Blog - Spencer Education

Dec 03 2025

How Will AI Transform Creative Thinking?

By John Spencer Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Podcast No Comments

As AI becomes becomes more pervasive in our daily work, we often wrestle with a big question: what should we automate and what should we protect as deeply human? We experience this profoundly in creative work. We are drawn to the speed and efficiency of…

Nov 13 2025

How Compacting Can Lead to Deeper Learning

By John Spencer Creativity, Depth Advantage No Comments

In my latest article, I explore how we can use compacting to spark deeper learning in students. We dive into why compacting matters, how it works, what models to use, and how we can incorporate assessment into it. The Need for Compacting When my son…

Nov 02 2025

Tony Vincent on How to Integrate AI Ethically in an Elementary Classroom

By John Spencer Creativity One Comment

In this episode, I interview ed tech expert Tony Vincent, who shares practical insights on how educators can use AI ethically and responsibly in schools. He discusses how teachers can balance innovation with integrity, ensuring that AI supports creativity, critical thinking, and student agency without…

Oct 29 2025

Using AI to Spark Deeper Learning

By John Spencer Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Depth Advantage, Podcast No Comments

AI represents both a dream and a warning for education. On one hand, it offers personalized feedback, instant support, and creative possibilities that can make learning more dynamic than ever. On the other, it tempts us toward speed over depth, efficiency over understanding, and convenience…

Oct 21 2025

Empowering Students to Self-Select the Scaffolds

By John Spencer Empowering Students, Podcast 2 Comments

When I was a new teacher, I had a goal of differentiating instruction for every student. I would provide additional directions, project sheets, tutorials, and small group instruction for any student who needed help. I kept a list of specific strategies I would use in…

Oct 14 2025

Students Need to Explore the Nature of AI

By John Spencer Artificial Intelligence, Podcast, Technology and Media Literacy 5 Comments

In 2014, Microsoft launched a hugely successful AI bot named Xiaoice in China. With over forty million conversations, users often described feeling as though they were interacting with a real human. Microsoft founder Bill Gates described it this way, “'Xiaoice has attracted 45 million followers…

Sep 30 2025

A Few Years In: The Unintended Consequences of Generative AI

By John Spencer Artificial Intelligence, Creativity One Comment

With the widespread adoption of generative AI, we need to explore how these platforms are changing our world. In my latest article and podcast episode, I share six unintended consequences that are beginning to emerge. We Can't Predict How AI Will Change Our World As…

Sep 17 2025

Rethinking How We Use AI for Writing

By John Spencer Artificial Intelligence, Podcast No Comments

We keep talking about AI in schools like it is either a miracle or a menace, and that either-or mindset steers us into two dead ends. One path hands the wheel to the tool and mistakes novelty for real learning. The other path locks everything…

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…