The Keys to a Successful Catholic School Host: John Mihalyo You can walk into a Catholic school and know within thirty seconds whether it's thriving or just getting by, before you've seen a test score, an enrollment sheet, or the trophy case. In this episode, John breaks down the six keys he's identified after twenty years in Catholic school leadership and years of working with schools across the country: Catholic Culture and Identity, Community Engagement, Faculty and Workforce, Individual Student Growth, Operational Vitality, and Leadership. Each one is drawn from his free resource, The Keys to a Successful Catholic School, and John walks through what each key actually looks like in a thriving school and the question every leader should be asking about it. This isn't a fix-it-in-fifteen-minutes guide, and John says so directly. It's a framework built around the right questions, the kind meant to be brought to your teachers' meetings, your advisory committee, and conversations with your pastor and leadership team, so your school can figure out where its focus needs to be right now, not where anyone else's does. John leaves you with one challenge: pick the key that made you a little uncomfortable, and bring it to your next leadership meeting. LINKS AND RESOURCES Connect with John Mihalyo! Grab the free resource, The Keys to a Successful Catholic School, at elementaryadvancement.com If this episode was helpful, share it with another Catholic school leader who could use it.

In this episode of Make It Mindful, Seth talks with Travis Moyer - Banyan Global Learning's Director of Programming - about AI governance: the difference between AI policy and AI governance, and why so many schools have bought AI tools without building the shared language to use them well. Moyer has written previously that tech policy should start with human values rather than device restrictions, and that argument underlies the five-pillar governance framework he describes here. Together, Seth and Travis explore what AI governance actually means as distinct from policy - the difference between rules and instructional purpose - and walk through the five-pillar framework Banyan has built around one central question: what thinking needs to stay human for learning to occur. They get into the classroom-level inconsistency this creates when one teacher bans AI and the one next door doesn't, why governance is a moving target rather than a document you write once, and what Travis actually tells other parents when they ask him what to do. The conversation closes on a specific, low-stakes way parents can start: showing kids what AI is capable of by helping them build something they already care about. Key topics: AI governance vs. AI policy — what's the difference Banyan's five-pillar AI governance framework "Thinking must stay human" as the framework's center Why inconsistent classroom-level AI rules undermine trust Cognitive offloading and critical thinking risk Prompt engineering and the case for a dedicated AI class Practical guidance for parents navigating AI at home Links & Resources: "Why Tech Policies Should Start with People: An Ethical Dilemma" — Banyan Global Learning blog, May 16, 2025 "Artificial Intelligence in Education: AI Professional Development for Teachers" — Banyan Global Learning blog, August 5, 2025 Banyan Global Learning AI Governance services: https://www.banyangloballearning.com/ai-governance Guest Bio: Travis Moyer Travis Moyer is Banyan Global Learning's Director of Programming, where he oversees new program development, including Banyan's AI governance work. He spent over a decade as an elementary and high school science teacher in the U.S., and with Banyan he specializes in live, synchronous distance learning. He holds an M.Ed. from Pepperdine University and a B.S. in Biology from Duke University. About the Host: Seth Fleischauer is the founder of Banyan Global Learning and host of Make It Mindful: Insights for Global Learning. Through Banyan, he designs live virtual programs that connect K-12 classrooms to global peers and expert facilitators — building the kind of structured, human-centered learning the podcast explores. See https://www.banyangloballearning.com/programs/global-cohorts

In this episode of The Smarter Campus Podcast, Zach sits down with Matthew Rascoff, Vice Provost for Digital Education at Stanford University, lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and education advisor to Anthropic. With a rare vantage point spanning both a leading university and one of the world’s frontier AI labs, Matthew brings a uniquely informed perspective on what AI can—and cannot—do for education. The conversation tackles one of the most important questions facing higher education: does using AI actually improve learning? Matthew warns against “cognitive surrender,” where students offload too much of the thinking process, and argues that institutions need more rigorous evidence about which AI-supported practices genuinely strengthen learning. He also challenges the idea that increasingly intelligent AI will automatically become a great teacher. Teaching requires more than knowledge—it requires empathy, pedagogy, context, and an understanding of how people learn. Rather than waiting for frontier labs to build education for them, Matthew believes educators and students should become active builders, creating domain-specific tools that address real academic problems. The episode explores open-source educational AI, new forms of student assessment, and a future where papers may evolve into interactive agents and shareable digital artifacts. For higher education leaders, this is a thoughtful conversation about preserving meaningful cognitive work while taking full advantage of what AI makes possible.

Jethro D. Jones sits down with Simon and Jill from ClassVR at ISTE 2026 to talk about the company's newest VR innovations in education. They dive into Thrive, a sensory regulation product designed to support students who struggle with dysregulation, and preview ClassVR's new STEM library, which lets students safely experience hands-on experiments (like chemistry reactions and dissections) that are often limited by budget or safety concerns in real classrooms. The conversation also explores how VR builds "organic skills" that develop over time, why immersive, judgment-free environments help students practice soft skills, and what schools should consider before adopting VR — from full-solution onboarding to keeping VR sessions short and focused for maximum engagement.