Points that never reset

The mechanic

The all-time leaderboard

An all-time points leaderboard ranks participants by total points earned over the entire duration of a game, course, or competition. Unlike weekly leaderboards, points never reset — so students see their long-term progress and compete for the top spot all year.

For your classroom, you could use it to reward more than just grades. Students might earn points for completing assignments, demonstrating mastery, helping teammates, finishing bonus challenges, and showing creativity. To keep the rigor, award the most points for demonstrating understanding and applying knowledge, rather than simply completing work.

The key consideration: all-time leaderboards motivate students who are already near the top, but students who fall far behind may stop trying if first place feels impossible. Consider pairing it with weekly leaderboards, personal-best achievements, and team competitions, so every student has a reason to keep earning points.

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Ethical AI

A reading assistant, not a replacement

Summarizing dense academic papers with AI can help educators quickly identify an article’s central argument, supporting evidence, research methods, and implications for classroom practice. Instead of spending hours working through technical language, teachers can use AI to generate an initial summary, explain unfamiliar terminology, and identify the author’s key conclusions. But a summary is only as useful as its accuracy. AI may overlook important qualifications, misinterpret statistical findings, or present an author’s speculation as established fact.

The key is to use AI as a reading assistant rather than a replacement for critical thinking. Verify the summary against the original paper, paying particular attention to the research methods, limitations, and the evidence supporting the conclusions. Asking AI to distinguish between the author’s findings and their recommendations can also prevent misunderstandings. AI can make academic research more accessible and save real time, but educators still have to evaluate the quality of the research and decide whether its findings are relevant to their students and their practice.

Now. Turn this around for your students.

We all want them to read more. This is a way to give them a reading assistant of their own. Two things should happen. First, reading comprehension will increase, because they are using tools that help them understand what they are reading. Second, their reticence to read will decrease as it becomes more fluid for them.

Reading gets less stressful when students feel like they can actually read without criticism.

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The read

What they produce vs what they learn

Braff — CheatGPT: A Fable

“CheatGPT: A Fable” uses humor and satire to highlight the challenges artificial intelligence presents to education, particularly when it comes to academic rigor and assessing student learning. The author’s animal characters represent different types of students and demonstrate how AI can amplify existing strengths and weaknesses. The orangutan uses AI to improve already excellent work, while the fox uses it to meet assignment requirements with minimal effort. The horse continues producing work without demonstrating meaningful understanding, and the bernedoodle finds ways to avoid the work altogether. These examples illustrate an important point: producing a high-quality assignment is not necessarily the same as mastering the material. As AI makes it easier to generate polished responses, educators must reconsider whether traditional assignments and grading practices accurately measure student knowledge and skills.

The article’s greatest strength is its challenge to educators to maintain rigor in a world where students can use AI to complete assignments more efficiently. However, the author focuses more on identifying the problem than developing solutions. Rather than assuming that AI use automatically lowers academic standards, teachers should consider how to design assignments that require critical thinking, application, and independent reasoning. For example, students might use AI to generate an explanation of a scientific concept, then have to identify errors, support their conclusions with evidence, and defend their reasoning. These approaches maintain high expectations while allowing students to use technology as a learning tool. True rigor is not about making assignments harder or requiring students to complete everything by hand; it is about ensuring that students engage deeply with the content and demonstrate genuine understanding.

Ultimately, the article reinforces the need to shift our focus from what students produce to what they actually learn. AI can help students organize ideas, improve writing, and explore complex concepts, but it cannot replace the teacher’s responsibility to evaluate student understanding. Educators must develop assessments that make student thinking visible and require learners to explain, defend, and apply their knowledge rather than simply submit a polished final product. This is especially important because a student who cannot explain an assignment without AI may not have mastered the material, regardless of the grade earned. Maintaining rigor in the age of AI means raising the bar for demonstrated understanding, not simply restricting access to technology. The challenge for educators is to adapt their teaching and assessment practices without sacrificing the critical thinking, problem-solving, and authentic learning that education is meant to develop.

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Field notes

Right hand, left hand

I was observed recently. A couple of admin, teachers, and academic specialists visited and watched me teach a lesson. At this point, most people might shift into putting on a show. I know that in years past, I surely have. I used to have extra things prepared and trained my students on how to act. But I have since learned something very important.

After 20+ years of teaching, that snapshot is not who I am as a teacher.

I don’t teach one subject. I am a science teacher for sure. But I am always teaching literacy no matter the lesson. (I think that confused one of the observers.) And I now incorporate computer science wherever I can. Education is powerful. These students are using AI and other digital resources without much guidance or oversight. The very least I can do is try to make a dent in that. Well. Maybe a dimple?

But here is one of the buzz word terms lately. Student engagement. Are they engaged? If not, then they must not be learning.

In my class, if I ask an external question (I preface all questions with internal or external expectations), the students do not have to stop what they are doing to answer. If they know the answer or agree, they raise their right hands. If they do not, or do not want to be called on, they raise their left hands. Students with no hands up are ALWAYS called upon to give a response. I don’t need to see their eyes or try to make them excited to answer. I need them to feel safe in my class to answer as they feel comfortable doing.

The reactions were mixed amongst the observers. I didn’t take the time to make sure they understood what was going on. To be fair, they didn’t either.

Teach, my friends. You are the expert in that class. You know those students. Teach. Be teachable. The hand-raising technique is new to me — I only started using it recently. TEACH! You got this and I believe in you!