual “human in the loop” language. Being in the loop, he says, could mean sitting in the passenger seat. He wants the student driving. An active participant, not a passive one.

There was a line he said that I could repeat over and over.

“If you are going to start anywhere with AI education, it starts with humans teaching humans about what the machine is doing.”

Yes!

I could go on so much more even about the delightful man from Mexico, Oskar, that I sat with in the booth!

The Hallway Conversations

Oh the people are just the best:

  • I ran into Nurlan who had emailed me when I went to Edcrunch in Moscow. That was such a happy memory and a room full of educators.
  • I talked to Dyane Smokorowski — Mrs. Smoke from my Flat Classroom days and we nerded out on global collaboration for a moment. She's cooking up a very cool project but I'll let her share the story soon, I hope.
  • I ran into Eric Sheninger who hosted one of the best conferences I ever attended, Edscape. My son was a senior that year. I watched my son get his first sack in Eric's vendor room.
  • I chatted with Don Wettrick, an awesome entrepreneur who helps bring business into the classroom.
  • I saw PBL guru Suzie Boss in the hallway. What a brilliant and remarkable human being she is.
  • I saw Starr Sackstein at my hotel who may just have the busiest few days this week I've ever heard of someone doing! (It isn't mine to tell, but wow, Starr if you read this – you go, girl!)
  • I've met people who have read my blog. So many are in leadership now and said when they were a teacher getting started, I helped them get started!
  • We might come to ISTE to talk tech and curriculum but the best thing about ISTE is the people!

I'm so mad with Google search and a digital literacy lesson worth remembering.

I've learned that mistakes are best owned and then we can move on. And when we share our mistakes, someone might learn from our embarrassment. I was prepping for my interview with Karim, and I was looking for recent surveys on how many adults are leaning on Ai for decision making. I was in a rush because I couldn't find the research I had looked at just last week.

OK I'm going to show you the screen shot but DO NOT BELIEVE IT. I'm going to get to it below.

This is what came up in my search, It was even BETTER than the research I saw last week and was so very shocking.

OK so the Google summary said that 78.5% of American's used an AI tool to influence their decision making but only around 17% check the answers. I clicked on Knoxville news sentinel. I did all that I teach my students to do. I vetted sources… or so I thought.

So, after the interview, I did a fact check using my Claude Cowork skill that I programmed to be a “cranky geek curmudgeon” (I've blogged about that too.)

And then I could have just kicked the wall. The number went back to a pay-to-post survey from a marketing agency. This is not a source I'd ever hang my hat on.

Dad gum it, as we say in Camilla, Georgia. Google let me down.

Here's what happened. Google found information but it doesn't fact check sources,. It can't tell a vetted study from a press release.

It looked authoritative. It wasn't. I'm going to have to edit that stat out of the interview even though his response is pure gold. I'm not going to perpetuate the problem by sharing it!

So, I'm working to figure out how to turn off AI search on Google. Or, I'm just going to have to use Perplexity which tends to be more accurate than AI's search.

So, here's the lesson. We all need digital literacy. I got burned by an AI summary from Google. (And perhaps you could argue that my well tuned fact checking skill in Claude opened my eyes to the source and helped me fess up where I messed up so I can get better!)

Doggone it. That's another Camilla Georgia saying. But I'm not going to be gone. I'm going to open up. Below are some ways that I'm working to try to turn off Google's AI summaries. Some work now and may stop working so be aware.

Try this: digital-literacy moves we can all use against bad AI summaries

Since an AI summary is what burned me, here are the habits I'm taking back to my own searching — and teaching my students:

  • Click through before you quote. Don't cite a number an AI summary hands you until you've opened the original source and seen who actually said it.
  • Watch the URL. If it contains /press-release/ (or “PR”), it's paid placement, not reporting — and seeing it on several sites usually means one press release was syndicated, not independently confirmed.
  • Ask who ran the study. A university, Pew, or Gallup is one thing; a company with something to sell is another.
  • Bypass the AI summary. Add &udm=14 to a Google results URL (or click the “Web” tab) to get plain links with no AI overview. In Chrome, you can set google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14 as your default search so it skips the summary every time.
  • Teach the habit. Have students trace one AI “fact” back to its source. It's the fastest digital-literacy lesson there is.

The “AI dean”: helpful, as long as humans don't hand over the decision

At the AI-Ready Graduate pavilion, I heard Phyllis Shepherd of Alexandria City Public Schools talk about equity in school discipline. The numbers behind it are sobering — students with disabilities are far more likely to face long-term suspension — and she built an AI decision-support tool to make discipline more consistent and policy-aligned.

It was interesting, and I think it could be genuinely good — as long as the humans involved don't offload the decision-making to it. That's the line for me. A tool that helps a human be more consistent and fair is one thing. A tool that becomes the one deciding is another. Keep the human in the chair.

Workflow and Claude Cowork

So funny when I said “Claude Cowork” in the first session, some people cheered. The people who are fans are superfans. And we are nerding out, I've got to tell you.

I got a lot of questions about my Plaud notetaking tool and my Remarkable tablet and how my whole workflow fits together.

Lots of people are quietly changing how they work. They aren't testing new apps because they have gone underground reengineering their workflows. They are forming attachments to their AI tool of choice. They are comparing their time savers.

The conversation among many leaders is about habits. They say we're moving from the attention economy to the attachment economy. It is happening. You'll say “are there any Gemini users in the house” and they'll cheer. Claude Cowork and more cheers. Not as many for ChatGPT — not sure why. Interesting. I still use it but for certain things.

Oh, and vibe coding. We're all showing each other the apps we've built. Again, not as much about the apps on the floor because we're all building them. English teachers. Non geeks. People with ideas. People who understand workflows. Making apps. This is great!

Walking the exhibit hall – my observations

The floor was its own education. A few things stood out:

  • Adobe Premiere on the iPhone with Firefly generation built right in — that one's awesome, and it changes what's possible for quick video.
  • A genuinely good, extended demo of Renaissance Intelligence — there's a lot there worth a longer write-up. (Disclosure: I'm doing work for them too and I adore Nearpod which is central to what is happening with this cool tool. More on them later.)
  • Canva is still a huge hit; their booth was packed the whole time.
  • The curated vendor tracks — booths grouped by the job you're trying to do — were really popular, and honestly that's a smart way to walk a hall this size. Curating by the educator's actual job description is a hit.
  • The BBC's free learning resources were awesome — a lot there for teachers at no cost. (Another sponsor of my work at ISTE)
  • And there was a child-sized walking robot. Robots and drones still pull a crowd — people find them genuinely interesting — though I'll admit I looked at the walking one and thought, I'm not sure why you'd put this in a school. The interest is real; the classroom use case isn't always.
@coolcatteacher I am just not sure how a humanoid robot could be used in the classroom. It will take convincing. I could see all kinds of mischief with this little feller. #istelive #robot ♬ original sound – therealnevv

Where to find me Wednesday

If you're at ISTE, I've got two more sessions on Wednesday, July 1, and I'd love to see you there:

  • 🎬 Empowering Digital Storytelling from Pitch to Publish (with AI) — 10:00–11:00 a.m., Room W206BC (also streamed). I'll take you through helping students go from idea to finished story using AI at every step — pitch, produce, publish — and share my gear, my gadgets, the projects I use to teach storytelling, and the websites that make it easy.
  • 🧰 50+ AI/Edtech Tools and Teaching Tips to Transform Your Classroom — 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., Room W312AB. A practical rundown of 50+ classroom-tested tools organized by the teaching job they help you do — assessment, creativity, coding, and productivity — plus the pedagogy that goes with each. This one isn't streamed, so you have to be in the room for the goodies. Resources: bit.ly/50AI-EdtechCCT.

Where Day 2 left me

The day opened with five friends and an energetic room having fun teaching together, and the best line I heard all day was Karim's: it starts with humans teaching humans. Meanwhile, under all the booths and demos, people are forming real attachments to their tools — the attachment economy isn't coming, it's here.

So, here's where I finish out Day two. Let the attachments be to the humans and then use the tools to help improve how we humans live. Don't be lonely, live life and get out there. Don't watch on a screen (if you can help it – when I broke my foot, I had to). Get out there if you can and see the people. The tools are cool but the people are remarkble.

Let's be human beings not human doings. Let's work on help kids and loving them well. Let's have the conversations that matter.

That's Day 2. I gotta run. Lots of people to see. And there's this vendor who has edible ink. Talk about eating your words! (ha ha) Oh and there's a squirrel at the Hilton who isn't afraid of humans. I don't like him. I've named him Napolean. He's a little aggressive. And short.

OK enough with the stuff. See you later, educator.

The post What I Learned on Day 2 (Monday) at ISTE 2026 #ISTELive #notatISTE appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

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Monday, June 29, 2026

What I Learned on Day 1 at #istelive #notatiste

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

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I started the morning in the lazy river with for some quiet time with my Bible, Journal, and a moment. The water was moving slowly, the conference hadn't started the intensity yet, and then my friend Angela Maiers — founder of the You Matter movement — came over and brought me breakfast.

We floated and we talked. And what we talked about was kids: how we help them build social skills, how we help them know they matter, how we teach them to relate to other people, get along, and get out of the house. I didn't know yet that the last thing I'd hear at the end of the day — a keynote built on neuroscience — would say the same thing right back to me. More on that at the end.

Smart glasses, with Jaime Donally and Hall Davidson

My second stop was a conversation I'd been looking forward to: Jaime Donally and Hall Davidson showing me their Meta display glasses — the ones with Meta AI built in. I recorded a hilarious video below for those of you not here so you can feel like you're here!

The post What I Learned on Day 1 at #istelive #notatiste appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

If you're seeing this on another site, they are "scraping" my feed and taking my content to present it to you so be aware of this.


from Cool Cat Teacher Blog
https://www.coolcatteacher.com/iste-2026-day-1-roundup/
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Saturday, June 27, 2026

My ISTE 2026 Sessions #ISTELive #ASCDAnnual

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Subscribe to the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast and Cool Cat Teacher Talk anywhere you listen to podcasts.

ISTE 2026 is really a joy for me. It is 19 years since my first ISTE, and this year they named me a “Featured Voice.” That just thrills me so much! I do hope to be helpful. In this post, I'll share the sessions I've got going on, and I'll add links to the resources as well, so you can bookmark it!

I will be sharing videos and thoughts just about everywhere I share: X • LinkedIn • Facebook • Instagram • Pinterest • YouTube • Bluesky • Threads • TikTok

My Sessions — short version

  • Mon Jun 29 · 9:00a · W311CD (also streamed) — ⚡ AI & Edtech Power Hour (panel)
  • Wed Jul 1 · 10:00a · W206BC (also streamed) — 🎬 Digital Storytelling: Pitch → Publish (with AI)
  • Wed Jul 1 · 11:30a · W312AB — 🧰 50+ AI/Edtech Tools & Teaching Tips

I will also be recording and sharing interviews with remarkable educators, thought leaders, and more. The schedule is so full, but it always has room to learn, and it is so exciting! Stay tuned to my social media for clips, thoughts for you, and info on what people are talking about at ISTE.

Spy the AI Game
Oh yes, I've been vibe coding to prepare for this year's ISTE. Of course, I had a friend tell me if I know how to code (which I do), it isn't really vibe coding because I can read it all and am just coding with tools. That said, it is really incredible to be able to crank out these useful, simple html resources to teach. I've been doing it all year long in class and have taught my students to do it as well. It is so exciting to share this at ISTE! I've got links below to play them.

Details for each Session

Note: I have a few tools I'm adding to these, so come back and reload them on the day of the presentations. I'll also come back here and add links.

All my ISTE session info will be right here: www.coolcatteacher.com/iste2026

⚡ AI & Edtech Power Hour: Turbocharged Tools for Every Subject and Grade (panel)

Mon June 29 · 9:00–10:00a · Room W311CD · Also streamed for virtual attendees
A fast-paced, interactive panel spotlighting practical AI and Edtech tools and pedagogies across subjects and grade levels. This year, the panelists are Dr. Rachelle Dene Poth, Eric Curts, Gabriel Carrillo, Jaime Donally, and Victoria Thompson. It is always high energy and so much fun, and I always have some surprise intros that I write for each of them. The room has always filled early and been closed, so this is one of those that is a fun three-pete (this is the third time we've done this one at ISTE!)

🔗 SuperShare resources · ISTE session page · Add to Google Calendar

🎬 Empowering Digital Storytelling from Pitch to Publish (with AI)

Wed July 1 · 10:00–11:00a · Room W206BC · Also streamed for virtual attendees
Take students from idea to finished story using AI at every step — pitch, produce, publish. I'll share my gear, my gadgets, my projects for teaching storytelling, and some cool websites that make it so easy.

🔗 Digital Storytelling resources (link to be added) · ISTE session page · Add to Google Calendar

🧰 50+ AI/Edtech Tools and Teaching Tips to Transform Your Classroom

Wed July 1 · 11:30a–12:30p · Room W312AB
Cut through the AI noise with 50+ classroom-tested tools organized by teaching need — assessment, creativity, coding, and productivity. In this session, I'm sharing my current thinking on AI. How I teach about it. I have some tools to test your knowledge on AI terminology, and a model of innovation that really works. I've updated my recommendations on lots of tools and also share the pedagogical best practices that goes with the recommendations I'm sharing! This won't be streamed so the only way to get the goodies is to be in this one.

🔗 Resources & slides · ISTE session page · Add to Google Calendar

🎮 Play the games: Spy the AI (vocabulary) · Turtle Tracker – I have vibe coded these and also share how I made them and the tips and tricks to teach your students vibe coding too!

I hope to connect with some of you at ISTE 2026. I hope you are having a great June! I'm about to get in the car and head out! (I live close enough in Georgia to Orlando to drive so it is time to hit the road!)

The post My ISTE 2026 Sessions #ISTELive #ASCDAnnual appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

If you're seeing this on another site, they are "scraping" my feed and taking my content to present it to you so be aware of this.


from Cool Cat Teacher Blog
https://www.coolcatteacher.com/iste2026/
Posted by at No comments:
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