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AVID Open Access

If it relates to education and matters to you, we're talking about it on our podcasts. Unpacking Education shares in-depth conversations each Wednesday on timely topics with guests who share their expertise and experience—from teaching strategies, to educational technology, to equitable access to future-driven skills for all students. Tune in every Tuesday for a new Tech Talk For Teachers. 5 minutes jam-packed with practical and actionable tech integration strategies and tool tips you can immediately apply in your classroom.

Unpacking Education & Tech Talk For Teachers

With AI being able to generate an answer in seconds, the challenge for educators is making sure that students still do the thinking that leads to learning. As our guest, Shelly Muñoz, states, “Don’t outsource the thinking you’re trying to develop.” When used as a replacement, AI can remove the productive struggle that builds understanding. However, when used as an amplifier, it can challenge reasoning, surface new perspectives, test ideas, and help students push their thinking further.

Shelly is a STEM curriculum coordinator, longtime educator, and author of Architects of Cognitive Resilience: Reimagining Learning in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. In this episode, she helps the podcast team explore what teaching and learning should look like when answers are increasingly easy to obtain and why helping students develop intellectual agency is critical right now.

Shelly introduces her Cognitive Resilience Framework, which moves learners from curiosity and exploration toward sense-making, integration, innovation, and ultimately, wisdom. The conversation examines how educators can make student thinking visible, use AI to amplify rather than replace thinking, rethink assessment, foster cognitive belonging, and prepare students to encounter unfamiliar challenges with the confidence to figure out what to do next. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Cognitive Resilience, with Shelly Muñoz

In today’s episode, we'll explore ways that AI might be integrated effectively before, during, and after a Socratic Seminar. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Enhancing the Socratic Seminar with AI

State policy can feel far removed from daily classroom instruction, but it plays a major role in determining which priorities receive funding, time, and long-term support. In this episode, Lindsey Henderson, Senior Policy Director for Math at ExcelinEd, explains how evidence-based math policy can provide educators with the resources, structures, and guidance needed to strengthen student achievement.

Drawing on her experience as a classroom teacher, district math specialist, state education leader, and policy advisor, Lindsey explores the difference between standards and policy, the importance of early screening and intervention, and the need for clear, strengths-based communication with families. She also shares how guaranteed access to advanced math can expand opportunity for students who have historically been underrepresented in rigorous coursework and why educators should view policy as an opportunity to create lasting change. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Implications of State-Level Math Policy on the Classroom, with Lindsey Henderson

In today’s episode, we'll explore the human skill development and scaffolding necessary in preparing students for an AI world. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Human Skills For an AI World

Laura Rounds, Implementation Strategist at AVID Center, joins us to explore how families and schools can work together more intentionally to support student success. Drawing on her experience as a school counselor, district leader, AVID administrator, professor, and parent advocate, Laura emphasizes that strong partnerships matter more than ever, as students navigate academic pressures, emotional hurdles, and social media.

This episode highlights the power of seeing families as what Laura calls "co-educators," rather than simply recipients of school information. Laura shares how aligned expectations, consistent communication, trust, and shared responsibility can help students build confidence, resilience, curiosity, and a stronger sense of support at both home and school. She also offers practical steps for educators and families in showing up to events and creating productive learning routines at home. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Fostering Parent/School Partnerships, with Laura Rounds

Explore 11 ways that AI can help make the back-to-school process more manageable for teachers. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Using AI as Your Back-to-School Planning Partner

Naomi Fuentes, Odessa High School Teacher of the Year, shares how her 20-year journey in education has been shaped by patience, vulnerability, servant leadership, and a deep commitment to helping students grow. Naomi reflects on how honest self-assessment and student feedback transformed her classroom practice. She discusses the power of asking students what they need, setting healthy boundaries around vulnerability, and scaffolding academic discourse so that every learner—especially those who are quiet or struggling—can take risks, speak up, and participate with confidence. She shares a hopeful and positive message that when educators are willing to reflect, adjust, and improve, students benefit because they deserve our best.

Throughout the episode, Naomi stresses that kids deserve educators who are willing to look honestly at their practice and make meaningful adjustments. That kind of reflection is not always easy, and Naomi makes that clear when she describes asking students for feedback and realizing that she was “not prepared for real, honest talk.” But that uncomfortable honesty became a turning point. By listening to students, taking their responses seriously, and adjusting her instruction, she began to build a classroom culture rooted in trust, clarity, and shared growth. A central takeaway from this episode is that vulnerability means being real, professional, and willing to model growth. Naomi connects this mindset to practical classroom strategies like short surveys, quickwrites, and intentionally scaffolded discussions. These small but purposeful shifts helped more students in her classroom participate, take academic risks, and find their voices. As Naomi says, “Your kids deserve better, so be better, get better.” Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

From Honest Reflection to Lasting Change, with Naomi Fuentes, Odessa High School Teacher of the Year

In today’s episode, we'll explore the findings reported in an MIT study released in June 2025, Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

The Cognitive Cost of AI and Convenience, an MIT Study

Collaboration, Learning, and Results, with Dr. Anisa Baker-Busby

In today’s episode, we'll explore seven additional ways that AI can be effectively integrated into the fifth step of AVID's focused note-taking process, as students apply learning to the real world. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Using AI to Enhance Focused Note-Taking, Step 5b: Applying Learning to the Real World

In today’s episode, we'll explore tech-enriched strategies to facilitate writing to learn. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Writing To Learn

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