Top 5 Things You Should NOT Assume 

Your Students Can Do 

*image created with help from Gemini

"These kids are digital natives." 

"They grew up using technology."

" They know so much more than we do."

"Need help with technology? Ask a kid.:

" They definitely know more about technology than I do. "

These are statements that I hear people utter all the time and those around them just nod as if this is the most well-known fact in the universe. I'm here to tell you it's not true. 

Many kids are comfortable clicking and pressing buttons without fear of breaking the device.They definitely know lots of tricks when it comes to snapchat or tiktok. Ask a group of students to utilize a technology tool for learning and you will most likely be surprised at how little they know and also how unwilling they are to figure it out on their own. I have been compiling a list since the start of the school year of things we should not assume students know how to do.

1. Create And Set Up A Google Form

You will most likely find some students who can get as far as creating one. Most do not understand how to set the response settings, that they need to publish their form, or how to access the spreadsheet with their data. Nor do they understand the various question types and what sort of data will be gleaned from those questions. Likert scale anyone?

2. Create A QR Code

Ok. It's 2026. You do NOT need a QR Code Generator! While you are on the site you want the code to go to, click the three vertical dots in the upper right corner. Click "save, cast, and share" and then choose "create qr code".

3. Move A File From Their Phone To Their Chromebook

This often happens when students are taking photos or getting video footage. They then get frustrated because sharing large files takes a long time and email will time out. Here's how they should do it.

Put the Google drive app on their phone and sign in with their school account. 

Upload from their phone to their school Google drive.

Access Google drive from their chromebooks.

4. How To Search Using Keywords

When you use a search engine, like Google, you will get the best results if you skip the filler words like "the", "to", or "how" and focus on the core nouns and verbs. If you need to find an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the words. If you want to exclude words, put a minus sign directly before a word you want to leave out. (ex. jaguar-car)

5. How To Appropriately Prompt An AI Generative Tool

Want kids to stop copying and pasting your assignment directions into ChatGPT? Let's teach them how to use AI properly. I like the PARTS framework. Persona- define the AI's role, Action-clearly state the task, objective, and action you want the AI to perform. Rules-set boundaries, constraints, negative instructions, or compliance requirements. 

Tools- specify what external sources, data sets, calculators, or other utilities the AI should use. Structure-name the format you want. 

What did I miss? Are there other technology related skills that you have been surprised to learn your students are not able to do? Want some help figuring out how to teach them? Let me know. I'm here to help!

 

Let's Keep The Humans In The Loop 

*image created with help from Gemini

@LisaBerghoff

We are highly educated adults. We have advanced college degrees and years of experience educating teenagers. We are often tasked with helping our students wade through information to determine what is true, correct, best, real, helpful, or factual. And yet, when we hear quick soundbites or read headlines ourselves about technology and specifically AI, we automatically believe it to be true and announce that we will not use it. In fact, we cast judgement on others who choose to incorporate and promote technology use in their classes. How would we teach our students to approach this information? We would instruct them to go beyond the soundbites and the headlines. We would tell them that they need to do research and find reputable sources. We would encourage them to understand multiple perspectives before taking a stance. 

In June of 2025, MIT published a study called Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task. In this four month long study, researchers took adult learners and put them into three groups. One group was the "brain only" group. The second was the "search engine" group, they had access to things like Google search. The third group was the "LLM Condition" group. They had access to generative AI tools. They used EEG to assess cognitive load during essay writing and they found that they brain only group showed the strongest brain networks and the AI groups had the worst results. In fact, they could not recall quotes from their own papers. The researchers called this "cognitive debt". 

BUT THAT'S NOT THE WHOLE STORY!

Next, researchers switched the groups. The brain only group now had AI access and the AI group was now told to just use their brains. It turns out that the group that started on their own and then had AI access did the best. They had the strongest recall and their essays were by far the best.

Image credit to Eric Curts

What's The Takeaway?

Ok. Based on this very compelling research, as well as what other researchers have found, we need to be intentional and purposeful about how we use AI, or any technology.

My friend and colleague in the edtech world, Eric Curts, has spoken about the Wrestle, Rap, Reflect model. Here's how it works.

Wrestle: Students begin by using only their brains to wrestle with information. Maybe they are reading and comprehending some text, perhaps they are brainstorming ideas for a project, or they could be analyzing a case study. Whatever it is, they are working using their brain power individually or in groups. 

Rap: This is where the AI tool comes into play. This can be done using a MagicSchool room that the teacher has set up, a SchoolAI space also created by the teacher, or Gemini. Students use AI with purpose here. They could be looking for feedback, or to role play, or they can ask it to challenge their thinking, respond from another perspective, poke holes in their theories, or quiz them to see what they have learned. 

Reflect: This is the part that gets overlooked the most. Once students have used AI, they are not done. Students now need to thoughtfully evaluate what the AI outputs are and make decisions. Do they agree? Did they get feedback that is helpful or not? What do they think about the results that they got? This evaluation is imperative. How can they now improve their work based on the AI conversation? 

Keeping humans in the loop is so important but it's also important to acknowledge that unless it is structured for us, students probably won't do this well on their own. I would also add that documenting this process is so important to make this system work well. 

How Do I Make This Work For My Content? 

Good news! With Eric's help, I have a Gemini Gem that is designed to help you figure out how to make this work for any subject area. Let's model the behavior we want to see.

1. Wrestle: Think about your content and the learning goals you have established.

2. Rap: Interact with this Gemini Gem to hone your ideas.

3. Reflect: Take a look at the outputs and make decisions that will work for you and your students. 

Would you like some help thinking this through? Want to learn more about the study? Want to be curious and fearless about AI use in your classroom? 

Let me know. I'm here to help!

 School AI Chrome Extension

Next Level AI Support 

When And Where You Want It

There are so many AI tools out there and they are shouting at us. Can you hear them? They are trying to convince us that they are new, different, the answer to all of our problems, time-saving, life-changing, etc. Part of my job is to help cut through the noise and give you the actual information so you can make an informed decision. One thing that makes SchoolAI stand out is their chrome extension. It's one of our approved AI tools and this is information worth knowing.

What Is SchoolAI?

SchoolAI is an artificial intelligence platform designed specifically for k-12 schools, teachers, and students. It's core features are 

• Spaces: which are teacher-designed interactive AI learning environments, like a custom ai tutor.
• Mission Control: which is a real-time dashboard that lets teachers monitor student engagement, see who needs help, and track learning progress.
• PowerUps: These are focused AI applications that help teachers with routine tasks like creating rubrics, and also mini-apps that can be embedded into student spaces.

What Is The SchoolAI Browser Extension?

The extension for chrome allows you to turn any online resources into a personalized learning experience for students without leaving the page. Create resources, give feedback, and launch student spaces from any website. Here are some of the highlights.

• Revision history viewer on Google docs shows a student's full writing journey. This allows you to start a conversation with understanding, not suspicion. 
• Generate personalized feedback and comments right inside Google docs that you can approve and send.
• Create an interactive space from any webpage. They will work with their own "AI Sidekick" and you can see their thinking in real time.
• Generate materials from any online resource without leaving the webpage.

How Do I Get Started?

1. Log into your SchoolAI account at schoolai.com
2. Add the Chrome extension and click to allow permissions
3. Explore by clicking on the SchoolAI extension from various webpages and see the possibilities.

Want some help getting started? Don't be shy. I'm happy to help!

Let's Make It About Students, 

And Learning

MagicSchool And MagicStudent

@LisaBerghoff 

Everyone agrees that students need to know about AI. What they need to know, how much they need to know, and what types of experiences should they have are all questions that are worth exploring. One thing we can all agree on is that AI is not the future, it's the present. We can teach our students in a safe, secure way, or we can ignore the water we're swimming in and hope for the best for our students. 

The good news is that we have incredible tools that allow us to give our students practice with AI while giving the educators control.

What Is MagicStudent? 

MagicSchool for Students (MagicStudent) is a set of over 50 easy to use, AI-powered tools  that help students study for tests, develop research ideas, debate historical figures, and more. It allows educators to open a "room" and grant access to specific AI tools. The teacher gives the parameters and also has access to the students' interactions.

MagicSchool has set up a student room specifically for teachers to get the student experience. If you want to try it, go to: student.magicschool.ai/s/join and enter the code GmRTbg. The room has several tools added to it and you can test them out.

Why Would I Use MagicStudent? 

Remember, every tool that we use, digital or not, should have a specific purpose towards learning. There are many reasons why you would want to use MagicStudent. Here are a few suggestions.

• A study/review partner for an upcoming assessment
• An AI tutor that knows your curriculum and will ask the students questions but not give them the answers
• Interact with a historical figure, or a character from a book
• Choose your own adventure games for review of content and decision making
• Career exploration and interview practice
• Specific writing feedback
• Interactive escape rooms, answer questions to unlock the door

How Do I Get Started With MagicStudent?

Log into MagicSchool and click MagicStudent on the left navigation bar.

Go to Rooms and click to open a room. Here, you can choose the tools and set the instructions. 

There are also room templates that are already created for you. When I created mine, I asked Raina how to set it up and then I copied/pasted the instructions.

You can preview and test the tool before your students use it.

Once your room is set up, share it with your students by clicking on "invite students" and adding the join link in Schoology.

What Can I See When My Students Are In The Room?

On the teacher dashboard you can see the list of students. Yes, you can remove a student from a room. You will also see any messages that are flagged as inappropriate or concerning. It's very sensitive and so you may have many flags that are actually nothing but I like that it errs on the side of caution. If you click on a student's name you will see their interactions and a whole lot more.

You can use the AI to generate a summary for you. You also have access to whole class insights.

What Gets Flagged?

It will flag content for you to monitor such as any mention of self-harm or violence. It will also flag any attempts at academic dishonesty. Here are some that were flagged from my class.

Here's how it responded:

What If I Don't Want My Students On Screens For So Long?

Same! We know that not all screen time is created equal. That's why we can set up activities that allow for purposeful technology use. I love this example from MagicSchool. In this AI tutor activity students start by writing on paper, then they use the AI tutor together as a class, finally, they are given an opportunity to practice independently.

Want to learn more or talk about how MagicStudent might work for your classes? Let me know. I'm happy to help!

What Can You Do With MagicSchool?

@LisaBerghoff

There is so much buzz in the air around AI. 

Is it brilliant? 

Is it scary? 

Is it making us dumb? 

Is it helping us learn? 

Is it making us lazy?

Is it saving us time?

Is it killing the environment?

Is it helping us solve problems?

Is it creating problems?

That's just the beginning! The more life experience I have, the more I know that I don't have answers and I have to be ok with that. I also know that ignoring what I dislike or fear is a sure- fire way to make sure that I am going to be woefully behind. I have also learned that when it comes to changes in education, my feelings are irrelevant. How I feel about a new initiative or system has no bearing on how it will impact the education system.

My word for this school year is CURIOSITY. I am choosing to stay curious, ask questions, learn, and make the best decisions I can with the information I have. 

All that to say, let's model being lifelong learners.

Last year we ran an 18 month pilot of AI tools and one of the tools that we chose to keep for this year is MagicSchool. I am here to help you learn about MagicSchool and to encourage you to explore and be curious about it. What happens after that is up to you.

What Is MagicSchool?

MagicSchool is a suite of over 80 customizable AI tools created specifically for educators. It is designed to support high-impact instruction. It also has over 50 customizable AI tools for students. It involves responsible, guided AI integration and it follows our student privacy laws and policies. 

How Do I Get Started With MagicSchool?

1. Go to app.magicschool.ai

2. Identify yourself as an educator

2. Use your district Google credentials to log in

This Looks Like A Lot. How Should I Get Started?

Here's the thing about ANY educational tool (including analog tools like notebooks and sticky notes), you have to have a specific need. What's the problem you are trying to solve?

Here are some examples:

• Are you looking for supplemental materials?
• Do you need a fresh new lesson plan?
• Will you need a differentiated way to capture what students know?
• Are you spending your entire weekend grading and giving feedback to students who may or may not look at it and use it? 

The first step is to identify a need and then you can find a tool that supports that need. 

I'm Ready! How Do I Navigate MagicSchool?

This is super simple! There is a navigation bar on the left. This is where you can find tools, your chat history, your resources that you have created, adjust your settings, and access additional support. 

The MagicSchool chatbot is called Raina. This is an ideal place to start. You can type a prompt, including the need you have identified, and Raina can help you pinpoint what tool to use. You can also browse the tools but when I do that I typically lose sight of the need that I initially identified. 

How Does This Connect To My Course Team/ PLC, Or Across The Highway Work? 

Since we have a district enterprise account, you can share your outputs with anyone in the district. There is no need to keep recreating. Let's work together to generate the materials we want and then share with one another. Outputs can be in Google doc form, exported to print, or shared within the MagicSchool platform. You can also create collections of tools. If you customize a tool and get it just the way you want it, add it to a collection that can easily be shared with colleagues. 

What If I Want My Students To Use MagicSchool?

Stay tuned! Next week's post will be all about how to open "rooms" for students so they can use AI with the guardrails you set up.

Want a thought partner around AI use and MagicSchool?

Give me a call. I'm happy to help. 

 Knowledge Is Power!

Google AI Educator Series

@LisaBerghoff

AI is not our future. It's our present. Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, we are all using AI in some form. Every time you use a navigation app, do a Google search, or use predictive texting on your phone you are using AI. As educators, we are constantly needing to adapt. Technology shifts, our students' diverse needs change, curriculum maps fluctuate. Facing a tool as transformative as AI can feel overwhelming.

However, as I was telling my students last week, knowledge is power. Being educated about AI ourselves is not about becoming tech gurus or software engineers. You don't have to be an expert. We absolutely should be claiming a seat at the table to we can effectively guide, prepare, and protect our students. When we lack a sense of familiarity with AI, we end up teaching defensively. We focus on catching students using it inappropriately and look for bans and policy enforcement. When we have an understanding of how generative AI models like Gemini work, we can shift our focus to what we really want to be doing, guiding student growth. 

The good news is the getting up to speed does not require hours away from the classroom or weekend workshops or graduate programs. the Gemini For Education Google AI Educator Series was designed specifically for our busy lives. 

What is the Google AI Educator Series?

Google refers to this series as "snackable, stackable professional development", and I think this model can be a game changer in terms of how we think about our own learning. The series was created in partnership with ISTE/ASCD and so it uses sound androgogy. Here's what you need to know:

• The modules are 10-15 minutes in length and focus on single use-cases.
• They are non-sequential. Do the ones you feel you need today.
• You can earn micro-badges that are aligned to ISTE standards.
• There are new modules released each month.

You can browse them all or filter by type. 

Also, coming soon you will be able to earn ISBE credits for completing!

How Do I Get Started?

Just click this link.  Sign yourself in, and start exploring!

Want a thought partner? Reach out. I'm happy to help!

Create Incredible Interactive 

Activities With Canva. 

No Experience Required! 

@Lisa Berghoff

Canva continues to reinvent itself.  It does this to stay relevant and also to help solve problems and be helpful to classroom teachers. Now, when you log into Canva, you will see a new button that says "education". As you already know, we have a district education license for Canva and that gives us access to every possible bell and whistle that Canva has. This is wonderful but can also be a problem. It's easy to get overwhelmed and lost in what Canva can do. I find it helpful to think of a problem I would like to tackle and then see how the tools match up. For example, I want my students to be interacting with each other more. I don't need to be the center of attention in the classroom and in fact I would prefer it if the students did more of the heavy lifting. As a solution, I am thinking interactive whiteboards could be the perfect solution for small group work and student interaction.

Take a look at this quick and simple way Canva, with the help of AI,  can create interactive whiteboards for you and your students. 

How To Create Interactive Whiteboards (and more) in Canva:

1. Go to Canva and log in using your school account.

2. On the home page click where it says "education"

3. Either browse by subject or look at the section that says "create with ai" and choose one of the options.

4. Type in your subject, grade level, topic or standard and click "create activity with ai"

5. Take a look at the materials that were created and adjust to meet the needs of your class.

6. When ready, click "assign" and choose "assign via link". You can decide if a code is needed or not. Type in the instructions to students and click continue.

7. Add the link to the assignment in Schoology

Here is the whiteboard it created for me:

And here is how you get the link to share in Schoology:

I would use this with groups in my class so that one device is open for 3 students. They would need to discuss and work together to complete. Then, we can open it up for a larger class conversation. Using a tool like a Canva digital whiteboard gives more of the cognitive load to the students and transfers the thinking over to them.

Want some help?

Let me know!