Reach Every Student with Jon Bergmann

Before I dive into today’s topic, I want you to be aware that I will be speaking twice this Thursday (October 15th). In the morning, I will be interviewed at a conference in Argentina (8:30 Eastern), and then I will lead a webinar on Oral Assessments in the Age of AI at 4: 30 p.m. Both events are online and free. I encourage you to register for either or both. It’s been an exhausting week here in the world of teaching. Homecoming football (we won!), the dance, an open house, and the end of the quarter all landed at once.This week I made one decision: walk into every interaction with a positive attitude. In the middle of the chaos, a few human moments- one in a viva, one with a family at open house- reminded me why I’m still doing this after 41 years. I also share what happened when I emailed my administrators and said I felt stretched.Key Moments* 0:00 – Cold open: an exhausting week* 0:19 – Homecoming, the dance, and choosing a positive attitude* 2:52 – The viva that turned into a human conversation* 4:13 – Why human moments matter most in the age of AI* 5:16 – Open house, and a family lights up at the crystal collection* 6:14 – Productive struggle: learning to teach physics with calculus* 6:50 – Feeling stretched, and what happened when I asked for help* 8:53 – This Thursday: the Misiones Q&A and the Flint webinar This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reacheverystudent.com

This week’s guest goes back a long way — Don Wettrick, entrepreneur, educator, and founder of STARTedUP, an organization built around one question: how do you make class time feel more like the real world?Don just stepped back from running STARTedUP day-to-day to go back to what he calls “founder mode” — more classrooms, fewer meetings. We talk about that transition, his “seekers vs. peakers” framework for spotting opportunity, and a line partway through this conversation that’s stuck with me since we recorded it: everybody can write a perfect email now, which means the deals are being lost the moment a person can’t look up and actually have a conversation. Being human is sought after right now. Being flawed is sought after right now.This episode’s a little different from the last few: no framework, no big reveal, just a good conversation between two people who’ve been doing this a long time.Key moments:* 0:00 – Cold open: why “being flawed” is suddenly valuable* 0:44 – Interview begins, catching up with Don* 2:12 – Why he stepped back from CEO to “founder mode”* 9:50 – His “seekers vs. peakers” framework* 19:34 – Building a class around freedom, mastery, and purpose* 23:24 – Playing AI platforms against each other to think more clearly* 30:09 – The full story behind the cold-open clip* 38:19 – A decades-long journaling habit, and archiving your own growth This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reacheverystudent.com

Two rounds into summative oral assessments now, and something’s changed: fewer of my students are telling me “I didn’t prepare.” A few weeks ago, that was the most common answer. This week, it’s becoming the exception.This one’s a solo update — no guest, just what’s actually happening in my classroom, plus a piece of news I’m genuinely excited about.On the vivas side: students are showing up rehearsed, some of them using an AI practice tool to run through questions ahead of time. And a pro-tip. Asking a kid to diagram something live, on the spot, tells me more about what they actually understand than almost anything else I do.And on the other side of the equator: ten years ago, I helped run one of the first large-scale flipped-classroom pilots in Misiones, Argentina. That relationship never really ended — and this month, the first unit of a fully Spanish-language, Argentina-contextualized Mastery Flip course went live. If you’re Spanish-speaking, or know someone who is, I’d love for you to check it out.Jon’s Upcoming AppearancesOctober 15th - Online in ArgentinaNovember 14th (In Person) - Teaching Motivated Minds Conference (Austin, Texas)Key Moments* 0:00 – Cold open: “They showed up prepared”* 0:32 – Round 2 vivas: how students are using FlintK12 to practice ahead of time* 2:20 – The real shift: “I didn’t prepare” is becoming the exception, not the norm* 2:31 – The whiteboard trick that’s changing how physics vivas go* 5:41 – Pivot: the Misiones, Argentina backstory* 6:56 – The first Spanish-language Mastery Flip course goes live* 11:08 – Closing thought: pressure-testing the framework in real time, in public This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reacheverystudent.com

Tony Wagner has spent thirty years studying one question: what do students actually need to thrive? In this episode, he shares a number that stopped me cold — of 109 ninth graders in a typical public school, only 14 ever end up in a job that pays a living wage.I asked him what he’d add to his own famous list of skills, just for the AI era. His answer: integrity.Partway through this conversation, I walked him through Mastery Vivas for the first time — no advance warning, no pitch, just explaining what I’m doing in my own classroom. His reaction is on tape, and it’s one of my favorite moments this season.P.S. — something I'm genuinely excited about: MasteryFlip is now being translated into Spanish, not just word-for-word but re-contextualized for schools in Misiones, Argentina — the first unit is live already. I'll give you the full story and the sign-up link next week, but I didn't want to sit on the news that long. Here is the link to the course: Key Moments* 0:00 – Cold open: his answer to the eighth survival skill* 1:05 – Guest intro and interview begins* 2:49 – Updating his famous “seven survival skills” for the AI era* 4:15 – The “forklift in the weight room” metaphor and his fear of a coming bifurcation* 6:56 – The stat that’ll stop you cold: 109 ninth graders, 14 living-wage jobs* 11:41 – You walk him through the Mastery Viva live — his reaction is real-time, unscripted* 36:10 – His one book recommendation for teachers heading into fall* 37:22 – The kindred-spirits close* 38:13 – A quick note on the new Spanish-language MasteryFlip course (more next week) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reacheverystudent.com

Last week, I told you about the one part of oral assessment I still won’t hand off to AI. This week, from a completely different direction, someone else landed on almost the same instinct — without knowing anything about what I’ve been building.I asked her one question: what’s the single science-of-learning principle every teacher should hold onto in the age of AI? Her answer: be as metacognitive about the AI as you are about your own thinking. Simple to say. Genuinely hard to picture in an actual classroom — which is most of what this conversation is about.That guest is Dr. Tina Grotzer, who runs the Next Level Lab at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, studying causal reasoning — how people actually trace cause and effect, versus the neat, linear version we usually assume.That’s three separate people now — me, an MIT researcher, and a Harvard researcher — landing in the same place, independently. I don’t think that’s a coincidence anymore.Key Moments* 1:33 – What “causal reasoning” actually means (her research, in plain terms)* 5:10 – The sinking-and-floating experiment that breaks kids’ assumptions* 10:40 – Introducing the Next Level Lab: will AI make us smarter or stupider?* 17:13 – Her core thesis: why metacognition is what makes AI a partner instead of a crutch* 19:32 – The Russell Hulse story — a Nobel Prize won by refusing to ignore an anomaly* 21:11 – The “forklift to the weight room” metaphor, and her fear of AI as a crutch* 27:06 – You lay out AI Engines, Analog Roots, and the Mastery Viva live — and she reacts in real time* 34:11 – The one cognitive skill she says AI will be the last to replicate: empathy* 40:00 – Her closing fear: a coming “bifurcation” between kids taught to think and kids who aren’t This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reacheverystudent.com