Hello, remarkable educator,

I hope you're staying well, warm, and rested. In reality, I know what February is like in many schools in the northern hemisphere. Spring sports have started where I am. That means kids are in class less, the pressure is more, and a bit of a desire to go outside has hit! It's madness and it isn't even March!

But we can do this! Today I want to share some encouragement, a new smart productivity "secret" that may surprise you and some notes on how I'm using Claude Cowork. I also want to share some info I've found on the Einstein app that can supposedly log into Canvas and do all of the work for students. (It has just stopped working but it is worth noting)

​Phone Addiction in Teens: What Actually Works​

Have you ever wondered why parental control apps never seem to work? Dr. Brad Marshall, an Australian psychologist who's treated over 2,500 families for phone and screen addiction, told me something that I'd never considered: parental controls are made by the same tech companies that profit from your child's screen time. They're designed not to work. Instead, he recommends the "handbrake rule" — simply limiting a phone's data plan to 5-10 GB. He also explains why expecting teens to self-regulate their phone use is "neurologically ridiculous" and what schools and parents should do instead. This is one of those episodes you'll want to share with every parent you know.

Listen at coolcatteacher.com/e928 or search "10 Minute Teacher" in your favorite podcast app.

My New Productivity Mode

Last fall I went to Egypt and went off the grid. When I did, I learned something astounding about productivity and I just shared it today on my blog. (It involves getting rid of some "smart" things.)

​Here's Looking at You, Kid: How a Trip off the Grid Changed How I live Life On the Grid​

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This Week on the Radio

This week, I reran an episode on School Leadership that was so so good.

🎙️ School Leadership that Transforms: Practical Tips for School Principals and AdministratorsCool Cat Teacher Talk

This show brings together award-winning principals and top thought leaders to share practical, research-backed strategies for transforming school leadership. Whether you're a principal, aspiring leader, or teacher who wants to understand what great leadership looks like — this one's for you.

Featured guests and highlights:

• George Couros — Author of What Makes a Great Principal: The Five Pillars of Effective School Leadership (co-authored with Allyson Apsey). George breaks down the five pillars: relationship builder, continuous learner, talent cultivator, resource maximizer, and visionary. The book draws on voices of teachers, students, and coaches to paint a picture of what truly inspires great work in schools.
• Eric Sheninger — CEO of Aspire Change EDU and author of Personalize: Meeting the Needs of ALL Learners. Eric shares how leaders can move schools from compliance to genuine engagement and why that shift is critical for student learning.
• Dr. Tracie Anderson Swilley — 2025 NASSP National Principal of the Year and principal of Fairfield High School in South Carolina. She shares how she transformed school culture, improved graduation rates, and built school pride centered on excellence.
• Carlos Ramirez — 2024 Principal of the Year (Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents) and principal of Randolph Elementary, an IB World School in Arlington, VA. Carlos turned a school tradition into a powerful lesson in belonging, creating a culture where every child feels like they matter.
• Plus classic episodes from Chris Chappotin on practical ways to develop school leaders, Nancy Blair on creating nurturing environments, and Pam Moran on education reform and the future of schools.

👉 Watch or listen here:coolcatteacher.com/talkleadership​

Top 9 Math and Stem Episodes

The Rapid Rise and Fall of Einstein: And What It Means For Education

Michelle Kassorla shared a great rundown of the Einstein tool. Basically this tool was using an open source tool called Open Claw which has terrible terrible privacy concerns, by the way. Einstein, using OpenClaw installs and goes onto your machine. Then, when you open your course in Canvas, it could literally watch lecture videos, read essays, write papers and complete quizzes.

Basically Open Claw is embedded in your computer and has access to everything. It was formerly known as Moltbot and Clawdbot and has gone viral but security experts have warned people not to join the trend. So, recently OpenClaw has been banned by many of the AI tools likely because of excessive consumption of tokens.

The Einstein cheatbot lasted five days. "The Cheat Sheet" Substack has a great overview of what happened with Einstein.

Sadly, this is going to be coming to everything everywhere. What can be done about it? Well, I know in K12, we've moved to oral book reports, oral conversations, and talking to students. This is a good move, in my book. Of course with online, eventually you'll have AI deep fake, which *gasp* can I say it, might suddenly increase the value of face to face education yet again for those colleges willing to reduce class size, improve on human interaction, and make it so that the teaching experience is *double gasp* personal again.

To move forward, we must have vision. We cannot look back at what was but what will be. And what will be is that our students in college must know how to master and use AI (like using cowork below) as appropriate but also must have knowledge in their topic so that they are qualified to supervise the AI tools.

​Read the full article.​

How I'm Using Claude Co-Work

Claude Cowork is a tool that goes onto your machine. You can give it access to folders. It is incredibly useful for me in a variety of ways particularly because you can train it to have "custom skills" which are lightyears ahead of projects (which tended to drift terribly.)

Here are some examples of how I've used it:

• To write summaries of shows. (I've noticed the Wall Street Journal podcast now discloses that they use AI to create the summaries that are then reviewed by an editor -- I do this too.)
• To take transcripts and create the useful content around it like all of the tags for youtube and Libsyn and write the alt tags for the images. I've offloaded a lot of the tedium that took me hours.
• To analyze podcast statistics and create an html dashboard so I can look at past shows as I pull things together for Cool Cat Teacher Talk
• I put 50 transcripts in a folder as I'm writing two STEAM Supershows to air on Radio and TV. Then, I analyzed common patterns and worked with the AI tool to create a production plan for these shows. We identified that there are two big pieces here -- the STEAM mindset which will be one show and STEAM ideas which will be the second one. Stay tuned for next week's show! (If you're curious, the goal of Cool Cat Teacher Talk is to bring together the best conversations on a topic using both past interviews and new ones I record just for the show. I often cut down the extended interview to 10-12 minutes for the 10 Minute Teacher podcast. The stuff people have said is too good to not repeat it and when you see experts together on a show, some real meaning comes out that is amazing and powerful.)
• Designed a Shakespearian insult game to teach some AP CSP concepts as we review for their exam in May.
• Worked on a transition plan for some tasks I'm handing off at school
• Onboard some advertisers by creating spreadsheets and folders in Google drive customized for the work I'm doing

I've written four big skills: processing 10MT transcripts, processing CCTalk transcripts, processing voice recordings I do in the car, and a skill to help me process possible transcripts and create an editing plan for CCTalk.

Claude Cowork can do multiple tasks at once and I am in the habit now of coming to my desk, loading up transcripts and work and starting it up to let it work. I will admit that I had to upgrade my plan, but it is so helpful, I really have benefitted.

I know this is a tough season.

I also know that lots of things are happening in the world.

But I hope you can take a moment and realize that the world you create in your classroom is important. I was talking to an adult this week who had a terrible childhood. He said the only place he wanted to be growing up was at school because his home was a nightmare.

I want my classroom to be a haven. I do want it to be a place of learning where I'm committed to excellence but I also want it to be a place where kids feel safe, loved, and encouraged. Kind of like this little newsletter for you.

I know that lots of people are fancier and slicker and cuter and more fun. But you and I can only be us. Who we are. And in our uniqueness we can enjoy and celebrate the uniqueness of our students.

I had a great moment during seventh period yesterday when a student struggling to make her slides learned she could make slides in Gamma for her project. I taught her to them import them into Google Slides. In just about 30 minutes she had her slides. She had already done the thinking. She had already done the work. She just needed some help. I gave her that by unlocking how to use AI. Why should she struggle and cry all weekend when I'm assessing the presentation. The slides are part of it but her presenting is the most important part.

We're here to encourage and help.

Teaching is hard but it is worth it.

I've got to hit send so I can head to school now. I hope you are encouraged to know that even if you're having a rough time or even if you're on top of the mountain and full of joy -- teaching is vitally incredibly unbelievably important and so are you.

I remain joyfully in your service,

Vicki