🎤 Quotable Quote
“Keep the main thing the main thing.”
— Matt Miller
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🎧 This Week’s Guest: Matt Miller
Matt Miller has been helping teachers rethink learning long before AI showed up and made everything more complicated.
He’s the voice behind Ditch That Textbook, a longtime educator, and the author of AI Literacy in Any Class. And if you think this conversation is about tools, think again.
It’s about thinking.
Matt started his journey as a high school Spanish teacher doing what many teachers do. Marching chapter by chapter through a textbook.
Until he realized something uncomfortable.
His students could not speak Spanish.
That was the moment everything changed.
He started experimenting. Creating. Adapting. Owning the learning instead of delivering it.
And today, he’s helping educators navigate a world where AI is everywhere, but clarity is not.
💥 Leadership Rule of the Week
Keep the main thing the main thing
In a world full of tools, trends, and constant change, it is easy to get distracted.
New platform.
New initiative.
New pressure.
But Matt’s reminder is simple.
Stay focused on what actually matters.
For educators, that means helping students think, question, and grow.
Not just keeping up with the latest tool.
💡 Other Topics We Loved
• Why “ditch the textbook” is not about eliminating books, but eliminating passive learning
• The danger of all or nothing thinking in education
• Why the best teachers live in the messy middle, not the extremes
• How AI is already shaping an “AI saturated world”
• Why teaching students how to think matters more than teaching them how to prompt
• How small moments in class can become powerful AI literacy lessons
One of our favorite examples?
Matt uses AI to generate images for his class. Sometimes they are wrong. A cow with five legs. A person with six fingers.
Instead of hiding the mistake, he leans into it.
He asks students to critique it.
Spot the flaws.
Question the output.
Think critically.
That is AI literacy.
Not a separate unit.
Not a standalone class.
A habit of mind.
📺 Learn More
📬 Join Matt’s newsletter
https://ditch.link/join
📘 AI Literacy in Any Class available on Amazon
📊 Explore AI for Admins newsletter for school leaders
More leadership musings
🍪 Biscuits with the Boss:
Icebreaker time:
Try this with your team:
Where are we teaching tools… instead of teaching thinking?
And the follow up:
If the technology changed tomorrow, would our students still be prepared?
🌎 This week in Here - There - Every F’ing where
We have no clue what Ted would think about this... (well, yes we do). Regardless, we are now on TikTok! Yep, we are just as surprised as you are. But we really want to help parents of juniors help their students be actually college and career ready and so if you are in that camp, follow us here :)
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Believe!
Nick & Marnie
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