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 aren’t enough. This is about why depth matters and how deeper learning offers a way forward that’s practical, sustainable, and rooted in what really works.

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The Challenges Are Real

Mike leans across the table with the weary look of a fifth grade teacher who just crossed the marathon finish line. He looks exhausted. I can sense that he needs a solid two weeks sitting out by the pool with his Kindle and a cold beverage.

But today, he’s traveled from the west valley to Chandler to meet up for a pint. Mike is the kind of teacher every kid should have at least once. Creative. Thoughtful. Dynamic. Kind but with high standards. He makes history come alive with engaging simulations. He reads novels out loud with voices for every character and uses that to spark the love of reading. He manages to make math feel like a puzzle worth solving.

But right now, he just looks tired. But it’s more than the typical teacher tired.

“I feel like I’m stuck in the middle of five different worlds,” he said. “I’m getting pressure to integrate more tech, but half the kids are zoned out watching videos on their Chromebooks and it’s like a game of whack-a-mole keeping them on the right sites. Then there’s the whole AI thing. I’ve changed the writing prompts we do but when I don’t . . . it’s like I’m stuck being the plagiarism detective. Admin wants more rigor.”

“I hate that word.”

“Me, too,” he says. “I’m tired.”

I nod.

He shakes his head, takes a sip of his Mexican lager, and stares off for a second. “And the apathy. Most of the kids are great but a few don’t seem care. Like, not even a little. And I’ve always felt like I could reach all of my students by the end of the year.”

I let the silence sit for a moment.

“The hardest part is that I know I should self-reflect. I should be confident as a teacher. But I sometimes just want a reminder that I’m making a difference,” he adds.

I wait for a moment, staring at my beer and then say. “Mike, you literally got your students doing 30 minutes of silent reading by choice. Not because it’s assigned or graded, but because they’re hooked on books. You ran a service learning project that got kids thinking outside of themselves. You did that last day of school maker sprint, right?”

He gives me a half-smile, that kind that says maybe you’re right but I still feel tired, and we clinked glasses.

“You’d be a great hype man,” he says.

Even if we no longer live in the same state, I guarantee that Mike’s students are taking ownership and solving real problems. Mike is building something deeper in a culture that often pushes things toward the shallow. He’s fighting for meaning in the midst of noise. In an instant culture, he’s building something that lasts. But this is also a reminder for me that there are two very real pitfalls that Mike has managed to avoid.

 

The Two Common Pitfalls

In this climate, it’s tempting to reach for a big, bold solution. But not every solution works the same. There are actually two common pitfalls I’ve noticed in how we respond to these challenges.

Trap #1: Rigid Reactivity

Rigid reactivity shows up when we double down on rules, restrictions, and routines in an effort to “restore order.” It’s the instinct to bring back the desk rows, cut out group work, ban phones completely, and shift back to lectures as the default. When the classroom feels chaotic—when students seem distracted or disengaged—it’s tempting to tighten the screws and lean hard into structure. The message becomes clear: no room for noise, no space for mess, no time for experimentation.

And honestly, it makes sense. There’s comfort in control. It’s familiar. There’s a certain nostalgia to it—teachers remember a time when it “worked,” or at least when it looked like it did. Rows were straight, voices were quiet, everyone turned in their homework on time. The rigidity offers a false sense of clarity, a way to feel like you’re back in the driver’s seat when things feel off the rails.

But what gets lost in that equation is what students need most right now—inquiry, autonomy, adaptability. When we respond to disruption with restriction, we might get short-term compliance, but it’s often at the cost of long-term engagement. Students might be quiet, but that doesn’t mean they’re curious. They might follow directions, but that doesn’t mean they care. It’s all surface—and in a world already full of shallow, we can’t afford to keep trading depth for order.

Trap #2: Candy-Coated Competition

Candy-coated competition is what happens when we try to mimic the very distractions we’re up against, thinking that if we can’t beat the algorithms, we might as well join them. It shows up as an over-reliance on extrinsic rewards, dopamine-driven edtech apps, and content that’s been “TikTok-ified” down to tiny bites of flashy entertainment. I once met a vendor who pitched a platform for middle school math where every lesson was a 15-second video. “It’s perfect,” he said, “because that’s their attention span.” I wanted to say, Or maybe that’s the problem. No. Just no.

I get the appeal. It’s marketed as engagement. It’s fun. Personalized. Gamified. You get dashboards and avatars and badges and just enough sparkle to feel like you’re winning. It scratches that itch, especially when kids seem tuned out. You press play, and suddenly they’re “into it.” The admin sees smiles. The data dashboard shows green.

But here’s what’s missing: authentic challenge, meaningful depth, real agency. When everything is built around short bursts of stimulation, we teach kids to crave novelty and reward but not to wrestle with ideas or stick with a task when it gets hard. They become addicted to the quick fix but lose the stamina for deep thinking. It’s not that fun and learning can’t coexist. They absolutely can. But when candy becomes the core diet, don’t be surprised when they’re too wired to sit with real learning.

 

Why These Aren’t Enough

On the surface, these two approaches seem to be opposite ends of the spectrum. Rigid Reactivity focuses on obedience at the detriment of curiosity and self-direction. Candy-Coated Competition aims for entertainment-driven engagement without deeper thinking or endurance. But there’s also a common element in both approaches. They’re inherently reactive. It’s a sharp contrast to Mike’s proactive approach that addresses the core challenges of distraction, engagement, and a lack of resilience.

I understand the pull of both pitfalls. Over the last twenty-two years of teaching, I have tried to be entertaining to compete with the culture. I have also had times when I responded by going old school. And, some nuance here, both of these two pitfalls both have some element of truth. Sometimes we do need to reject the current tech (which is why I say “put away devices” and why I like a default of smartphone bans in K-12). Sometimes we do need to use the language of pop culture and be a little entertaining. But the core issue one of reactivity.

Neither of these two approaches addresses the root issue: our students need stamina, agency, and meaningful challenge. We need an approach that meets the current reality with substance and sustainability; one that embraces depth over distraction.

 

What is Deeper Learning?

Our world is changing in profound ways, with technology continuing to transform our economy, our jobs, and our political systems. It’s changing the way we consume media, how we interact with one another, and even our attention span and focus.

Now, with the rise of machine learning, we can’t predict how our future will continue to change. For years, we were taught a formula. Work hard at school. Graduate from college. Then climb the corporate ladder.

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But the ladder is gone and in its place is a complex maze.

This presents huge challenges but also big opportunities for our students. The scary thing is the rules are changing. The exciting thing is our students will get the rewrite those rules.

Here’s where deeper learning makes a difference.

Deeper learning isn’t a trendy program or a flashy new curriculum. It’s not a magical formula or a quick-fix solution. Instead, it’s an approach to education that focuses on depth in a culture that can sometimes be shallow. Deeper focus, deeper engagement, deeper resilience, deeper mastery. It’s the notion of learning the content in a way that sticks while also developing the habits, mindsets, and skills that they will need as they navigate the maze of a complex future.

Deeper learning includes eight key competencies. The first is focus. This is about deeper attention in a distracted world. Next is mastery, where students gain deeper understanding in the age of instant answers. This often includes slower, more productive work that goes beyond the standardized test.

This leads to better problem-solving, which will help students develop deeper thinking in a world of smart machines. This is especially vital in an age with wicked problems, where the solution often leads to a new problem.

While problem-solving is critical, students also need to find the problems. When students develop curiosity, they engage in deeper discovery within a sea of information.

In a complex maze, students will need to be self-directed. They’ll need to be self-starters and self-managers. Here they develop deeper drive in a changing world. And along the way, they’ll run into barriers, which is why they need resilience, where they exude deeper effort when faced with big challenges.

But they won’t be alone in the maze, which is why students need to develop collaboration. This includes deeper connection in an isolated and often lonely world.

Finally, they’ll need to become master communicators. who can find deeper divergence in a surrounded by sameness. In other words, they’ll have to take the vanilla and create something unique.

Here they’ll need to develop their creative voice, cultivate empathy with an audience, and engage in contextual thinking.

Ultimately, when we embrace deeper learning, students gain the depth advantage that they will need in a complex and constantly changing world. On a more academic level, it’s what will help lead to application, connection, and transfer so the learning can stick. 

 

How Does Deeper Learning Address Our Biggest Challenges?

The challenges we face in education right now are real. Distraction is everywhere, but students can learn to build sustained focus through meaningful work that captures their attention. In a world of AI and instant answers, deeper mastery and real problem-solving help students move beyond surface-level responses into true understanding.

When students seem disengaged, the answer isn’t more entertainment. It’s curiosity and self-direction, where they get to ask questions, follow their interests, and take ownership of the process. For the ones who want to give up, we create space for resilience, helping them stick with the struggle and bounce back from failure.

And in a time when so many students feel disconnected, collaboration and communication give them a sense of belonging and purpose, reminding them that learning is something we do together.

 

A Habit, A Skill, and a Mindset

At its core, deeper learning is a pedagogical model. It’s an approach to teaching that moves away from shallow learning and into deeper mastery, deeper engagement, and deeper effort. But that’s at the teacher level. At the student level, deeper learning is a skill that students can master, a habit that students can develop, and a mindset that students can internalize.

Deeper learning is a skill that students master because it requires deliberate practice that improves over time. These are skills that we need to explicitly teach and assess on a regular basis. We can also empower students to self-assess how well they are progressing through each of these competencies.

But deeper learning is also a habit. Students cultivate deeper learning through consistent practice and intentional effort. Our students live in a world of constant distractions, with notifications pinging incessantly. They use apps designed to be addictive. So, deeper learning needs to be habitual. Students will need to develop the habit of sustained attention. They’ll need to learn to slow down and engage deeply with information, questioning assumptions, and persisting through challenges. By designing experiences where deeper learning is the norm, we can help students internalize it as an ongoing practice rather than a one-time effort.

As students develop the habit of deeper learning, they are more likely to internalize it as a mindset. It grows into a way of approaching learning that moves beyond surface-level answers. Here, they see that knowledge is interconnected. They embrace challenges and grow resilient. Over time, students learn to seek out complexity, embrace uncertainty, and remain engaged in lifelong learning. They have the depth advantage in an ever-changing world.

Note that these deeper learning competencies don’t happen in isolation. When students solve problems, they gain mastery. When they collaborate, they communicate. When they are self-directed, they grow resilient.

Let’s Build on Our Successes

I’ve seen so many teachers wrestling with the questions, “Am I doing enough? Am I doing it right?” These questions often come from a place of care, from a deep desire to make learning meaningful. And while the pressure can feel overwhelming, the truth is, you’re likely already doing more than you realize.

Deeper learning isn’t always a massive shift. Sometimes it’s already present in the small choices you make—the routines you build, the questions you ask, the moments you help students build resilience. The goal is to ask, “What am I already doing?” and build on that. Then ask, “What is a small tweak I can make to take things to the next level?”

That reflective journaling routine you use at the end of a lesson? That’s communication and resilience in action. The group STEM challenge where students sketch, test, and revise? That’s collaboration and problem-solving. When a student revises their personal narrative for the third time or sticks with a math problem after failing twice, they’re building mastery, persistence, and confidence. These aren’t add-ons. They are deeper learning moments already happening in your classroom.

It’s not about having it all figured out. It’s not about perfect systems or flawless lessons. It’s about purpose. It’s about seeing the long game and committing to the kind of learning that sticks. Every time you choose depth over speed, substance over flash, and intention over impulse, you’re doing the work that matters most. Keep going.

 

Let’s Dive Deeper!

You became a teacher because you believe in real learning. Not just test scores or checklists, but the kind of learning that sticks. The kind that shapes who students become. It’s easy to lose sight of that mission in the rush of deadlines, distractions, and demands. But the deeper purpose is still there, and it still matters. You’re here because you care about creating something meaningful for your students, your classroom, and your own practice.

The good news is, you’re not starting from scratch. The tools are there. The insight is there. And you’re not alone in this. If you’re looking for a place to start, I’ve created a resource that digs deeper into the heart of this work. It’s not a pitch. It’s a starting point. Download Chapter One of The Depth Advantage, titled “Depth Over Distraction,” and use it in whatever way is helpful.

You can grab it below. Also, check out the free deeper learning resources at depthadvantage.com.