It’s been a week. And this comment is still in my brain.

At the end of every PD session I run, I share my own feedback form. It’s for me, about my teaching, and a chance to tell me anything. It’s anonymous and unrelated to the organization I’m presenting for. Usually it’s in addition to their formal feedback.

I ask for anything rattling around in their expert teacher heads.

My most recent session was on “Technology Use Guidelines.” It’s a dry topic, and I didn’t want to be the only one talking. So teachers got up and moved. In small groups, they brainstormed on chart paper around the room. Then we did a gallery walk of the proposed guidelines. Then we sat down and had a discussion that went deeper than anything on the walls. The discussion ranged from a lack of time to a lack of scope and sequence to just being thankful that someone was listening.

Later that day, I read through the feedback. Great reflections. Real insights I’ll use.

Then I got to this one:

It’s just something that’s done in PD.

I mean, yes. It was PD. But I’m also a classroom teacher. Still am.

And to be fair, I’ve sat through my share of bad post-it sessions. The ones where everyone shuffles around the room, sticks a few thoughts on chart paper, and the posters go straight into the recycling bin. Nobody reads them. Nothing comes of them. If that’s what this person has experienced, I get the eye roll.

That’s not how this session went. Those posters didn’t hit the recycling bin. I collected every one, Post-its included, and shared them with leadership.

Here’s the thing. Gallery walks and chart paper are things we do in PD. They’re done in PD because they’re done in good classrooms. Students need to get up, look at each other’s thinking, and discuss…argue about it. They need to talk about the content, not just absorb it. So do adults.

The strategy isn’t the problem. What happens next is. If the posters go up and the session moves on, that’s a ritual. If the walls are where the conversation starts, that’s teaching.

I hope brainstorming, gallery walks, and real discussion are part of every classroom. Without them, we’re missing what makes learning meaningful.

I’ve been wanting this. And waiting for this for a while. I don’t even know when it was launched because I had low-key given up.

This nugget of learning was a side conversation in a conference I attended. I should have gotten the name of the guy I learned this from but I was too excited.

Google Sites has a “Full Page Embed” option now!

I struggled because Sites always had a theme as a basis. This limited you to using an HTML block on a page. You could never make the whole page an HTML embed.

Then you had to play with the width and height attributes to make it fit where you wanted it. That rarely worked out for me. It usually ended up distorted and funky.

But now! Now I can create a Site that has all my vibe-coded projects and I can link to each one individually. I’ve already seen a friend who made a small banner navigation at the top with several projects below.

This is a game changer! Now, if Google would bring back domain registration.

It's What You Do When You're Teaching:  A Year-Long Journey of Interviewing.

Over the past year, I've applied for 9 positions. All of them were teacher roles focused on Technology Integration and Digital Learning. All of them supported teachers and were not direct classroom teaching; more professional development, coaching, modeling, and training.

Here's the breakdown of results:
• No Interview = 1
• Interviewed, not offered = 5
• Second interview, not offered = 1
• Position Offered = 2

I know full well that there are thousands of reasons that someone is not offered a position after an interview. Did I internalize this anyway? Absolutely. It was crushing.

I do need to acknowledge that some people are just innately awesome at interviews, selling themselves well simply by answering questions. 

That's not me; I'm good but not great. 

But that's not what this year-long journey actually taught me. This process reaffirmed what I believe 100% about teaching and learning.

What matters most is what you do when you are teaching. It's the planning, creating, relationships, and presenting. 

Both positions that I was offered required a 5-10 minute presentation. These interviews had a built-in 'can you teach' aspect that was missing from all the other ones.

Did I put a ton of effort into topic selection, planning, creating, and presenting? Absolutely! Do I believe that the presentation helped win the position offer? 100% 

Great teaching shines when things are actually presented and taught. I know this in my heart and see it play out in the classrooms of veteran teachers and brand-new teachers. I see it in graduate students when they share creations in class. I see it in 2nd semester teacher candidates when they teach in front of a group for the first time.

If I'm ever responsible for interviewing and hiring, I want to see the candidate present to the hiring committee. It's not about interview fluency. It's about teaching and telling a story that can't be told by answering questions only.

#K12 #Teaching #JobInterview #EdTe

Image: Google Gemini

The largest school districts in the country are banning student-facing AI tools. There's a divide among teachers about whether students should use AI, what for, and at what grade levels and content areas. Some districts are ambivalent and waiting. Some are actively embracing it. Some are using AI for everything.

Pipestone just posted the first school-based position I've seen built specifically around this: an AI Instructional Coach. Two days a week, coaching teachers on integrating a district-selected AI tool into instruction. It's not just here's a cool tool. It's about bias, accuracy, and all the other stuff we know we need to talk about with AI.

I've led AI training for teachers at the district and school level. I've taught AI at the undergrad and graduate levels. I've heard every argument for and against. I use AI constantly. Claude, Gemini, and Copilot are great thought partners for my introverted self.

I have so many questions about the model behind this role:

• Which tool did they land on, and did teachers have a say?
• What drove the decision to create a dedicated AI coach?
• Is there already widespread rogue AI use?
• What access do students have?
• Does this stay a part-time role, or does it grow?

I'm genuinely curious to learn how they got here. And I wonder if other districts are going to follow suit?

Pipestone is a bit far from my home base, but if anyone in my network is closer and this sounds like you, take a look.

Job Posting: https://lnkd.in/gwqRySg9

*Post edited with Claude.

#AIinEducation #EdTech #K12Education #InstructionalCoaching #TeachersOfLinkedIn

A principal stopped me in the hallway.

She didn't know who I was. I was new to the building and she needed to know who was walking her halls.

Fair.

That 5-minute conversation led to two meetings with her leadership team, three hours of all-staff professional development, and co-teaching, modeling, and coaching with several of her teachers.

One of those teachers didn't want to be there.

She sat in the back during PD. I couldn’t see her screen but I'm guessing it was grading. Or any of the hundred other things teachers have to do after school.

Lots of questions, though.

By the end of the session, she was recording herself. Over the next 3 weeks of coaching, her students were making bilingual books in Book Creator. Another class used Vocaroo to record family histories in English and their home language, then generated QR codes so anyone walking down the hallway could stop and listen.

A hallway. There we are back in the hallway.

I was recently asked to give a 5-minute presentation about successfully connecting with a reluctant teacher. I used this story. Somewhere around minute 10 (12?), I realized I wasn't just telling a story about one teacher. I was describing my entire philosophy for technology integration.

It starts with a person. Not a platform.

I've had an AI tab open in my browser for almost the entire year.

Sometimes it's on my school laptop. Sometimes my Chromebook. Often it's an app on my phone. Honestly, it's become as normal as opening a new tab to Google something, except the results are more helpful.

Here's the thing you should know about me: I'm an introvert.

I know. Strange for a teacher. But after a full day of middle schoolers (the energy, the noise, the constant needs), I don’t want to talk to anyone for a while. Sometimes that looks like sitting in the backyard with a book. Sometimes it's a long walk with a podcast. Sometimes it's just sitting in my car, breathing.

So when it's time to get work done or learn something new, AI is my go-to. Usually Claude or Gemini.

And here's why that matters for an introvert:

I have a subject matter expert for any subject available whenever I want one, and it never requires me to talk to a single human being.

That's not a small thing. That's a bit of a miracle.

Just since school let out, AI has helped me with more than I can put into a blog post. But here are the highlights:

Building my personal portfolio site (benknaus.com)

I wanted a site. I had no real plan, just an old site I hadn't touched in years. AI helped me figure out where to host it, what to include, what to cut, and when I had specific ideas about how things should look, it wrote HTML tailored exactly to my vision and matched my existing styles and tone.

Could I have figured out the code eventually? Probably. But "eventually" means hours or days, and AI got me there in seconds and minutes. And the introvert in me didn't have to talk to anyone.

Building this blog

You're reading it. AI helped me decide where to host it, which templates actually made sense for what I wanted, and how to move 337 posts out of Blogger without losing my mind. When I got stuck (more often than I'd like to admit), I'd take a screenshot, add a quick explanation, and get back step-by-step directions that were almost always exactly right. Hours saved. And not a single customer service chat.

These are just the big things. There have also been smaller moments: brainstorming summer learning ideas, planning some summer training, thinking through how to improve my teaching this coming school year.

AI is quietly becoming my first resource for just about everything.

I'm a teacher who loves learning. I'm also someone who needs quiet to do it. It turns out those two things are a perfect match for this particular moment in technology.

For this introvert, AI is my partner.

Image: Canva AI

It was a penalty shot coming from the best team in the Minneapolis city conference. I was on the line, studying the shooter, his plant foot, hips, eyes. Something told me the ball was coming low right. The whistle blew, the ball took off, and I dove right. I got my fingers on it and pushed it wide and out of bounds. Great save, if I do say so myself.

I've been making reads like that every day for the last 24 years. The soccer pitch turned into a classroom. Instead of opponents, it's students.

Studying students happens all the time. Standing on the goal has turned into standing at the door as they enter the classroom, reading their faces. It's sitting with them as they struggle over a new word and understanding the confusion. It's reading their writing and offering glows and grows in the most constructive way to build them up. It's helping them navigate being a young person and guiding them towards the right decisions.

How do you get to that point? Preparation, relationships, and routines. Setting the physical room up for success: layout, flow, seating, lighting, and so much more. Getting to know your students, where they're coming from, and what makes them tick. Making sure they know what to expect when they walk through the door, and that it's consistent every single day. That's how you make the diving save, not for yourself, but for them.

But being a keeper can be lonely. Back there all by yourself. Sure. But a keeper trying to do it alone isn't successful. Thankfully, schools are full of teammates. Maybe it's a grade level team, a content area team, a resource team, or maybe it's all of them. The goal is the same: making learning magical.

Teachers make saves every day. Multiple times a day. You can't be content with one save, even if it is pushing a penalty shot wide. You get up, pump your fist, look around, and get ready for the next shot.

Now, you might say, "Aren't keepers a little goofy?" Yep, the best keepers and teachers definitely are.

Image: Google Gemini

I’ve decided it’s time to really dig back into writing. I’ve missed it. Actually, I’ve got plenty of half-started thoughts, notes, poems, ideas and whatnot saved in Google Keep. This summer, I’m going to focus on publishing some things and moving things from my private Keep notes to a public space. For better or worse.

This summer is also going to be different for me. For the past 21 summers, I’ve been a stay-at-home dad with my kids. The whole summer was science museums, parks, pools, movies, playgrounds, and anything else kid-focused. This summer, Kid #1 is staying at college and working. Kid #2 is home but has a job that will keep her busy.

So, what’s a dad to do?

Writing? Hobbies? Sleeping in? Ha, I wish. Long walks? Reading books in the tree swing in the backyard with a mocktail in the sun. Hmm…that is oddly specific.

I hope you’ll join me for the ride…sorry…the motorcycle was many summers ago. It’s a metaphorical “ride” this summer. Oh, there’s your language arts lesson to kick off the summer.

Cheers!

Hey Y'all!

Thanks for visiting the blog. I challenged myself during the month of July 2020 to do 2 things.

• Publish 30 things on this blog.

• Put my creativity (such that it is) out there for the world to see.

Why? Great question.

I used to (several years ago) write a lot. Mostly about teaching. I published often and found writing to be a great outlet for all the things in my head. Sometimes it was just random stuff. Sometimes it was thought-provoking. Either way, I enjoyed it. I felt better after writing. Things got out of my head. Being an introvert, I didn't want to sit and discuss all this stuff with anyone, I just needed to get it out.

Secondly, I love doing creative things but it all just sits. Showing it, good or bad, is a risk that I ask my students and my own kiddos to take and I thought I should do it too. This blog is a good way to put things into the world...just need to share the blog with everyone.

So.

I realized while cleaning up some digital stuff that I had this blog. I reworked it a bit. Changed the theme. Changed the style. Made a new logo. Added some categories to the stuff. Then started publishing.

I fell short of the 30 posts I was hoping for but came close. I think this post is 28.

The good part is that I published. Also, it's not just random writing. It's photos, poetry, beer, education, and some ramblings (more of that coming in August). The poetry is the biggest risk because it comes from the heart and putting your heart out there is, whoa. Especially because some of it was written years ago during some tough times. Photography is second because it's so subjective and I'm by no means and professional photographer.

Well, I hope you like the blog. Actually...yeah, I do.  But if you don't, I still love you and I'm still happy that it's all out there.

Cheers!

Image Credit: Snohomish County Government

My last post was about Intentional Rest and I firmly believe in that. 

That said, I need to move beyond that. The Intentional Rest is a break from all the things that you are for other people. Remember the Disciples healing and curing? Other people. In my last post, looking back, everything I listed was about being something for someone else. 

It has nothing to do with who I am for me. 

Most of the titles that have that describe me for other people are pretty amazing and I enjoy them. I wouldn't change being a husband or a dad. I love being a teacher. I wouldn't change those but, again, they don't have much to do with who I am for me. 

(I know that some people see teaching as a calling and that is who they are above all else. Good for you. I'm excited that you have that passion. For me, as much as I love teaching, it's not a calling. It's a rewarding profession that pays me and I get to help other people. It's not who I am.)

So, let's think. Who am I for me? 

Photographer, writer, traveler, napper...

Wow, that list is way shorter and took way longer to come up with. 

This is definitely something that I need to work on for myself. 

I would bet a dollar that I'm not the only one. Especially for my teacher friends. I see you. You're pinning things on Pinterest that would be great for your classroom. You're hitting up the Dollar Store for classroom supplies. You're reading books that you might want to add to your classroom library. Or you're looking at garage sales for flexible seating (this one, yes, I'm guilty, and the garage is already full). 

Is it selfish to be something for yourself? Maybe. But it is also healthy. I'm not going to neglect who I am for other people to solely do things for myself. That wouldn't be good. There's a balance in there somewhere that leads to excellent mental health for me.

With that in mind, here's what I'm doing in July to improve who I am for myself.

• Keeping my camera (iPhone) ready when I'm out and about and looking for a quality photo. It's already paid off with these two photos.

• Keeping the bigger camera in the car so it's not forgotten if I go places that have a high probability of great photo opportunities.

• Walking more.

• Writing at least 30 blog posts this month. I'm up to 22 so far.

• Entering the MN State Fair photography contest. (Check)

• Entering the MN State Fair cookie contest (actually for next month, I guess baking is something I am for myself too.)

In the Intentional Rest post, I mentioned scrolling Tik Tok for 3 hours. I don't do that but I did come across this video that was the inspiration for this post (embedded below). I haven't had the waterworks this person talks about but I do see the need to make a space for me to work on who I am for myself.  I'm also a huge proponent of therapy. There is no shame or judgment. Take care of yourself!!!

TikTok: the_holisic_mystic

@the_holistic_mystic

#stitch with @desi_seabird it’s never too late to start being a person #therapy

♬ Night Trouble - Petit Biscuit

I'm not sure how to tag this post. It could be "Education." It might fit, strangely, into "Beer." Maybe a new tag called "Religion." Or it just might fit into a more all encompassing tag on this blog called "Life" or "Being All The Things."

This verse is part of a larger text from Mark that was preached in the church I go to.  Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56

It resonated with me. The Disciples were everything to the people that came to see them. Literally life and death. They healed and cured. Life. But it was exhausting. They didn't rest. There was always someone else who needed something. Always. Even when Jesus told them to rest and took them away to do just that, people found them and had expectations. 

This happens to us. Everyone. The Jones's? The rat race?  Sound familiar?

I feel this. 

Husband, brother, dad, son, friend, dinner making, driver, shopper, advice giver, parent (different than "dad"), care taker/giver, house fixer, money earner, cleaner, solver, teacher, colleague, committee member, church council member. 

See how quickly all those titles add up? Stop. think about your own for minute. I'm sure I missed a few of my own.

So, when Pastor Jeff talked about Intentional Rest (sure, I'll capitalize those), I gained focus. It's not easy to be all the things to all the people. I'll take this a step further and agrue that teachers have more on their plates because they are responsible for little humans for a third of their day. That's a huge responsibility. One that I don't take lightly. (Also one that I don't often complain about because there are rewards).

But what do you for this intentional rest? I told the lady at CSL plasma the other day that it's nice being a teacher because I sorta get to retire every June. It's a short retirement but it's well earned and so restful. Hmm, maybe donating plasma is a forced relaxation time for a couple hours every week too...

So, Intentional Rest.

Yes please. Once school is out. We load up and camp for a week. Then we spend a week at a resort with some friends. It's two weeks of reading books in a hammock, playing in the pool, watching people fish while crusing a lake in a boat, and sharing the meal creations with people beyond just me. 

It's amazing. The minute we roll into a the camp ground that first afternoon, everything melts away. I don't need to a responsible teacher. I don't need to be the church council member. So many more. I just get to be. 

Intentional Rest. 

Do it. Take it. Rest. Don't feel guilty. Be alone. Read a book. Spend 3 hours scrolling Tik Tok. Find a hammock. Find a trail. Sleep. Binge. Have a beer. 

No matter who you are, you need a rest. You have to be intentional about it.