Brett Vogelsinger

New Substack live this morning, with a look at what we can do to strengthen foundations of good thinking in our classrooms in the era of AI.

My first "Imperative" post in this series. Read more here:

declarativeimperative.substack.com/p/build-stro...

"I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how good the conversations are"

Why I love learned from @thevogelman.bsky.social so much: real examples around his work with AI infused with humanity and humility.

(Such a contrast of so much else with AI + education content)

I'm so excited to present at #PlainTalkNOLA next week in New Orleans!

Who's going? I'd love to connect!

The 1:1 conversations I've enjoyed with students about both their thinking and their writing SINCE the advent of AI gives me such optimism.

Teens want to be thoughtful about this, and we can model how. It takes some different approaches than we may be used to, but it's worth the effort.

6 Common Teacher Mistakes—and How to Avoid Them From rushing through prep to misjudging students’ readiness for a task to teaching the way they were taught, experienced teachers talk about some of the mistakes they’ve made.

Each anecdote in this @edutopia.org piece by @mirplo.bsky.social about learning from our mistakes in the classroom links to some specific strategy or resource.

One of the anecdotes is my own 😊

www.edutopia.org/article/comm...

I enjoyed this conversation with @marcusluther.bsky.social as always 😊

How do we handle writing outside of school as AI shifts the sands? Full episode on The Broken Copier is out today.

'If a drug had the same benefits as the arts, we’d take it every day' As the New Scientist Book Club embarks on its read for March, Art Cure, author Daisy Fancourt gives a sneak preview into the myriad ways in which the arts can improve our health

Great headline…and article!

www.newscientist.com/article/2517...

Well, I started something new!

I hope you’ll join me and read along over on Substack 😊

open.substack.com/pub/declarat...

Who’s ready to start planning for April with me?

Ok, you’re right. Let’s just plan through the end of the year.

We deserve more poems in our lives 👏🏻

www.amazon.com/Poetry-Pause...

What It’s Like to Grow Up With A.I.: The Winners of Our Multimedia Challenge

OK, stop everything teachers. Take a look at these NYT Learning Network contest winners: "Growing Up in the Age of AI." These will get your own students thinking, writing, talking, creating.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/l...

A list of reflective questions to help prevent AI cheating, by helping teacher and students talk more about how they value voice, learning (over grades), and process over product.

Sometimes I read frustrated posts from teachers who feel like most of their students turn in AI-generated writing.

If copy-and-paste AI cheating is happening often, it's time to retrench and think about how we communicate values in the classroom. These questions can help!

A list of reflective questions to help prevent AI cheating, by helping teacher and students talk more about how they value voice, learning (over grades), and process over product.

Sometimes I read frustrated posts from teachers who feel like most of their students turn in AI-generated writing.

If copy-and-paste AI cheating is happening often, it's time to retrench and think about how we communicate values in the classroom. These questions can help!

Ok, who’s read this book?

A student from last recommended it and it’s been on my radar for years.

He said “Don’t be offended…it’s about an English teacher with a sad life.” 😆

I’m 100 pages in. It’s good.

The perfect read for a snowy day ❄️

PS Anyone else use receipts as bookmarks 😂

The objective was this: After writing a bit about all the themes you brainstormed in your notebook based on your reading, can you use the AI to uncover another thematic angle you hadn't thought about in the book? Then, explore that for a bit through your analog writing.

I think it's just different. It's an option that didn't exist before. Once I invited students do this with a self-chosen book. They took one AI sentence that pushed their thinking and elaborated for a page in paper notebooks, investigating a theme that no one else in the room could have surfaced.

And news articles only give us limiting glimpses. In the brainstorm example given here . . . did the students work to brainstorm ideas first and then prompt a chatbot about what they may be overlooking to further discussion? That's different than saying "Brainstorm so that I don't have to."

And I agree with you about defining terms! It's been a pet peeve of mine for a while that people apply the phrase "use AI" broadly and without nuance.

I wish this article weren't behind a paywall! I really want to read it.

I wonder whether any of the examples demonstrate asking for multiple possible rewordings. I find when students use it this way, it pushes them, rather than just asking for a single suggestion for improvement.

So glad you did this. I love this book.
Also, Louis Sachar wrote back to my letter -- by hand -- about Wayside School is Falling Down when I was in fourth grade, so I'm a forever fan!

I love this!!!

Metacognition is the secret sauce, isn't it? And yet the easiest part to shortcut, sadly. Thanks for sharing this post. Look forward to reading it today Khary.

I always appreciate these pieces from @edutopia.org and often find some ideas I already knew about from the year and some that are entirely new to me. "Inattention contagion" is a perfect description for what I was coping with in one class last year.

A question for teachers: Have you tried allowing students to work with an LLM on a thorny writing problem as long as they tell you about it up front and confer with you about how it goes?

I'm seeing some interesting things happen when I do that 🤔

So true!!!

A nice breakdown of my Edutopia piece on transparency surveys in this thread!

There is a better way than AI checkers.

#EduSky #EduskyAI

Don't a million images of this already exist, some of them likely by artists through the ages, giving us room to discuss their interpretations of the moment? You know I'm far from opposed to integrating AI, but please, apply it in ways that push our thinking, not like this!

AI Transparency Surveys: A Tool for Navigating Student Choices Together A high school English teacher wondered: What happens when students can openly discuss AI boundaries, then reflect on their own use through a simple survey?

Great tips on AI use from @thevogelman.bsky.social!
-discuss nuances
-model acceptable use
-use to push (not replace) thinking
-be transparent
-be curious
-be reflective

AI Transparency Surveys: A Tool for Navigating Student Choices Together via @edutopia.org www.edutopia.org/article/ai-t...

Teaching Discernment in Our Interactions with AI Sharpening our reasoning powers about when and how to engage with artificial intelligence will serve us and our students well, writes teacher Brett Vogelsinger.

Discernment and reasoning are key skills that are more important than ever for our students. My piece for @middleweb.bsky.social explores this.

Check out two specific things moves any teacher can make around #AI, regardless of their stance, to help kids reason.

www.middleweb.com/53084/teachi...

That is such a great use of blackout! Well done!

Love it!