Being Coachable When You Have No Idea What You're Doing #EdTech

In my last post, I wrote about feeling like an imposter and how that is something many people feel at one point or another in their career journey. Leaving the classroom after over 20 years was scary. I finally felt like I knew what I was doing and I had crushed most of those imposter feelings. Then I decided to leave the classroom and start all over again.

Now I'm a rookie and those feelings are back.

The good news is that I've been a rookie before. If I take the same approach I did as a teacher and surround myself with amazing people who are willing to mentor me, ask lots of questions, and be willing to learn, I should be in a good spot.

Since I started my corporate life, I've gone from Curriculum Manager, to Community Manager, to Senior Manager of Advocate and Champions Program, and some new duties this past month will likely lead to another title change. I have been surrounded by amazing mentors who have been helping me grow along the way without it ever really feeling like I was being taught or mentored. I'm invited into meetings to see how things work, I have been given parts of projects to manage, and the next thing I know, I'm managing entire projects.

Looking back at it now, I can see the scaffolding.

As a teacher, this is something I did with students all the time. You don't just hand a student something completely new and complicated and tell them to figure it out. You give them some support, see what they can do, and slowly pull back as they become more comfortable.

It turns out that is exactly what people have been doing with me.

The key to this growth has been being coachable.

One of my managers said I am one of the most coachable people he has worked with. I thought that was funny because it was said as if being coachable is an option.

Apparently, it is.

Maybe that is the teacher mentality in me. There are things I do not know and I want to know them. I have to figure out how to learn them and go from there. That just seems normal to me.

As a teacher, things didn't work all the time. Lessons bombed. Students didn't understand something that I thought was perfectly clear. A new tool came along that I needed to figure out. I would ask questions, get feedback, make some changes, and try again.

That's the job.

I didn't realize until entering the business world that being willing to do those things is actually a valuable professional skill.

I've also started to realize that being coachable means you have to be willing to admit that you don't know things.

That is tough when imposter syndrome is hanging around.

Imposter syndrome tells you to hide the things you don't know because someone might figure out you don't belong.

Being coachable requires you to admit you don't know something because that is the only way you are going to learn it.

I'm trying really hard to listen to the second one.

The business world is interesting in that upward mobility is an expectation for many people. Teaching is different. Once you have your classroom, you are pretty much set. Unless you want to become an administrator or move into another position, you can be a teacher for the next 30 years. You can get better and better at what you do without your title ever changing.

That was one of the biggest adjustments for me.

I was so happy to start as a Curriculum Manager. I'm good at building curriculum. I had been doing some version of that for years, so it felt comfortable.

Then there was a chance to manage the community. I've spent years being part of different education and edtech communities, so it made sense to take that experience and leverage it into building out a community.

Every step along the way, there was someone offering little nuggets of advice and opportunities for growth.

Sit in on this meeting.

Take this part of the project.

What do you think about this?

Can you handle this?

As a textbook people pleaser, my answer was usually yes.

Then I would do everything I could to make sure it was done to the very best of my abilities.

The important part, though, was what happened next. Someone would give me another little nugget of feedback. I would take that feedback and use it on the next project. Then the next project would be a little bigger. I would get more feedback and use that on the project after that.

It was basically the same cycle over and over again.

Opportunity. Try. Feedback. Learn. Bigger opportunity. Repeat.

I get asked pretty often about how a person can make the transition out of the classroom and into the business world. The more I think about it, the more I believe being coachable is key.

Teachers who are thinking about leaving the classroom can get caught up thinking about all of the things they don't know.

I don't know business.

I don't know marketing.

I don't know sales.

I don't understand how corporate teams work.

I don't know what half of these acronyms mean.

I didn't either.

I still don't know plenty of them.

But I think teachers sometimes overlook one of the most valuable skills they bring with them when they leave the classroom.

We know how to learn.

Teachers are constantly learning, adjusting, trying new things, failing, getting feedback, and trying again. We do it so often that we might not even think of it as a skill.

It is.

Maybe the way through imposter syndrome isn't convincing yourself that you already know what you're doing. Maybe it's being comfortable admitting that you don't know what you're doing yet and finding people who are willing to help you figure it out.

That's what I did when I was a rookie teacher.

I asked questions. I watched people who were better than me. I tried things. I screwed things up. I listened to feedback. Then I tried again.

More than 20 years later, I'm a rookie again.

It turns out, I already know how to be one.

The Imposter Syndrome is Real #EdTech

"Pretty soon, everyone is going to see that I do not belong here."

Whether it was as a student, an athlete, a teacher, and now in the business world, some version of that sentence has always run through my head.

The feeling that you do not belong can hang over everything you do. Every meeting and every presentation feels like a performance where you are just waiting for someone in the audience to start booing because they have finally figured out that you have no idea what the heck you are doing.

It can be exhausting.

Despite accolades, top marks on evaluations, positive feedback from managers, and plenty of evidence that I might actually know what I'm doing, there is still this lingering feeling that it is all a show and someone is eventually going to figure me out.

I share all of this because I know there is someone else out there who feels the same way. Maybe you need to hear that those feelings are mostly a bunch of BS.

Take a moment and think about all of the people in your life who seem like they have their crap together.

Now think about how many of them are probably figuring things out as they go.

Are there people out there who actually have it all together? Possibly, but I've never met one.

I think most of us are doing our best with what we know today and hoping that is good enough until we know a little more tomorrow. Maybe we're not really "faking it until we make it." Maybe we're just learning as we go and hoping nobody notices how much learning is actually happening.

Teaching is a perfect example of this.

Those first five years are basically spent treading water. Everyone knows the new teacher is going to struggle in a bunch of different ways. You are surrounded by veteran teachers who seem like they have it all together, and you assume they were probably like that on their first day in the classroom.

They weren't.

They struggled too.

The good ones help and mentor you when they can. If it is done right, you might not even realize they are helping you grow. They share a lesson. They give you a suggestion. They tell you how they handled a student. They stop by after a particularly terrible day and remind you that tomorrow is another one.

Then, somewhere around year five, something changes.

You realize you can actually do this.

You look back at some of those lessons from your first few years and realize they were terrible. Just absolutely terrible.

But they were the best you could do at the time because you were trying not to drown in the Education Ocean.

Eventually, you learned how to swim.

After more than 20 years in the classroom, I was pretty comfortable in that ocean. I knew what I was doing. I knew what I didn't know. More importantly, I had enough experience to know that I could probably figure out the things I didn't know.

Then I left the classroom and jumped into an entirely different ocean.

I'm a rookie again.

Of course I feel like an imposter sometimes.

I'm new at this.

Maybe that is the part of imposter syndrome I need to get more comfortable with. Feeling like I don't know what I'm doing doesn't necessarily mean I don't belong. Sometimes it just means I'm doing something I've never done before.

Maybe I'm not an imposter.

Maybe I'm just a beginner again.

I also think there is a healthy amount of imposter syndrome that can be good for us. A little bit of self-doubt keeps you honest. It makes you ask questions. It pushes you to learn. It reminds you that there are people in the room who know things you don't, and maybe you should listen to them.

The problem is when you feel like a fraud but refuse to do anything to level up your learning.

After a while, that isn't imposter syndrome.

That's a decision.

So, I'm trying to get comfortable being a rookie again.

I don't need to know everything right now. I do need to keep learning. I need to ask questions. I need to surround myself with people who know more than I do and be willing to listen when they offer advice.

I did that when I was a new teacher, and eventually I learned how to swim.

Hopefully, I can do it again.

I think the key is being coachable and that will be the topic of my next post. 

Where have all the tweeters gone? #EdTech #EdChat

This Summer, I've had the opportunity to spend some time with friends that were part of the OG education social media movement. We all have been friends for a number of years, but more passing ships in the night as we all got busy with family and careers. 

All of us had a few moments were we looked at the education landscape and longed, to a degree, where we could jump on twitter during a conference and see all of the learning around us. We could use one of dozens of hashtags to share something or learning something. Twitter, and blogs, were where educators could be found. Today, that doesn't seem to be true. 

Blogs as we knew them are few and far between and Twitter chats died and X is now a hellscape. Many of tried to make Threads or Mastodon or BlueSky happen, but it was a successful as making "fetch" a thing. I often wonder if I am just an old guy longing for the past and ignoring all of the places where educators are excelling and sharing their stories. 

I've seen the Instagram videos and TikToks and Youtube shorts where people are showcasing their brands or giving 30 -60 second tips and tricks, but the discourse seems to be gone. Twitter was a place to push thinking and challenge accepted norms. You could use it to share your long form thoughts from your blog and people could engage with that content. Is this sort of connection simply lost? 

My last post was entitles Evolutions and maybe the edtech space has just evolved into something that I simply can't recognize and maybe that is what is supposed to happen. 

Andy Bernard from "The Office" has a wonderful quote from the series finale, "I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you've actually left them."

I worry about the lack of a space for teachers to share their ideas with others and get feedback from people with totally different lived experiences. I know that all of those interactions I had made me a better teacher and, now, it feels like everyone went back into their silos. The lack of connections will have a negative impact on our students and l wish I knew what the answer was to this solution. Maybe it is time to start over and bring back MySpace. 

The Nerdy Teacher - Evolutions #edtech

I picked up playing Pokemon later in life. I was a little too old when it game out, but I found it through teaching as kids traded cards and played the games. One of the key concepts of Pokemon is the ability to evolve over time. Some Pokemon take special circumstances to evolve, but almost all Pokemon can evolve in the right situation. The Pokemon will look a little different, but it is still connected to its previous form and, now, it has new skills. I feel like I have evolved and TheNerdyTeacher has evolved with me. 

This page has been pretty barren the past few months. I have been struggling with what to do with this site. I left the classroom in October 2024 to join SchoolAI as a Curriculum Manager. Since then, I have moved into Community Manager and now the Senior Manager of Champions and Advocate Program. That lives in the department of field marketing and as far away as I could have imagined from my ELA and Social Studies Certification over 20 years ago. 

I've spent a good amount of time reflecting on what this all means for me as an educator, am I still one, and what to do with a site that has shared all the tips and tricks in the world of edtech as I have discovered them. Ultimately, I realized that that the main reason I started this over 15 years ago was all about connections. I wanted to connect with a world that felt distant. I wanted to connect because I felt like an island in my school when it came to exploring technology. I needed some place to share my ideas and see if it resonates with anyone out there. 

I'm still in the same spot, but the island looks so much different than it did in 2010. 

Over the past year and a half, I've been very lucky to have had amazing managers who have worked hard to help me level up my skills and mentor me in all of the things I did not fully understand as a classroom teacher or consultant. I have learned so much and have grown in my confidence to make decisions based on the data in front of me. I am able to connect with my friends who have been in edtech much longer and share stories and learn from them. The Growth Mindset is important in all aspects of life and I get to live it every day. With that in mind, here is the growth I hope to bring to The Nerdy Teacher. 

First and foremost, The Nerdy Teacher has been my place to share the things that are going on in my world with a particular nerdy pov. As the site grew in popularity, I had to focus on broader, larger ideas without being specific to what was going on in my school or classroom. I can still do that and explore what it is going on in the broader world of edtech from behind the scenes. If you are looking for hot tea on SchoolAI, you will not find it here. If you want to know about how teachers are interacting with edtech, edtech trends from the other side of the aisle, and all things edtech and nerdy, you've come to the right spot. 

I will share my love of PBL, MakerEd, my advocacy for Accessibility and Inclusion, and my next book (It's coming together!) because I will always share what I am passionate about. I still am open to side consulting and would love to chat with about that if you are interested. 

What's next? 

Follow along and find out. I promise it will be more regular because my therapist says I need a better way to process my thoughts than burying them deep to deal with later. LOL. 

Hugs and High Fives, 

Nick

Why Laser Engraving Belongs in the Modern Classroom and Makerspace #MakerEd

There’s a moment in every makerspace when you realize your tools have outgrown the “nice to have” phase and crossed into essential learning infrastructure.

For years, we’ve relied on 3D printers, vinyl cutters, and hand tools to help students prototype ideas and bring designs to life. But laser engraving? That’s often been seen as “too advanced,” “too expensive,” or “too risky” for schools.

After spending time with AtomStack equipment, specifically the AtomStack Atelier Laser Engraver paired with the D3 Purifier and the Rotary Chuck and Roller Tools, I can confidently say that narrative is outdated.

Laser engraving doesn’t replace creativity.
It amplifies it.

And when done safely and intentionally, it belongs in today’s classrooms and makerspaces.

---

Breaking Down the AtomStack D3 Purifier Bundle in Educator Terms

 

Educators don’t buy machines.

We buy systems that won’t break learning, overwhelm teachers, or create hidden problems six months down the line.

When new tools enter a school, they immediately collide with reality: limited time, shared spaces, varying comfort levels with technology, and very real safety expectations. The AtomStack setup stood out because it doesn’t pretend those realities don’t exist.

This isn’t just a laser engraver dropped on your desk with a "good luck" wave. The inclusion of the D3 Purifier fundamentally reframes how laser engraving fits into an instructional environment.

Here’s what matters from an educator lens:

• A systems-based approach
  The engraver and purifier work together as a single ecosystem. That matters in schools, where piecing together third-party solutions often leads to inconsistent results or abandoned tools.

• Designed for shared spaces
  Classrooms and makerspaces are rarely isolated. The purifier acknowledges that learning happens in close proximity and supports that reality.

• Clear expectations for teachers and students
  When the workflow is predictable, teachers can focus on instruction instead of constant troubleshooting.

This bundle feels intentionally designed for learning spaces, not retrofitted into them after the fact.

---

Safety First: Why This Matters for Schools

If you’re an educator, you already know this truth:

The best tool in the world is useless if it creates stress for teachers or administrators.

Safety isn’t just about compliance, it’s about confidence.

The AtomStack system supports that confidence through:

• Effective fume filtration that keeps learning spaces usable

• Clear safety expectations that can be taught and reinforced with students

• Reduced “unknowns” that often make schools hesitant to adopt new tools

• USB key that prevents the unit from running without it.

This matters because when safety is built in, educators stop asking “Should we?” and start asking “What can students create next?”

---

Classroom and Makerspace Use Cases

Laser engraving isn’t a novelty tool, it’s a bridge between digital thinking and physical creation. What makes it powerful in classrooms and makerspaces is not the machine itself, but how naturally it supports deep, transferable learning experiences.

 

Below are more detailed examples of how laser engraving fits authentically across content areas and instructional models.

Design Thinking & Project-Based Learning (PBL)

Laser engraving reinforces the full design cycle rather than shortcutting it.

• Empathy & problem definition
  Students begin by identifying a real need: wayfinding signage for a school event, accessibility labels for a makerspace, or commemorative items tied to a community project.

• Ideation & prototyping
  Students sketch, digitally design, test engravings on scrap materials, and refine before committing to final pieces. The permanence of engraving encourages thoughtful iteration rather than rushed submissions.

• Reflection & revision
  Finished artifacts provide concrete evidence for critique sessions, peer feedback, and design journals.

Humanities & Visual Storytelling

Laser engraving allows students to treat text and imagery as physical artifacts, not just digital files.

• ELA
  Students engrave symbolic imagery, literary quotes, or original typography tied to novels, poetry units, or personal narratives. Projects can culminate in gallery-style exhibitions instead of traditional essays.

• Social Studies
  Learners recreate historical artifacts, engraved maps, timelines, or interpretive plaques that contextualize events and movements. This reinforces historical thinking while emphasizing accuracy and sourcing.

STEM, Engineering, and CTE Applications

In STEM-focused environments, laser engraving becomes a precision tool rather than a decorative one.

• Engineering design
  Students create labeled prototypes, measurement guides, spacers, or components that integrate into larger builds.

• CAD to fabrication workflows
  Learners experience the full pipeline from digital modeling to physical output, reinforcing spatial reasoning and tolerances.

• CTE & workforce alignment
  Students practice industry-relevant skills such as calibration, material testing, and documentation.

Student Agency & Ownership

One of the most consistent outcomes of laser-based projects is increased student investment.

• Personalized engravings, names, logos, or original designs, signal that the work matters.

• Students are more willing to revise and improve when the final product feels permanent and public.

• Projects shift from disposable assignments to portfolio-ready artifacts.

 

Authentic Assessment & Exhibition

Laser-engraved work supports assessment models that move beyond rubrics alone.

• Process documentation: design files, test engravings, and reflection logs

• Public display: signage, artifacts, or functional items used by the school community

• Performance-based assessment: evaluating design decisions, precision, and problem-solving

These use cases show why laser engraving belongs in learning spaces, not as a special occasion tool, but as a regular part of creative, interdisciplinary instruction.

---

Classroom and Makerspace Use Cases

Laser engraving isn’t a novelty tool, it’s a bridge between digital thinking and physical creation. That bridge matters because it connects skills students often learn in isolation.

Students design on screens all the time. What they rarely get to do is see those designs become permanent, tactile artifacts that require precision, planning, and iteration.

Here are some high-impact ways laser engraving fits naturally into learning environments:

• Design thinking & project-based learning
  Students move through empathy, ideation, prototyping, and refinement in a tangible way. The permanence of laser engraving encourages thoughtful design decisions rather than rushed work.

• Cross-curricular integration

  • ELA: Symbolic imagery, book covers, literary quotes, visual storytelling

  • Social Studies: Historical replicas, timelines, geographic features, interpretive signage

  • STEM & CTE: Engineering components, measurement tools, labeled prototypes, CAD-to-product workflows

• Student agency and ownership
  Personalization changes how students see their work. When their name, design, or idea is permanently etched, the project matters more.

• Authentic assessment opportunities
  Finished products provide natural entry points for reflection, critique, and revision discussions.

This is the kind of tool that raises expectations without increasing pressure, students rise to the challenge when the work feels real.

---

Why the Purifier Is a Big Deal for Educators

Let’s be honest:
Most makerspace tools fail not because they don’t work, but because they interrupt the flow of learning.

The D3 Purifier solves a very real problem:

• No scrambling to open windows

• No last-minute room changes

• No anxiety about lingering smells or particles

It allows laser engraving to live where learning actually happens, not in a separate room that students visit once a semester.

That’s not a small thing. That’s the difference between a tool being used and a tool being avoided.

---

Rotary Add-on Ups the Creativity

Rotary devices significantly expand how laser engraving can be used in classrooms and makerspaces by allowing students to work with cylindrical and curved objects instead of only flat materials. 

This shift adds meaningful design constraints, requiring learners to think about alignment, curvature, balance, and precision before committing to a final engraving. 

Projects such as tumblers, tubes, model components, or round containers feel immediately authentic and help students connect digital design skills to real-world fabrication practices. 

By introducing rotary tools, laser engraving moves beyond surface decoration and becomes an applied design experience that reinforces iteration, spatial reasoning, and careful planning, skills that translate directly to engineering, CTE pathways, and professional maker workflows.

AI also stands for Accessibility and Inclusion #withSchoolAI

This is the fourth or fifth version of this blog post I have written, erased, and started over again. I do not know why this such a pain for me to write, but it is a struggle. One of the things I am doing is writing this without any tools to help me fix anything. That means I will have to go over all of this and proofread and catch anything on my own. For those new to The Nerdy Teacher, I am a dyslexic learner and struggle with processing and communication ideas at times. My typing often struggles to keep up with my thinking. It can be very frustrating. I wanted to feel this frustration though. I wish more educators out there would do this. 

How quickly we forget what it was like before spellcheck was a standard part of our writing lives. Is it cheating to use a spellchecker? How much time would you be spending on extra proofreading of your assignments, lesson plans, worksheets, etc.? Think about that for a second. Spellcheck makes writing more accessible and inclusive for everyone. You do not need an IEP or 504 plan to benefit from these assistive technology. However, there are teachers out there that want to block AI in their classroom. That AI has a double meaning thought. Artificial Intelligence and Accessibility and Inclusion. Blocking the first one, blocks the other as well. 

I have been on both sides of the fence now that I work in edtech. I spent years looking for ways to make learning more accessible and used a wide variety of tools over the years. One of the last ones I did use was SchoolAI. I saw how I could create Spaces that would allow my students to get the support when they needed it, how they needed it. That is what is key here. I did not create a tool that just helped out a couple of students. I created a Space that was able to help all of the students when they needed the help. They might not think they need the support, but it was there for them when they needed it. I made design lessons more accessible and inclusive by giving students access to Spaces that could help them form their ideas and process the approach they were going to take to accomplish the assignment. New technology can be scary, but that does not mean everything scary should be blocked. I thought we had dealt with this approach over a decade ago with YouTube. 

Working on the SchoolAI side now for over a year, I have been so lucky to work with a team that is dedicated to making sure our platform supports all learners. Not just neurodivergent students AND educators, but ANYONE that needs a little extra help. That is what is so important to think about when it comes to exploring what accessibility and inclusion looks like in your classroom, school, or district. When decisions are being made, are the most vulnerable students be considered? When we remove access to tools that some learners depend on, who is benefitting? 

There is so much nuance to the discussion of using AI in the classroom. AI is becoming backed into so many different tools that any district will be hard pressed to find an edtech tool that does not have an AI feature. I'm not even suggesting that schools dive in without due diligence. I want people to think about all learners when they do the the due diligence. 

I am lucky to be at a company that has made access and inclusion an important part of what we do to help teachers make school awesome every day for every learner. I'd love to hear how others are exploring the new trends in edtech and how access and inclusion is part of the conversation. 

SchoolAI x Breakout EDU For The Win

 I am super excited to share this really cool collaboration between SchoolAI and Breakout EDU. 

January 26 - 30 is Data Privacy Week. SchoolAI and Breakout EDU take data privacy very seriously and thought it would be fun to team-up and create something to help students understand the importance of keeping their data safer and secure. Dot and Witty have come together to create an amazing game and reflection Space for all teacher to use with their classroom. 

Witty and Dot: Digital Detectives is a free digital privacy game from Breakout EDU with an added reflection activity from SchoolAI. Students become digital detectives, solving puzzles about phishing scams, password safety, and protecting personal information.

How it works:

1. Play the free Breakout EDU game with your class

Play The Game

2. Debrief with Dot in a SchoolAI Space

Start The Space

P.S. Free accounts required at both Breakout EDU and SchoolAI.

You can find more information on the SchoolAI landing page. 

I think this is a fun way to explore data privacy and have students reflect using a SchoolAI Space so a teacher can see how the students understood the material covered in the game. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Hugs and High Fives, 

Nick

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!