Podcast Archives - John Spencer

Sep 10 2025

The Surprising Element for Empowering Your Students in Collaboration

By John Spencer Creativity, Depth Advantage, Empowering Students, Podcast No Comments

Collaboration is one of the most powerful forces in learning. Yet it can also be one of the hardest things to cultivate. Too often, students struggle to share ideas, listen to one another, or take creative risks. At the center of this struggle is something…

Sep 02 2025

10 Creative Risks to Take With Your Students This Year

By John Spencer Innovation, Mindsets, Podcast 2 Comments

As the year begins, we are all thinking about the idea of building a classroom community. Although I am no longer at the K-12 level, I am reminded of the power of community as I think about the cohort I lead that's now in their…

Aug 22 2025

How Deeper Learning Can Address Summer Learning Loss

By John Spencer Creativity, Depth Advantage, Podcast No Comments

Every year, we hear news reports about the "summer slide," or the summer learning loss. Students arrive to school behind where they left off in May or June. This is a real challenge. But there's more to the story. So, in this week's article, I…

Aug 07 2025

How Will AI Transform the Teaching Profession? Four Trends to Consider

By John Spencer Artificial Intelligence, Podcast 6 Comments

Machine learning is changing our world in profound ways. It will impact the way we learn and the way we teach. In today's article and podcast, I want share a few big ideas on what that might look like. I'll share some questions we might…

Jul 29 2025

Back to School in the Age of AI

By John Spencer Artificial Intelligence, Podcast One Comment

Throughout this summer, I've had the opportunity to lead professional development on ethical AI integration throughout the United States. In some cases, it's been a keynote and customized sessions. In other cases, it's been a deep dive 1-3 day workshop. The audience has ranged from…

Jul 17 2025

Six Ways to Empower Students to Own the Classroom Community

By John Spencer Empowering Students, Podcast 3 Comments

When AJ Juliani and I co-wrote the book Empower, we focused on the ways that students could own the learning process. It's the core idea of shifting from being teacher-centered toward being more student-centered. We often talk about what it means to move from compliance…

Jul 01 2025

The Slow Work of Great Teaching – Why Speed Can’t Be the Only Metric for Student Success

By John Spencer Depth Advantage, Podcast 2 Comments

When I was a student, I thought I was a top tier reader. My teacher didn't do numbers for our reading groups. She chose large cats. But I knew that it was better to be a Lion than an Ocelot. I knew my reading level.…

Jun 04 2025

Deeper Learning is a Better Path Forward

By John Spencer Creativity, Depth Advantage, Podcast No Comments

Teaching has always been challenging, but right now it feels heavier. In this piece, I share a conversation with Mike, a fifth-grade teacher who’s feeling the weight of tech distractions, AI-written essays, student apathy, and the pressure to do it all. The usual quick fixes…

May 21 2025

Teachers Are the Champions of Depth in a Culture of Distractions

By John Spencer Creativity, Depth Advantage, Podcast No Comments

In classrooms across the country, something subtle but powerful is taking shape. Amidst the distractions, the surface-level shortcuts, and the pressure to speed everything up, I’ve seen students quietly shift from passive to active. They've gone from compliant to curious and from distracted to dialed…

Apr 29 2025

Why Deeper Learning Is a Critical Advantage in the Age of AI

By John Spencer Creativity, Depth Advantage, Podcast One Comment

The future is unpredictable. So, when we try to design learning experiences that "prepare students for the future," we have to recognize that we don't always know what they'll need. In this article, I explore the counterintuitive reality that the best way to prepare students…