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Professional development does not always need an hour.
Sometimes teachers need one useful idea, ten focused minutes, and enough information to decide whether it is worth trying.
That is the thinking behind my AI in 10 PD Menu.
My goal with AI in 10 isn't to turn teachers into AI experts. It isn't to introduce every shiny new AI tool that appears—and, let's face it, we would need considerably more than ten minutes to keep up with that anyway.
The goal is much simpler:
Give teachers one practical idea they can use, question, adapt, or explore further.
That became the philosophy behind the series:
Try It. Tweak It. Teach It.
Try It. See what the strategy or tool can actually do.
Tweak It. Decide whether it works for your content, your students, and your teaching style.
Teach It. Take what works and put it into practice.
Ten minutes isn't enough time to master AI.
That's the point.
The goal isn't mastery.
The goal is to start a conversation.
How AI in 10 Started
AI in 10 actually started with a request from my principal.
As part of my role on campus, I am responsible for helping lead our work around artificial intelligence. In fact, my job description literally identifies me as the AI leader for my campus.
So when my principal asked me to provide short AI professional learning during staff meetings, I had to figure out what meaningful AI learning could look like in about ten minutes.
Thus, AI in 10 was born.
The ten-minute format isn't meant to replace the ongoing professional learning opportunities I already provide teachers.
I have Tech Tuesday for that.
Tech Tuesday is where I curate optional resources, videos, tools, tutorials, and ideas teachers can explore individually when something catches their attention or meets an immediate need. Over the years, those posts have included everything from NotebookLM and MagicSchool to Google tools, media literacy resources, Canvas ideas, instructional technology, and plenty of things that have absolutely nothing to do with AI.
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AI in 10 serves a different purpose.
These are brief, focused learning experiences we can do together as a staff.
Each session takes one instructional idea, connects it to AI, gives teachers an opportunity to think about it or try something, and then gets them back to the rest of the staff meeting.
Ten minutes.
One idea.
Something worth thinking about.
Not Everyone Is Excited About AI
I should probably acknowledge something else.
Any time I post publicly about artificial intelligence in education, I can pretty much count on some strong reactions.
Sometimes very strong reactions.
AI is destroying education.
AI is making students lazy.
Teachers shouldn't use it.
Students shouldn't use it.
We should ban it.
We should ignore it.
I've heard versions of all of them.
And I understand some of the concern.
AI raises legitimate questions about academic integrity, privacy, bias, misinformation, intellectual property, assessment, student thinking, and what learning should look like when a machine can produce something that appears remarkably similar to student work.
Those are not insignificant issues.
But here's where I land:
My job isn't to convince teachers to love AI.
It is also not my job to pretend AI doesn't exist.
My job is to help teachers understand what it can do, where it creates legitimate concerns, where it might be useful, and how it is already affecting teaching, learning, assessment, information literacy, and our students.
Ignoring AI doesn't make those questions disappear.
Neither does treating every new AI tool like the greatest thing to happen to education since the pencil.
There is a lot of space between those two extremes.
That's where I want AI in 10 to live.
Why the Menu?
Once I started developing AI in 10 sessions, I needed an easy way for my principal to see what I had ready to go.
That is really why the AI in 10 PD Menu exists.
Instead of emailing a list of possible topics every time we have an upcoming staff meeting, the menu gives her a visual snapshot of the sessions I have prepared. She can look at the options, decide which topic best fits what our staff needs at that point in the year, and choose the next AI in 10 session.
In other words, it really is a menu.
Here’s what’s available. What would you like next?
As I create new sessions, I add them to the menu, so it becomes a growing collection throughout the school year.
There is also a second benefit I really like: the menu gives teachers a place to return to the learning afterward.
Ten minutes during a staff meeting is enough to introduce an idea, try something, and start a conversation. It is not necessarily enough time to remember every detail—or to explore something a teacher decides might actually be useful three weeks later.
Each menu item links back to the presentation, so teachers can revisit a session whenever they need it.
That means the menu serves two audiences:
- For my principal: What AI in 10 sessions are ready, and which one should we do next?
- For my teachers: What have we already learned, and where can I find it again?
And because the menu keeps growing, it also becomes a record of the AI professional learning we've done together over the course of the year.
Same Topic. Deeper Thinking.
One of the first AI in 10 sessions is:
Same Topic. Deeper Thinking.
Using MagicSchool to Build a DOK Question Ladder
This session starts with Depth of Knowledge, not AI.
Teachers explore what DOK actually measures and then use MagicSchool to generate questions at different DOK levels.
From there, the important part begins.
Teachers evaluate the questions.
Which one actually matches the learning target?
Is that really a DOK 3 question?
Would my students understand this wording?
Does this question require deeper thinking, or did AI simply make it sound more complicated?
What would I change?
That distinction matters.
AI can generate a DOK 4 question.
That doesn't automatically make it a good DOK 4 question.
The teacher is still the instructional decision-maker.
And that idea runs throughout AI in 10.
Your New Co-Teacher Is YOU!
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Another session explores something teachers have been doing forever:
Explaining things.
In Your New Co-Teacher Is YOU!, we look at how recorded instruction can give students more control over an explanation.
Students can pause.
Replay.
Rewind.
Listen again.
Revisit something tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the teacher can spend more class time circulating, conferencing, differentiating, coaching, and responding to what students actually need.
And here's the twist:
The "co-teacher" isn't an AI avatar.
It isn't a robot.
It isn't a digital replacement for the teacher.
It's YOU.
Recorded.
Available for replay.
Tools such as Google Vids, Canva, NotebookLM, and curated video can help us create or organize resources, but the expertise students are hearing can still belong to the classroom teacher.
AI doesn't have to replace the teacher.
Sometimes technology simply helps us make the teacher more available.
What in the Jimothy?!
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What in the Jimothy?!
Real, AI, Edited, or Not Enough Evidence?
Because apparently we have reached the point in human history when looking at something online and saying,
"Well, that looks real."
is no longer sufficient evidence that it is real.
This session focuses on AI and media literacy.
Teachers examine digital content and consider whether it is:
- Real
- AI-generated
- Edited
- Or impossible to verify with the evidence available
That last category may be the most important one.
Sometimes the correct answer isn't real.
It isn't fake either.
Sometimes the correct answer is:
I don't have enough evidence yet.
That is a habit of mind our students desperately need in an AI-saturated information environment.
Instead of trusting their first impression, they need to investigate.
Check sources.
Look for evidence.
Trace information back to its origin.
And be willing to withhold judgment when the evidence isn't there.
For a librarian, this may be one of the most important intersections between AI and education.
AI literacy is information literacy.
Make the Thinking Visible
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If AI can successfully complete an assignment while the student's actual thinking remains completely invisible...
What exactly are we assessing?
That is the focus of:
Make the Thinking Visible
AI-Resistant Assignments in 10
I don't particularly love the idea of educators entering an endless arms race trying to design an assignment that AI can never complete.
Today we make something "AI-proof."
Tomorrow AI gets better.
Then we build another wall.
Then AI climbs over that one too.
That doesn't seem like a particularly productive use of anyone's time.
Instead, I think the more useful question is:
How do I design this so I can see what my students actually know and can do?
Teachers use MagicSchool's AI Resistant Assignments tool to examine one of their own assignments and identify practical changes that make student thinking harder to replace.
Maybe students explain why they made a particular decision.
Document part of their process.
Connect their answer to something that happened during class.
Defend a choice.
Revise based on feedback.
Compare their first response with their final one.
Reflect on how their thinking changed.
The goal isn't necessarily to make AI impossible to use.
The goal is to make student thinking visible.
Don't Type It—Talk It
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The newest addition to the menu is:
Don't Type It—Talk It
A Feedback Conference Every Student Can Replay
Teachers give students an enormous amount of written feedback.
Students do not always read an enormous amount of written feedback.
So what if some of that feedback sounded more like the conversations we have with students in person?
A short recorded feedback message allows a teacher to speak directly to a student.
Celebrate what is working.
Coach one or two meaningful revisions.
Clarify something the student misunderstood.
Give them a clear next step.
And unlike a quick conversation during class, the student can replay it.
The goal isn't more feedback.
It is more usable feedback.
Sometimes the most effective use of technology isn't creating something complicated.
Sometimes it is simply finding a better way to communicate with students.
AI Isn't the Learning Goal
That's ultimately what I want AI in 10 to communicate.
I don't want teachers leaving one of these sessions thinking:
"Cool. I learned another AI tool."
I want them leaving thinking:
"That made me think."
Or:
"I could use that."
Or maybe:
"I'm not sure I agree with that."
That's okay too.
Professional learning should make us think.
The technology should support the instructional idea—not become the instructional idea.
Sometimes AI in 10 will involve generating questions.
Sometimes it will involve video.
Sometimes it will involve media literacy.
Sometimes it will involve redesigning an assignment.
Sometimes it will involve giving better feedback.
And sometimes it may involve talking about why we shouldn't use AI for something.
Because AI leadership isn't the same thing as AI cheerleading.
It means helping educators make informed decisions about a technology that is already here.
So throughout the year, I'll continue adding sessions to the menu.
Ten minutes at a time.
One idea at a time.
One conversation at a time.
Try It.
Tweak It.
Teach It.
And then decide what actually belongs in your classroom.
AI Use Disclosure
In the spirit of transparency and responsible AI use, I used ChatGPT to help brainstorm the AI in 10 concept and branding, organize the ideas in this post, and revise portions of the writing for clarity and flow. I reviewed, edited, and approved the final content. The experiences, instructional decisions, examples, and opinions shared here are my own.
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