They Got the Right Answer. They Didn’t Understand Why.

At a recent school event, parents kept asking me the same question: what does AI mean for my child? I’m not an AI expert. I’m a classroom teacher in my 41st year in education, and this is what I told them. It’s for any parent, grandparent, or teacher who wants the short version.The short version* The risk isn’t AI itself. It’s a student handing the thinking to a machine. AI can now produce a finished essay or assignment better than most high school students, so a perfect answer no longer proves anything was learned.* Homework AI can finish comes back perfect and teaches nothing. The hard thinking belongs in the classroom, and home is for first meeting the content.* Struggle is how learning happens. Ted Chiang compared using ChatGPT to complete an assignment to bringing a forklift into the weight room.* A simple rule for AI: do the thinking first, then let AI help where you’re stuck.* Ask schools five questions (below) to find out whether students are really learning.* What kids need most is someone who sees their potential and says so out loud.What I do in my classroomI use a three-part approach that educators around the world are starting to adopt. The goal is to protect my students’ thinking.* Flip. Students watch a short video or read the night before, so they first meet the content at home. Last week it was a video about Mount St. Helens before our volcano lesson. Then the hard thinking happens in class, where I can see it.* Analog. Every student is issued a laptop, but it mostly stays in the backpack. We use an old-school textbook, a set of questions, discussion, and experiments.* A human check. When students finish a lesson, they explain and defend their answers to me out loud, one at a time or in small groups. I sometimes use AI to help me write good questions that get to the heart of the lesson. But the conversation is human, and that’s something AI can’t replace.How to help your child* Make sure they do the hard thinking. The point of school isn’t a perfect answer. It’s for students to grow.* Build in productive struggle. Not crazy struggle, but real effort. Struggle is how the learning sticks, and AI makes it easy to skip.* Use this rule: do the thinking first, then use AI as a tutor when you’re stuck. Have frank conversations with your kids about it, and be willing to set boundaries. The easy route has never been easier.* Reward the process, not just the product. Schools have often rewarded the polished finished work, and AI can produce that now. What matters is the learning and the person's growth.* Share my open letter to students about AI with your kids. It’s about the exciting and uncertain time they’re growing up in. My Letter to Students about AIFive questions to ask any school* How do I know my child understands, and isn’t just finished?* What work is done in class without devices?* Do students ever explain their thinking out loud?* How do your assignments hold up now that AI exists? Too many teachers have taught the same year 30 times and haven’t adapted. Ask whether the teachers are changing what they do.* How do you teach students to use AI? How is the school preparing them for a world that includes it?Try this tonightTell your child one specific thing you see in them. And know that sometimes they don’t see their own potential - but we can call them to more. I closed the episode with the best free advice I have, from an old teacher who’s been working with teenagers for more than four decades. More than any lesson, kids need to know somebody believes in them. When you see a spark, name it out loud: “I see something in you.” I’ve watched students who were acting out and causing problems start to believe in themselves once someone said that, and then they became it. Catch them doing good, and fan it into flame.What are you seeing in your own home or classroom? Leave a comment, or just hit reply. I read what you send, and your questions often shape future episodes.Thanks for reading Reach Every Student with Jon Bergmann.! This post is public so feel free to share it.Key moments* 0:00 Parents’ questions at a school event* 1:44 The promise school used to make* 3:01 “I’m not anti-AI”* 4:24 Why homework now comes back perfect* 5:10 My three-part approach: flip, analog, human check* 8:35 Productive struggle and the forklift* 10:00 AI as a tutor: think first* 12:58 Five questions to ask any school* 13:57 Teachers who teach the same year 30 times* 15:26 Free advice: speak words of lifeLinks* My Letter to Students about AI This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reacheverystudent.com

A friend who’s more optimistic about AI than I am sent me a list of tough questions about oral assessments. In this short episode, I answer them as honestly as I can.The short version: the oral piece is 15 points on each major test, about 7% of the course grade. I grade by gut, not a rubric, and I’m still deciding whether that’s okay. I record only with permission. I’m figuring out how to scale this to six sections, and I’d love to hear how you’d handle a class of 35.Key moments (raw timestamps, so adjust after edits):* 0:00 A skeptic’s questions* 0:21 How much of the grade?* 1:40 Same questions for everyone?* 3:00 Am I cutting anything to make room?* 4:13 The pogo-stick question* 5:21 Scores, and why I don’t use a rubric* 7:01 Quiet students: “Stop talking and let me think”* 7:53 Am I recording these?* 8:47 Can this scale to five sections of 30?* 10:19 “Building the airplane in the air” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reacheverystudent.com

This week, a round of summative vivas showed me something my tests never caught: students getting the right answer on a foundational physics concept without understanding it. In this short episode, I share how I found it, what I’m trying now, and a Plain English episode with Ethan Mollick on why struggle matters in the age of AI. I’d love to hear what you’re seeing in your classroom. Key moments* 0:00 Hook: right answers, no understanding* 0:52 The pattern shows up in the vivas* 1:40 The reteach* 2:22 Maybe this one’s on me* 3:05 Why I missed it: rewarding correct numbers* 3:34 A podcast worth your time: Plain English with Ethan Mollick* 4:18 Your turn: what are you seeing? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reacheverystudent.com

I asked Vicki Davis one question to open this episode: what’s the biggest mistake teachers make with AI? Her answer is five words: teaching like it doesn’t exist.Vicki spent 24 years in the classroom, including teaching AP Computer Science with AI, and today she hosts the 10 Minute Teacher podcast and Cool Cat Teacher Talk, a radio and TV show she says reaches about a million people a week. We go back a long way.What struck me is how close she is to what I’m doing. Her classroom rule: everything a student turns in, they should be ready to defend out loud. If AI helped write their code, they have to explain every line. We talk about why AI detection doesn’t work, why a revision history isn’t proof of learning, and the tools that make a student’s AI use visible in a draft. We also disagree a little. She’s skeptical of AI tutoring, and I’m still using AI for practice. If you’ve been wondering what oral assessment looks like for someone who isn’t a science teacher, start here.Key moments:* 0:00 Cold open: the biggest AI mistake* 1:01 Her 1,000th episode, and being interviewed by her son* 3:03 Why outrage travels farther than help online* 5:51 Her policy: if you turn it in, be ready to defend it* 13:09 “That could be your mama at the computer”* 16:24 The integrity gap* 28:49 AI as a magnifier of what you already know* 31:56 Why she’s skeptical of AI tutoring* 38:54 What oral assessments do for relationships with students This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reacheverystudent.com

Before I dive into today’s topic, I want you to be aware that I will be speaking twice this Thursday (October 15th). In the morning, I will be interviewed at a conference in Argentina (8:30 Eastern), and then I will lead a webinar on Oral Assessments in the Age of AI at 4: 30 p.m. Both events are online and free. I encourage you to register for either or both. It’s been an exhausting week here in the world of teaching. Homecoming football (we won!), the dance, an open house, and the end of the quarter all landed at once.This week I made one decision: walk into every interaction with a positive attitude. In the middle of the chaos, a few human moments- one in a viva, one with a family at open house- reminded me why I’m still doing this after 41 years. I also share what happened when I emailed my administrators and said I felt stretched.Key Moments* 0:00 – Cold open: an exhausting week* 0:19 – Homecoming, the dance, and choosing a positive attitude* 2:52 – The viva that turned into a human conversation* 4:13 – Why human moments matter most in the age of AI* 5:16 – Open house, and a family lights up at the crystal collection* 6:14 – Productive struggle: learning to teach physics with calculus* 6:50 – Feeling stretched, and what happened when I asked for help* 8:53 – This Thursday: the Misiones Q&A and the Flint webinar This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reacheverystudent.com

This week’s guest goes back a long way — Don Wettrick, entrepreneur, educator, and founder of STARTedUP, an organization built around one question: how do you make class time feel more like the real world?Don just stepped back from running STARTedUP day-to-day to go back to what he calls “founder mode” — more classrooms, fewer meetings. We talk about that transition, his “seekers vs. peakers” framework for spotting opportunity, and a line partway through this conversation that’s stuck with me since we recorded it: everybody can write a perfect email now, which means the deals are being lost the moment a person can’t look up and actually have a conversation. Being human is sought after right now. Being flawed is sought after right now.This episode’s a little different from the last few: no framework, no big reveal, just a good conversation between two people who’ve been doing this a long time.Key moments:* 0:00 – Cold open: why “being flawed” is suddenly valuable* 0:44 – Interview begins, catching up with Don* 2:12 – Why he stepped back from CEO to “founder mode”* 9:50 – His “seekers vs. peakers” framework* 19:34 – Building a class around freedom, mastery, and purpose* 23:24 – Playing AI platforms against each other to think more clearly* 30:09 – The full story behind the cold-open clip* 38:19 – A decades-long journaling habit, and archiving your own growth This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reacheverystudent.com

Two rounds into summative oral assessments now, and something’s changed: fewer of my students are telling me “I didn’t prepare.” A few weeks ago, that was the most common answer. This week, it’s becoming the exception.This one’s a solo update — no guest, just what’s actually happening in my classroom, plus a piece of news I’m genuinely excited about.On the vivas side: students are showing up rehearsed, some of them using an AI practice tool to run through questions ahead of time. And a pro-tip. Asking a kid to diagram something live, on the spot, tells me more about what they actually understand than almost anything else I do.And on the other side of the equator: ten years ago, I helped run one of the first large-scale flipped-classroom pilots in Misiones, Argentina. That relationship never really ended — and this month, the first unit of a fully Spanish-language, Argentina-contextualized Mastery Flip course went live. If you’re Spanish-speaking, or know someone who is, I’d love for you to check it out.Jon’s Upcoming AppearancesOctober 15th - Online in ArgentinaNovember 14th (In Person) - Teaching Motivated Minds Conference (Austin, Texas)Key Moments* 0:00 – Cold open: “They showed up prepared”* 0:32 – Round 2 vivas: how students are using FlintK12 to practice ahead of time* 2:20 – The real shift: “I didn’t prepare” is becoming the exception, not the norm* 2:31 – The whiteboard trick that’s changing how physics vivas go* 5:41 – Pivot: the Misiones, Argentina backstory* 6:56 – The first Spanish-language Mastery Flip course goes live* 11:08 – Closing thought: pressure-testing the framework in real time, in public This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reacheverystudent.com

Tony Wagner has spent thirty years studying one question: what do students actually need to thrive? In this episode, he shares a number that stopped me cold — of 109 ninth graders in a typical public school, only 14 ever end up in a job that pays a living wage.I asked him what he’d add to his own famous list of skills, just for the AI era. His answer: integrity.Partway through this conversation, I walked him through Mastery Vivas for the first time — no advance warning, no pitch, just explaining what I’m doing in my own classroom. His reaction is on tape, and it’s one of my favorite moments this season.P.S. — something I'm genuinely excited about: MasteryFlip is now being translated into Spanish, not just word-for-word but re-contextualized for schools in Misiones, Argentina — the first unit is live already. I'll give you the full story and the sign-up link next week, but I didn't want to sit on the news that long. Here is the link to the course: Key Moments* 0:00 – Cold open: his answer to the eighth survival skill* 1:05 – Guest intro and interview begins* 2:49 – Updating his famous “seven survival skills” for the AI era* 4:15 – The “forklift in the weight room” metaphor and his fear of a coming bifurcation* 6:56 – The stat that’ll stop you cold: 109 ninth graders, 14 living-wage jobs* 11:41 – You walk him through the Mastery Viva live — his reaction is real-time, unscripted* 36:10 – His one book recommendation for teachers heading into fall* 37:22 – The kindred-spirits close* 38:13 – A quick note on the new Spanish-language MasteryFlip course (more next week) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reacheverystudent.com

Last week, I told you about the one part of oral assessment I still won’t hand off to AI. This week, from a completely different direction, someone else landed on almost the same instinct — without knowing anything about what I’ve been building.I asked her one question: what’s the single science-of-learning principle every teacher should hold onto in the age of AI? Her answer: be as metacognitive about the AI as you are about your own thinking. Simple to say. Genuinely hard to picture in an actual classroom — which is most of what this conversation is about.That guest is Dr. Tina Grotzer, who runs the Next Level Lab at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, studying causal reasoning — how people actually trace cause and effect, versus the neat, linear version we usually assume.That’s three separate people now — me, an MIT researcher, and a Harvard researcher — landing in the same place, independently. I don’t think that’s a coincidence anymore.Key Moments* 1:33 – What “causal reasoning” actually means (her research, in plain terms)* 5:10 – The sinking-and-floating experiment that breaks kids’ assumptions* 10:40 – Introducing the Next Level Lab: will AI make us smarter or stupider?* 17:13 – Her core thesis: why metacognition is what makes AI a partner instead of a crutch* 19:32 – The Russell Hulse story — a Nobel Prize won by refusing to ignore an anomaly* 21:11 – The “forklift to the weight room” metaphor, and her fear of AI as a crutch* 27:06 – You lay out AI Engines, Analog Roots, and the Mastery Viva live — and she reacts in real time* 34:11 – The one cognitive skill she says AI will be the last to replicate: empathy* 40:00 – Her closing fear: a coming “bifurcation” between kids taught to think and kids who aren’t This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reacheverystudent.com

Intro:If you’ve been listening for a while, you know oral assessment has been building toward this. This week, I made it official — a required, graded piece of every major exam for the first time. It went well in one class. It was genuinely hard in another. And there’s a piece of it I’m not willing to hand over to AI, no matter how tempting the time savings are.This one’s a solo update — no guest, just me and what actually happened in my own classroom this week, including the honest math on whether any of this works if your class is twice the size of mine.Timestamps:* 0:00 – Cold open* 0:17 – Welcome / what this episode covers* 1:16 – How it went in Geology/Meteorology/Oceanography (GMO)* 2:02 – Gut instinct over a formal rubric* 2:53 – GMO wrap-up: “it worked swimmingly”* 3:09 – Honors Physics: 18 students, barely finishing in 55 minutes* 4:59 – The line I won’t cross: why AI can’t grade the summative assessment* 5:20 – The formative side: the daily lesson cycle and where it breaks down* 6:38 – The real bottleneck: not enough time to reach every student* 7:04 – The fix: using Flint K-12 for after-class oral check-ins* 8:07 – Tying back to Justin Reich: “nobody knows how to teach in the age of AI”* 9:33 – A colleague’s test scores jump after going analog* 10:13 – Close This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reacheverystudent.com