Reading and Grammar Super Show plus AI & College News

On today’s show, we have some back-to-school reminders for teaching reading, a new AI reading tool from Digital Promise with Jean-Claude Brizard, building readers with Jennifer Burns, and teaching grammar playfully with Patty McGee. We will also have a Harvard student from Coventry, England, Zak Adams, who is one of a growing group of volunteers working with Project Access, a nonprofit that supports high-potential, low-opportunity students to help them apply to top universities across the world.

In our opening news we discuss the integration of AI into Canvas, some disturbing new research results about the dire consequences of kids using cell phones under the age of 13, research on cell phone ban opinions and parents, how leading AI models are recommending different salary ranges to people based on their gender and race, Delta Airlines is considering using AI pricing (and we’ll all pay different prices for fairs if they do,) an excellent review from Tech and Learning of the paper “Your Brain on ChatGPT” that everyone’s talking about, and the rollout of AI agent by ChatGPT and what it means for the future of the Internet.

Watch the YouTube Video

Listen to the Podcast

News Links

AI is now available in Canvas – https://www.chronicle.com/article/instructors-will-now-see-ai-throughout-a-widely-used-course-software

New research of 2 million people in 163 countries with dire warnings about cell phone use before the age of 13 – https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19452829.2025.2518313#abstract

PEW research about the use of cell phones – https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/16/americans-support-for-school-cellphone-bans-has-ticked-up-since-last-year/

Concerns about smartphone use in young children – https://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/1234905671/kids-smartphones-detachment-from-reality/

AI Hiring Tools are advising women and minorities to ask for lower pay in salary negotiations – https://www.inc.com/suzanne-lucas/ai-hiring-tools-are-advising-women-and-minorities-to-ask-for-lower-pay-in-salary-negotiations/91217775

“Surface fairness, Deep Bias: A comparative Study of Bias in Language Models” Research study: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.10491‘

Delta is using AI to price tickets (and we’ll all pay different prices if they do) – https://fortune.com/2025/07/16/delta-moves-toward-eliminating-set-prices-in-favor-of-ai-that-determines-how-much-you-personally-will-pay-for-a-ticket/

Wendy’s surge pricing problem – https://www.cnet.com/tech/wendys-says-no-to-surge-pricing-but-yes-to-ai-here-are-the-key-takeaways/

Tech & Learning’s take on “Your Brain on ChatGPT” – https://www.techlearning.com/news/your-brain-on-chatgpt-everything-educators-need-to-know-about-mits-ai-study

AI Agents and the web – https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/do-websites-go-away-ai-agents-theory-ventures-goe2c/

Bios as Submitted

Zak Adams

Zak is a student at Harvard from Coventry, England. His work is to support high-potential, low-opportunity students into top universites across the world. Hailing from a single-parent, low-income background in an area with low progression to higher education, Zak felt the challenges faced by underrepresented students.

Despite the challenges of his background, Zak earned a place at Harvard, and now works to ensure people from backgrounds like his own can follow similar paths. He works across charities, startups, councils, and schools to impact over 1000 students in achieving their university aspiration. Zak’s approach combines practical guidance with empathetic support. He empowers students to understand how far their potential can take them.

From one-on-one mentorship to designing initiatives that adress systemic inequities, Zak grounds his work in “You canot be what you cannot see.” His advocacy equips studens with the belief that nowhere is off limits. Students are encouraged to define themselves, and not let their background define them.

Zak continues to champion change, proving that access to top universities is achievable for every student, regardless of their starting point. Linked In: www.linkedin.com/in/zakjayadams

Jean-Claude Brizard

Jean-Claude Brizard is President and CEO of Digital Promise Global, a global, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization focused on shaping the future of learning and advancing equitable education systems by bridging solutions across research, practice, and technology. He is former Senior Advisor and Deputy Director at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he focused on PK-16 education. He also led several strategies supporting Washington State’s educational system. The Carnegie Corporation of New York honored Brizard in the 2023 class of “Great Immigrants, Great Americans,” a prestigious honor celebrating naturalized citizens who have enriched and strengthened our society.

He is former Chief Executive of Chicago Public Schools. Prior to his appointment in Chicago, he was Superintendent of Schools for the Rochester, NY School District. Mr. Brizard’s experience also includes a 21-year career as an educator and administrator with the NYC Department of Education. He served as a Regional Superintendent, supervising more than 100 schools in the Borough of Brooklyn and he also served as the system’s Executive Director for its 400 secondary schools. He is a Fellow of the Broad Center, a Fellow of the Pahara-Aspen Institute, and a member of the Aspen Institute Global Leadership Network.

Jennifer Burns

Jennifer Burns is a literacy consultant, author, speaker and coach who uses a student-centered approach in all of her work. This approach creates collaborative conversations that make teaching, learning and growth fun. Her signature approach helps create opportunities for students to engage successfully with volumes of types of reading. Outside of teaching, Jennifer loves to walk, read, spend time with family and find fun coffee shops.

Blog: https://www.buildingareader.com/

Facebook: BuildingaReader

YouTube: @buildingareader

Podcast: Building a Reader Podcast https://www.buildingareader.com/podcasts/building-a-reader

Patty McGee

Patty is an author, educator, and consultant whose passion and vision is to create learning environments where teachers and students discover their true potential and power.  Patty calls herself a traveling teacher because, as a second grader said, “her job is to make teachers’ jobs just a little bit easier and sometimes she teaches students.” She has served schools nationally and internationally to support literacy teaching and learning. Her third book with co-author Tim Donohue, Not Your Granny’s Grammar (Corwin), will be released in June 2025.

Learn more about Patty and her work at www.pattymcgee.org.

Blog: www.pattymcgee.org

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