Educator’s Notebook #514 (February 15, 2026)
INTRODUCTION
It's here!
Irreplaceable is shipping! The secret of this book is that it’s a book about teaching and learning first. About teachers and students and the classroom. And then within that, it is about how AI changes (and doesn’t change) the foundational, relational, academic, emotional work of teaching and learning.
Teachers are asked to do the impossible. They are given societal demands, think tank frameworks, researcher-driven principles, and more and asked to translate all of it into the minute details of daily practice. But the last part is the hardest part. All the other stuff is important, but it doesn’t help a teacher if they don’t know how to apply it in a conversation tomorrow with a room full of kids.
Now, the world has hurled AI at teachers, and people are calling them to change (or not). But figuring out how and when and why takes time.
This book aims to shorten the distance between promise and practice. It starts each chapter with established research and/or principles of teaching and learning, and then moves into practical applications of current and expected technology, based on what research, theory, and practice suggest. Some recommendations come from early studies, others come from hypotheses based on today’s best information. As we live in a time of discovery, all are framed as experiments for teachers to try based on our best understanding today.
If you’re looking for a book that isn’t just about the gee-whiz, we’re-gonna-save-you-time magic of AI, but is instead written to foster robust conversations about lesson design, feedback, student agency, intrinsic motivation, professional collaboration, institutional professional development, and more, then Maya Bialik and I hope you’ll check out Irreplaceable: How AI Changes Everything (and Nothing) in Teaching and Learning.
And this is an excellent, excellent week of articles, too.
In the features, see Xander Manshel’s paper arguing (convincingly) that the High School English classroom is the most influential literary institution in the United States. It’s a humbling reminder of the importance of the discipline for shaping a literate population. Also in the features, see Mike Kentz’s description of the evolution of assessment as technology has gradually grown more pervasive.
The issue is full of many robust sections this week: descriptions of how adolescent social habits are changing, evolving assessment strategies (in both Assessment and Pedagogy), how teachers are engaging this political moment, guidance for leaders on growing dedicated faculty, a remarkable surge of writing on nuts and bolts pedagogy, writing to read about writing and reading, a shrewd history of edtech, and some get-to-the-heart-of-things writing about AI.
Really, an extraordinary issue.
All these and more, enjoy!
Peter
PS. Thank you to all who supported Schooled the Musical! I’m thrilled to say that we reached our funding goal to proceed, and rehearsals start in just two weeks!
PPS. Where you can find me:
- February 17 — Booth Inspiration Lecture (Charlottesville, VA) — “The Role of AI in Education” — My coauthor Maya and I will be hosted by the St Anne’s Belfield School, for an address and conversation that are free and open to the public.
- February 18 — NAIS Webinar (online, member schools) — “How to Assess in the Time of AI” — Join us as we explore setting and communicating AI use guidelines, as well as new frames for thinking about assessment and learning design.
- February 25-27 – NAIS (Seattle, WA) — “Getting to Why with AI: Supporting and Empowering Teachers in Changing Times” — Explore with us how competing teaching philosophies are crowding out clear thinking about AI (and how to clarify them in your community), how changes in student capabilities are prompting the need for new skills and literacies, and how the arrival AI is actually helping us identify—and therefore affirm and accentuate — what forms the heart of our human experience. This session is a Master Class in the conference that requires additional registration.
- March 9-12 – SXSW EDU (Austin, TX) — “Schooled the Musical” — Written in both contemporary and classical styles, this developmental performance will be directed by Deonté Warren (Disney’s Aladdin, Broadway) and will include an extraordinarily talented young cast.
- March 18 — NAIS Webinar (online, member schools) — “What’s New in AI for Schools” — Here we’re looking beyond the immediate concerns of teaching and learning in today’s technology climate to larger questions about AI companions, anticipated developments in AI tutoring, and other emerging technology trends.
Browse and search over 15,000 curated articles from past issues online:
FEATURED
“The High School English Classroom Is The Most Influential Literary Institution In The US”
“What is more, an investigation of the secondary school’s literature curricula, its literary canon, classroom pedagogies, and interpretive strategies—all overlapping with, but diverging significantly from, those of the university—offers not only a “new disciplinary history,” but a historical account of literary studies so wildly different from those we have received that it verges on the counterfactual.”
“How Do We Know What People Know?” How Assessment Is Evolving
“For most of the twentieth century, assessment worked on a simple assumption: completing the task required doing the thinking. If a student submitted an essay, they probably wrote it. If a job applicant submitted a polished cover letter, they probably had the writing skills it demonstrated. The act of production and the act of understanding were bound together. That link has been severed. Not by AI alone — people have always cheated; the SAT had impersonation rings back in 2011, and students have been paying others to write their papers for centuries. What AI has done is make the workaround trivially easy, universally accessible, and nearly undetectable. And that changes the math for everyone.”
ADMISSIONS
ADOLESCENCE
“Looksmaxxing” - How Being Handsome Is Becoming An Obsession For Some Young Men
“Clavicular is 6-foot-2, weighs 180 pounds and has a 31-inch waist. His biacromial width — basically the span of the clavicle, from which the 20-year-old streamer gets his name — is 19.5 inches. He has a midface ratio, which is derived by dividing the distance from the pupil to the mouth by the distance between the pupils, of 1.07. His chin to philtrum ratio is 2.6. According to Clavicular, these calculations make him handsome. Just not as handsome as the actor Matt Bomer.”
How Are Kids Dating These Days?
“That peek under the hood of her friend’s dating practice opened Elle’s eyes to a broader pattern. Not just how romantic relationships were forming, but where they were breaking down. As she talked with more peers and reflected on her own experience, a clear structure emerged. One that looks very different from the meet-cutes of the past, or even the era of mass online dating, millennials came to know. Here’s how it tends to unfold:”
Schools (Especially Higher Ed) Can’t Ignore Reddit
“48% of Americans aged 18–29 use Reddit—more than WhatsApp, X, and Threads. Reddit usage increases with household income and education level… It’s the third most visited website in the United States (behind Google and YouTube). People visit Reddit.com more often than Facebook.com, Instagram.com, or Chatgpt.com.”
ARTS
ASSESSMENT
Fighting Grade Inflation: “Harvard Faculty Group Proposes Limits On A Grades”
“Six Things I No Longer Do With Alternative Grading”
“The older I get and the longer I spend as a professor, the more focus I have on radically simplifying everything that is around me. Over the last few years as I continue to learn how to grade alternatively, I have been specifically focusing on what I can take out of my practice rather than what new, shiny things I might put in.”
ATHLETICS
CHARACTER
What Is The Secret To Happiness?
“When pressed, she told me she tends to say something along the lines of: “Connection and relationships. Positive thinking, which includes gratitude. And a sense of control in your life.” But if she really had to choose one thing, she said, the secret to happiness is “feeling loved.””
CREATIVITY
Ray Bradbury: “Thinking Is The Enemy Of Creativity. Doing Is Everything.”
“If you're going to go around thinking all the time, you’ll never do… Doing is being.”
CURRICULUM
DIVERSITY/INCLUSION
How One History Teacher Discussed The President’s Racist Tweets
“How my students dissected the post: They identified the trope and placed it historically, linking it to the simian imagery in the [Henry Louis] Gates documents. They compared the visual language to nineteenth-century caricatures and explained what the imagery does, not just what it says.”
“Colleges See Major Racial Shifts In Student Enrollment”
Cato Institute: “Immigrants Paid More In Taxes Than They Receive In Benefits”
“This report is an update of a 2017 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) on the fiscal effects of immigration.1 The NASEM authors shared their model with the Cato Institute, which allowed for further expansion and refinement. The model provides a comprehensive estimate of the fiscal flows to and from immigrants, both legal and illegal, in the United States and utilizes the highest quality data available from the US government… From 1994 to 2023, immigrants reduced US budget deficits substantially. Immigrants generated $24.2 trillion in taxes and triggered $13.6 trillion in costs, producing a net fiscal gain of $10.6 trillion (Figure 13). This was not the only fiscal benefit.”
“Can An AI Tool Help Students Disagree Better?”
“Here’s how Sway works. An instructor selects a prompt, usually a controversial statement. (Simon Cullen, one of the tool’s creators, said gender is by far the most popular topic with prompts ranging from the ethics of abortion to transgender athletes.) Students rate how much they agree or disagree with the prompt, and then are matched with opposing viewpoints for a virtual chat. Users provide a display name but are not required to identify themselves or use their actual names. During the discussion, the AI tool intervenes with suggestions that the creators say are to ensure the conversation is as productive as possible. For example: In a discussion about abortion, if you were to type something accusatory about your debate partner’s opinion on women, Sway might tell you to address your partner’s reasoning instead of speculating on their motives. It also asks guiding questions, trying to refocus argument away from what it interprets as accusations or slogans.”
EARLY CHILDHOOD
HEALTH
HUMANITIES
What Is The Origin Of Equal Rights?
“This moral instinct is so ubiquitous today that we barely recognize it as Judeo-Christian, or even as religious. Adherents of the world’s other great religions have largely integrated it into their ethical frameworks even if this tenet is not central to their faith. It is the basis for the American Declaration of Independence and the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.“
How Dubai Became What It Is
LANGUAGE
LEADERSHIP
Employees Are Increasingly Looking For Flexibility Over Pay
On Baumol’s Cost Disease And Managing Operational Efficiency
“How To Articulate Your Contributions As A Senior Leader”
“Followership: The Missing Half Of Leadership”
“When There’s Nowhere to Promote A Star Employee”
PD
Teacher Motivation “Predicts All Dimensions Of Instructional Quality”
“Professional knowledge, beliefs, and motivational orientations show significant but heterogeneous relations with these dimensions, while research on the relationship between occupational self-regulation and instructional quality remains limited… Regarding the associations of cognitive activation with motivational orientations, there is a statistically significant small positive correlation with enthusiasm, a statistically non-significant small positive correlation with interest, and statistically significant small positive correlation with engagement and self-efficacy. Only the last two correlations exhibit substantial heterogeneity.”
PEDAGOGY
On Teaching The Parts And Teaching The Whole
“All The Reasons For Seating Students In Groups Of Three”
Anchor Task Routines: Quick, Predictable Activities Provide A Foundation
“Stop Meeting Students Where They Are” <— A Fascinating Thesis
“29 High Impact Formative Assessment Strategies”
What Conditions Are Necessary For Effective Learning Without Upfront Instruction?
“The Impact Of Teacher Humor On Teaching Quality And Student Learning”
“Course-related humour improves teacher-student relationships and interestingness. Course-related humour provides more time on task than all other humour types. Students exposed to course-related humour reported more intrinsic motivation. Students reported more anger and anxiety with aggressive teacher humour. Indirect effects on student's motivation and emotions via teaching quality.”
READING/WRITING
An Editor Reflects On The Loss Of Dirty Rough Drafts Because Of AI
On The Amenuensis
How One Judge Uses Writing Skill To Layer Meaning
“How Inquiry-Based Freewriting Can deepen Student Writing”
“Reading Isn’t Dead… Text Is (Still) King”
“Teaching Tone to Deepen Reading Comprehension”
“Start Assigning Great Books In English Class”
“A couple of weeks ago, EdWeek published an op-ed arguing that schools shouldn’t assign classic novels, titled “Stop Assigning Boring Books in English Class.” The piece was written by Erich May, superintendent of Brookville Area School District in Pennsylvania, and unintentionally serves as a primer on the misguided ideas that have drained middle and high school English classes of their substance.”
TECH
Michael Pollan On The Change Humanity Is Undergoing
“Scrolling Alone… The Trade-Off Between Convenience And Connection”
“The Postmodern Era Of Edtech In The United States”
“Through the process of once-wild revolutionaries settling into “an industry” over the decades, we’ve accumulated a lot of ideas that we’ve held as true for so long and repeated so many times that they’ve become engrained. The markets we serve are asking deep questions of us, so we must ask questions of ourselves. When we hew to an idealized view of our offerings and what educators experience falls short of the visions we paint, skepticism spreads and sentiment sours… Let us subject some other beliefs we hold dear to scrutiny. I have certainly affirmed all of the orthodoxies below across my career, so I’m in no position to judge anyone who feels compelled to defend them. The purpose in this exercise is not to tear anyone down, but rather to look for common claims that may have run their course as value propositions.”
OECD Digital Education Outlook 2026
WORKPLACE
GENERAL
A.I. Update
A.I. UPDATE
Doctors and Teachers, AI Advances
In the decades (and centuries) ahead, we will more and more seek to understand what it is that makes us human and what it is that we need from each other that we cannot get from machines. It will be part of our ongoing search for meaning, a search that we have likely been engaged in since the beginnings of consciousness, or at least our ability to reflect.
In this week’s features, we see some of these conversations. One is about doctors and how they are figuring what is left for them in an age when AI can do so much of what doctors do. One can read this about being about education in some ways, too. The other feature is a plain statement, published in Nature, that AI has reached human level intelligence. To argue this is to argue over semantics. Indeed, there are things that we can do that AI can’t, and there are values that center us around each other, but by the common historical measures, AI has achieved human intelligence. See the Nature paper for more.
Elsewhere, find a handful of excellent posts about how educators are engaging with (and avoiding) AI in schools and colleges.
Also, see posts about how Anthropic’s Claude has leapt ahead of other AI tools in supporting people in their everyday work lives. I absolutely find this to be true in my own experience. This may be a further reminder that the most human-centered of the AI labs has best figured out how to support humans.
These and more, enjoy!
Peter
What kind of work with AI do 31,000 university courses permit students to do? See the post below for more information.
TECH/AI: FEATURED
“A.I. Is Making Doctors Ask A Question: What Are They Really Good For?”
“The patient says, “Yesterday I woke up dizzy. My arm was dead, and I had trouble speaking.” What does “dizzy” actually mean? It could mean the patient is lightheaded and about to faint. Or it could mean that the room is spinning. A “dead” arm might be numb rather than weak. Someone with an arm that is partially paralyzed may say it feels numb. But a patient might feel a pin if Dr. Schwamm pricks their arm. Is the patient having a stroke? Is this a medical emergency? Dr. Schwamm has years of training that helps him figure out who is sick and who isn’t, he says, and who to not be worried about and who should be admitted to the hospital.”
The Evidence Is Clear: Machines Have Reached Human-Level Intelligence
“In writing this Comment, we approached this question from different perspectives — philosophy, machine learning, linguistics and cognitive science — and reached a consensus after extensive discussion. In what follows, we set out why we think that, once you clear away certain confusions, and strive to make fair comparisons and avoid anthropocentric biases, the conclusion is straightforward: by reasonable standards, including Turing’s own, we have artificial systems that are generally intelligent. The long-standing problem of creating AGI has been solved. Recognizing this fact matters — for policy, for risk and for understanding the nature of mind and even the world itself.”
TECH/AI: EDUCATION
“AI Conversations Are Text. We Can Teach Them That Way.” [Close Reading]
“How Instructors Regulate AI In College” [n=31,000]
“This paper introduces a task-based approach to AI and skill formation to study how instructors regulate student use of AI, predicting that regulation depends on course task composition and the strength of AI capabilities in those tasks. I test these predictions using 31,000 course syllabi representing the full universe of courses at a large public research university from 2021 to 2025, providing novel large-scale longitudinal evidence on instructor responses to AI.”
How One NYC Middle School Uses AI To Drive More Student Collaboration
How Some Teachers Are Eschewing AI, And Others Engaging It
“What The Research Says About Generative AI In Tutoring”
TECH/AI: ETHICS AND RISK
OpenAI Researcher Quits, Proposes Responsible Ethics Oversight (Re: Ads)
Leon Furze Releases Free eBook On Teaching AI Ethics