๐ Architects of Awesome: Brizard, Honest AI + the Easiest Cheating Fix You'll Use This Year
Friday, May 22, 2026 Connect with Vicki: ๐๏ธ 10MT Podcast ยท ๐บ CCT Talk ยท YouTube ยท Instagram ยท Pinterest ยท Facebook ยท LinkedIn ยท X The AP test is done. And as my students walked out of the exam, one of them turned to me and said, "We felt so prepared. Do you know that you started preparing us for the test on the first day?" I smiled. It didn't happen by accident. We teachers โ we are architects of awesome. We are planners of performance. We know that when we have goals, we are intentional, and even though it is hard, we work to help our kids do their very best. That moment, that one sentence walking out of that AP exam, is the whole job in a nutshell. The first day matters. The boring Tuesday in October matters. The Friday quiz in February matters. None of it is wasted. And then one day in May, the kids find the words for what we already knew โ we were building something with them all along. Every day matters in the classroom. Let's dive in to some ideas for finishing well and planning ahead.
Sponsor ยท EF Explore America
Show Your Students How STEM Shows Up in the Real WorldThis week's shows are sponsored by EF Explore America and their STEM Tours. Lead your students on a STEM tour to places on the cutting edge of innovation โ coding robots with MassRobotics at MIT, exploring marine ecosystems in Florida's coral reefs, or even sitting down to talk with a former spy in Washington, D.C. If you want to inspire your students and give them a fresh perspective on the power of STEM, start now by checking out these awesome trips! And if you want my take on why student travel matters โ from 20+ years of doing it โ I wrote about it here: Travel With Students: Why It Changes Everything (with tips for how to travel with kids.). This Week's Shows ๐ง New + Coming UpOne new show you can listen to right now (Brizard), and a sneak peek at this week's Cool Cat Teacher Talk episode dropping soon. Every Child Is a Masterpiece โ with Jean-Claude Brizard, CEO of Digital PromiseJean-Claude Brizard is the President and CEO of Digital Promise. He started his teaching career at 21 teaching incarcerated youth at Rikers Island โ and a brilliant young man his own age who'd stopped going to school in fourth grade and couldn't do basic math shaped the rest of his career. "We lost a mathematician," he told me. He never forgot. "Every child is a work of art. Our job is to create masterpieces. Not a single one can be left behind, because that individual child is really important to that parent, to that family." โ Jean-Claude Brizard, President and CEO of Digital Promise ยท 10 Minute Teacher Episode 935Honest Conversations About AI (Coming Soon)S6E5 hasn't aired yet โ here's an early look at the conversation and the two voices in it. I sat down with Justin Reich from MIT's Teaching Systems Lab (and host of The Homework Machine podcast) and Dr. Christian Miller, the A.C. Reid Professor at Wake Forest and author of the brand-new The Honesty Crisis (Oxford University Press, May 2026). We get past the talking points and into the real questions: What do we know about how students are actually using AI? What does the honor-code research actually say? Why do honest conversations about cheating help more than AI detectors? And how do schools build the kind of culture where students can tell us the truth? ๐ Books from these two voices (Amazon affiliate links):
๐ Related Research โ University of Washington
A new Q&A from the University of Washington takes the temperature of teachers right now: many of us actually like AI for the things that prevent burnout (planning support, multilingual help) โ but we also know our students are paying attention. I've heard students complain this week that when teachers AI-generate tests and review questions and don't check them, the kids feel like their teacher is wasting their time. There is genuine anger there. Pairs straight into S6E5 โ honesty about AI cuts both directions. Watch for the full episode dropping soon on Cool Cat Teacher Talk. What I'm Reading This Week ๐ค AI Honesty & DetectionThis thread ties straight into the Justin Reich and Christian Miller conversation above. Three pieces are worth your time. 1. AJ Juliani โ The Five-Question Fix โI love this from AJ Juliani. It is the easiest way to see if a student used AI to do the entire assignment and didn't think or create for themselves. (The only thing easier is knowing your students' work well enough to compare โ that is still the best "AI detector" there is.) The fix: paste the student's submitted paper into Claude or ChatGPT with the prompt โ "Take this paper and create a five-question knowledge comprehension quiz based on the information in it." The next day, every student takes that quiz on their own paper. If they wrote and thought through it, they pass. If AI wrote it, they can't answer questions about their own work. I don't like playing gotcha but I do believe in making sure students know ahead of time - "you are accountable for what you write. You can expect me to ask you questions on everything you write either orally or in writing." Then, you're just keeping your promises to hold them accountable for learning. 2. A Palo Alto Student Just Sued Over an AI Cheating AccusationA student and family hold a school accountable for using AI, but even though the student likely used it, there may be repercussions for the school. We'll be watching this one. The Cheat Sheet, Issue 433, walks through a real lawsuit and the legal expert now advising schools on AI detection and penalties. If you are an administrator, share this with your tech committee, you want to be having this conversation now, not after an incident on your campus. Learn from the mistakes that it looks like the school may have made. 3. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize Just Became a BattlegroundThis is an odd and interesting conversation piece. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner is being publicly doubted, and Pangram (an AI detector many people are talking about right now) is in the middle of the story. The Guardian has the piece. The person who wins this prize may end up being the person who uses AI without being detected. If the person originally came up with the idea and used AI, should they be penalized? This is one to talk about. (A note: I am not endorsing Pangram. Accuracy on these detectors is a real question. The point here is the cultural shift, not the tool.) From Our Show Guests โ๏ธ Alan Lipton โ Why You Still Need a Human EditorAlan Lipton was one of the voices on our Being Beautifully Human episode (S6E1), and he is the editor I trust with my own writing. He has just published a 3-part series on his Fictioneer blog about human editing and why it is important. If you're not sure about the value of editors, start with Part 3 if you only read one.
Worth Reading ๐ฐ The Laptop Debate & A Leadership ReminderThe Laptop Debate Is Heating UpThe phones-ban conversation has been broadening to laptops. SmartBrief on EdTech (May 19, 2026) has the latest, and the bigger frame is forming: what should kids be paying attention to in class? We all have to make sure that our uses of screens (and paper in my opinion) are intentional. When we use screens, we have to monitor them. Teaching should be intentional and the tools we choose should be also. Excellence and accountability are good things. We keep getting distracted. Are the algorithms so powerful in social media that some schools just give up and go back to paper? May it not be! "The leaders I see making hard decisions effectively and keeping their organizations steady are the ones anchored to something deeper: core values and purpose." โ Robert Glazer, Friday Forward, May 19, 2026A Note Before You Go ๐ Ending the School Year StrongFor many of us in the northern hemisphere, we are entering the last weeks of school. I always work to provide meaning near the end of school โ and sometimes kids can be so distractible. Two things I've done help us focus. 1. Paper Plate AwardsI got this from Chris Lehmann who was at Science Leadership Academy (SLA) in Philadelphia. You just need paper plates and magic markers. Sometimes I've prepared them ahead of time โ fun and funny things about each person. Sometimes we do them as a class with a final project: "Best Movie," "Best One-Liner," "Funniest Moment of the Year," or whatever moments you want to celebrate. Sometimes kids have wanted to decorate them (yes, high schoolers too), and they take those home, and we laugh and have fun at our end-of-the-year party. 2. A Movie with a Worksheet of Real ListeningIf I have a movie or emphasis we need (this week it was The AI Dilemma) I give out paper and tell students I want them to listen and write two good questions and the most important points of the video. The AI Dilemma is worth watching if you've discussed AI; it provokes conversation because even though it was posted in 2023, there are so many truths that are still relevant and so many things about AI that students don't know. This one video could take up three hours of class time for sure (and you may have others as well). 3. More ideas for ending the school year wellIf you want more ideas for ending school on an up note, you can see my 8 Epic Ideas for Ending the School Year that I wrote on Edutopia, and I was just on the School of Practice podcast by Edutopia with 14 Excellent Ways to End the School Year if you want even more. 4. Reflect on Your Biggest WinsFinally, I also reflect for me โ on my biggest and happiest moments of the year โ in a journal. I celebrate my "biggest wins." Positive stories are so important. If we don't fight to remember the great times, we might just forget the great moments we do have as teachers. "When we default reactively to telling negative stories, we almost invariably assign ourselves the role of victim." โ Tony Schwartz, Jean Gomes & Catherine McCarthy, The Way We're Working Isn't Working (Amazon affiliate)If You Haven't Subscribed Yet ๐๏ธ Don't Miss the Shows This WeekWhen I post the Honesty Crisis show on Cool Cat Teacher Talk this week, you'll get all of the discussion above and more. I also have an episode releasing soon on Data Driven schools. If you haven't subscribed yet, here's where to find every platform and follow option: And I'm moving back to more frequent posts of 10 Minute Teacher, so make sure you're subscribed there too: Finally โ teacher, be kind to yourself. Remember your calling. Teaching is noble. Teaching is hard work. Teaching is important. But right now, when you finish, you need to do some work โ REST. Literally, your work will be rest, so you can charge up, feel good, and be your best. We work in a high-burnout profession, and the work has to be rest sometimes, if we hope to be able to do this again another year. As always, thank you for teaching. My prayer is for you to be remarkable educators โ and that this newsletter is part of that. See you later, educator. I'm so proud of you, educators. Keep seeking to be remarkable. We all have our moments and struggles this time of year, but you're fighting to do well and end well and that matters. Vicki Davis |