Ever feel like your students are just going through the motions? In this episode, we explore why so many students operate like NPCs (non-playable characters) in their own education—and how the rise of AI has made this problem worse. Using examples from Westworld and real classroom experiences, we discuss how to design learning that breaks students out of compliance mode and into genuine thinking.

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You know those creative assignments that should spark magic but end up falling totally empty…for you and for your students? I’ve been wrestling with that for a while, especially when it comes to things like “rewrite the ending” or “imagine an alternate scene.” And weirdly enough… it was a blurb about Squid Game fan rewrites that finally helped me figure it out.In this episode, I’m talking about:Why creative assignments don’t always work the way we hopeThe difference between critical remix and fandom remixWhat most student engagement is actually measuring (spoiler: not creativity)How to build real investment before you ask students to createThis one’s part teaching reflection, part mini-rant, part deep dive into what happens when we confuse caring with creativity—and why that mix-up shows up all the time in English classrooms.Check out my session on building engaging classroom communities based on fandom principles at The Joyful Reading Summit. Get your ticket here → https://dmhicks00--samanthainsecondary.thrivecart.com/the-joyful-reading-summit-2025/

Picture this: Everything you've ever owned, everything you've ever eaten, every experience you've ever had—all of it gets put on a bagel. That's the central image from Everything Everywhere All at Once, and it's exactly where we are as teachers right now with AI. Everything about AI is being put on the education bagel, and somehow, in the middle of all this noise, you're supposed to figure out what's actually good for the humans sitting in your classroom. In this episode, I explore how the film's framework helps us navigate the AI moment without losing ourselves (or our students) in it.

What if your students were living their own version of Severance? In this episode, I explore how science fiction can illuminate the hidden architecture of our classrooms — starting with the unsettling parallels between the world of Severance and the way students split their authentic thinking from academic performance.

From AI-written essays to the quiet grief of “bleed-through moments,” this is a look into cognitive residue, compartmentalized learning, and what it takes to build a classroom that resists separation and invites wholeness.

"Back in the day, (before COVID) students could actually focus..." Every teacher has heard it. Many of us have said it.

But what if our fears about "kids these days" are hiding something deeper - something the we as teachers haven't been ready to talk about that speaks to something real and urgent in education?

Let's talk about what's really at stake.

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In 1996, Michael Johnson won two Olympic golds by training less intensely than his competitors. Weird, right?

Explore how the counterintuitive concept of 'sub-maximal' training—focusing on sustainability over constant maximum effort—might be the key to teaching excellence without burnout.

This episode challenges everything you think you know about peak performance in the classroom.

Resources Mentioned:

Why do we design our teaching as if we'll never need coverage when (almost) every teacher needs it multiple times a year?

How did Spotify turn "you listened to Taylor Swift for 10,483 minutes" into a story you couldn't wait to share? Meanwhile, we're still sharing student growth through numbers and charts.

Something's not adding up.

There's something here that could enhance how we celebrate student growth - and no, I'm not suggestion you try to turn your students' analytical progression into a viral moment.

But what if progress felt less like a data dump ad more like a story worth sharing?

Here's what teachers can learn from Spotify's storytelling magic - and how to use it without exhausting ourselves in the process.

"I agree with what they said."

It's possibly the most dreaded phrase in literary discussions. The polite nodding. The surface sharing. The performance of analysis without any real meaning building.

But what if the problem isn't our students or even the text? What if it's how we structure the discussion itself?

Drawing from years of teaching Macbeth, this episode breaks down the engineering behind discussions that actually work. We'll explore scene mapping strategies, pattern analysis frameworks, and the specific structures that transform student contributions from random observations into genuine literary analysis.

It's time to make the simple "I agree" obsolete.

Resources

In this episode, we go beyond the witches to explore how Macbeth offers insights into ambition, performance, and mental health—both in the play and in the classroom.

Tune in for:

Whether you’re looking to explore Gothic themes, mental health, or fresh ways to teach Macbeth, this episode offers both inspiration and practical tools.

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