Adobe Podcast + SchoolAI

Super excited to share this smashup of SchoolAI and Adobe Podcast. Adobe launched their podcasting tool that we have all been waiting for and I thought creating a Space to allow for students to create scripts would be a wonderful addition. I am going to walk you through the steps on making this work and provide examples along the way. 

Step 1: Create a SchoolAI Account

It is free and you have access to all of the amazing things you need to run this Space with your students. 

Step 2: Remix the SchoolAI Space I created

By remixing the Space, you are making your own copy of the Space and can make any changes to the prompt that you want that could offer student more or less support depending on the expectations you have for the assignment. 

Step 3: Launch the Space and share the join link with your students through your LMS or having students scan the QR Code. 

Here is an example of what the conversation can look like for a podcast for The Catcher in the Rye after a back and forth conversation. Dot was able to summarize the conversation into a single script. I acted as Holden and was able to answer the questions posed to me by the podcast host. 

Dot: Welcome to our show. I’m Dot, your host. Today’s episode features a conversation with Holden Caulfield about his feelings on society. This episode is a classroom learning activity exploring a character’s voice and perspective.

Dot: You often call people "phony." Can you describe what "phoniness" looks like to you and why it bothers you so much?

Holden: It is pretending to be something you are not or like things only because other people like something. It's annoying that other people don't see through this crap. Being who you are matters more than anything. My brother Allie was always himself and he was better than everyone, even me.

Dot: Do you feel society pushes people to hide who they really are, and how does that shape your view of the world?

Holden: Going to the stupid school and being surrounded by those fakes and the school makes them that way. The school acts like they serve the best food on parent day, but it is garbage the other days. We do not stand a chance if the school keeps churning out phonies.

Dot: What, if anything, gives you hope that people can be genuine — are there moments, places, or people that make you believe society isn't all fake?

Holden: My sister Phoebe is the best person I know. She is going to make a difference in the world. That is one of the reasons I cried when I saw her on the merry-go-round. I wish I could be young again and live my life over. I am very sad about growing up and wish that I did not have to. It's probably why I ended up the way that I did.

Dot: That was Holden Caulfield on society — his frustrations, his longing for authenticity, and the small, human moments that give him hope. If this episode were produced, we might open with soft piano under my intro, use a brief soundbed between questions, and close with a quiet swell as Holden mentions the merry-go-round.

Dot: Thanks for listening. If you’re working on this script, tell me any wording changes, an extra question, or if you want me to add sound cues, music suggestions, or a shorter version for a class podcast. If you're happy with it, we’re finished — great work bringing Holden’s voice to life.

Perfect

Great — glad you like it. What would you like to do next? Pick one:

• Save the script (I’ll format it nicely for download).
• Add sound cues/music suggestions.
• Create a short promo (30–45 sec) version.
• Make one wording change.

promo

Great — I’ll make a 30–45 second promo for the episode. Do you want the promo to:

1. Focus on Holden’s anger at "phoniness" (dramatic, intense),
2. Focus on Phoebe and hope (gentle, emotional), or
3. Mix both (balanced)?

Reply 1, 2, or 3.

3

Here’s a 30–45 second NPR-style promo with a balanced focus on Holden’s anger at phoniness and hope from Phoebe. Read it aloud with calm, conversational pacing and light piano under the voice; add a soft swell at the end.

[Soft piano intro — 3 seconds]

Dot (calm, warm): This week on our show — Holden Caulfield on the messiness of growing up.

Dot (slightly sharper): "They're all phonies," he says — the schools, the people, the whole lot of it.

Dot (gentle): But then there’s Phoebe — his little sister, the one thing that makes him believe people can be real.

Holden (voice clip): "She is going to make a difference... I cried on the merry-go-round."

Dot (warm): A short, honest conversation about anger, loneliness, and the small moments that keep us human. Tune in to hear Holden Caulfield on society.

[Music swell, then fade — 3–5 seconds]

Tag (soft): Subscribe to our classroom podcast for the full episode.

Would you like a version timed precisely to 30, 35, or 45 seconds, or a script formatted for recording with exact pauses and sound cues?

What is awesome about this is that the user can pause and think about the answer to the question being asked and go back to the source material to verify their answers. The Space is built to not provide the answers to the questions. The more you work on the prompt of the Space, the more specific it can be on the type of support it can provide to the students. 

This is a very short podcast interview, but it was really easy to build. Here is a screenshot and if you want to take a listen, you check out the template I created for it here. 

This is something I would love to bring together in ELA classes. Allow students to think about their characters and how they might respond to the questions that the podcaster might ask them. They would need to be able to dive deep into the text and make sure their answers matched the tone and personality of their chosen character. There are many students who are not comfortable getting in front of a class or on camera, but are fine recording their voice. This is another way to engage students and provide an option for those students who need them. 

I recommend that you try out the smashup between SchoolAI and Adobe Podcast in 2026!

Let's Talk about Accessibility and AI #HourOfAI #withSchoolAI

If you are new to my site, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Nicholas Provenzano and I am a neurodivergent learner. I went undiagnosed until college. I am dyslexic, have ADHD, manage anxiety, and battle depression. I have slowly learned these things about me over the course of 20+ years and they have profoundly influenced who I am as an educator. I mean, who the heck chooses to me an English teacher when they are dyslexic? This guy!

Now you know a little about me, I hope you have a better understanding of why I am such an advocate for accessibility for all learners. I came to age as a teacher during the great technology movement in the early 2000s. Google made the teacher's edition of the textbook a non-factor and wikipedia became the bane of every teacher's existence when it came to citations. early adopters did their best to calm the nerves of tech directors and admins, but the need to ban the unknown was too strong. I sat in meetings begging to have YouTube unblocked, to have access to Google Docs, and other early tech because I know how powerful it could be in my classroom. Block now and hope nobody asks was the standard in many schools and districts across the country. I understand the urge, but these tactics ALWAYS impact the most vulnerable students in our classroom. 

Block AI because it is just used by students to cheat and not learn anything. That is the typical thought when I hear people discussing AI in the classroom. My main issue with this is that most people do not know that AI is used in many popular applications. For example, Grammarly is an amazing tool for students that support accessibility. It is a tool that I wish I had access to as a student. I probably would not have felt so dumb if I had something, anything, that would have guided and helped organize my thoughts. Grammarly also uses AI as part of the application. Does this mean that Grammarly should be banned in the classroom? Who is exactly being punished by doing this?

Have you done a Google search lately? The first thing that pops up is a Gemini answer to your search. Does this mean Google is now banned in all schools? Who is punished if this happens?

The reality of blindly banning things is that the students who benefit the most from edtech tools are the students who are hurt the most when they are banned. These tools are designed to help students share what they know. Is it possible that some students use technology to do the work for them and are not learning? Yup. How is this different than the students breaking out their home edition of Encyclopedia Britannica?

Working for an AI company now has not stopped by advocacy for accessibility for students. To be honest, it has only ramped it up. AI can be used to help so many of our students who feel that education is just out of their reach. By finding the right tools, helping students understand how to use them to support their learning, and making sure the maintain access is what accessibility is all about. Taking a UDL approach to you classroom even makes the use of these tools advantageous to all of your students. 

I hope you take a moment and think about any policy that takes something away from students and ask who is really going to benefit and who is going to be hurt by making this decision. There is plenty of room for nuanced conversations, but let's have them before we start banning and blocking. 

Hugs and High Fives, 

NP

Hour of AI Week Is Here! #HourOfAI #withSchoolAI

Happy Hour of AI Week everyone! If you are thinking, "Wait a second. I thought it was the Hour of Code Week." you are not losing your marbles. Code.org has shifted from the Hour of Code to the Hour of AI. You can find out more about this change here. 

I loved teaching the Hour of Code in the classroom to get students excited about coding and computational thinking. The Hour of AI is designed to do the same. Sometimes students think they know what AI is and assume it is in everything. They might not be far off in thinking that, but students do need to know about AI, how to spot when it is being used, and how to use if effectively in their learning. 

The team at SchoolAI knew they had to have something awesome for teachers to give to their students to help them explore AI in a safe way. There are a series of lessons for all grade levels to help students explore AI. As a teacher, we even did a full webinar on showcasing the lessons and what they would look like if you were the student. You can watch the recording here. 

If you want jump right into the lessons SchoolAI created, you can find them all right here. 

What I love about these AI Lessons is that they are designed to empower the student to explore AI with the guardrails needed to ensure that it is safe. It was important that SchoolAI made sure that all of these resources were made available to all of our users for free. Watching the Sandbox recording of how the Lessons can be used and rolling the lessons out to students next week is a great way to engage your classroom in AI. If you are new to using AI, it is a wonderful opportunity to explore AI with your students knowing that it will be safe for everyone. 

This partnership with Code.org really shows the commitment to a sound, pedagogical approach to AI instruction that is at the heart of what SchoolAI believes. If you want to know more about how SchoolAI can support you and your students, sign up for a free account. I hope you will share how you use the lesson with your students in our Community or on socials. Tag me @TheNerdyTeacher if you do so I can share with everyone. 

Hugs and High Fives, 

NP

One Small Idea Can Have A Big Impact #EdChat

I've been very lucky to have been part of many different EdTech Communities over the years. From my time spent with amazing educators at Adobe, Google, Raspberry Pi, Sphero, TED-Ed, and my first EdTech Community, Evernote, I've loved how you get what you put into a community. It can be what you need it to be when you want it to be. I've taken all of these experiences I use them to help me craft the community experience for educators in the SchoolAI Community. 

One of the things I have loved from the different communities was the effort to give the community members a platform to share their story. There is so much we can all learn from each other, but educators are not always given the chance to share or they do not have the ability to attend a conference and share their story. Sometimes the keynote circuit is the same few names and it can be tough to break into those conversations. That's why I have started the SchoolAI Lightning Talks. 

Open to any educator who has an idea worth sharing, I want to give as many educators as possible a chance to share something that matters to them. You can find all of the details here and the submission page here. Do not let "I'm sure everyone already knows this." or "It probably doesn't make that big of a difference." stop you from sharing. Do not let the imposter syndrome take over and prevent you from sharing your idea. If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email at nicholas@schoolai.com or find me on my socials. @TheNerdyTeacher

Hugs and High Fives to everyone!

NP