Ep. 85: The Power of Play in Serious Learning

Marc Isseks and special guest co-host, Karen Walsh sit down with Dan Thomas, a recently retired STEM teacher who spent his entire 32-year career at the same school he graduated from in Jamestown, New York. Now consulting and speaking under his Coach Thomas Tech brand, Dan brings a hands-on, PBL-driven philosophy to educators looking to make learning visible, meaningful, and yes, actually usable by Tuesday morning. This conversation covers a lot of ground: why AI has finally moved past the shiny-new-thing phase and into real implementation, how the Tuesday Test reframes professional learning (if you cannot use it tomorrow without hand-holding, what is the point?), and why AI may be the first tool that makes genuine differentiation possible at scale. Dan and Karen, a veteran English teacher known for her commitment to creativity and reinvention, bring decades of classroom experience to a discussion that is as practical as it is forward-looking. The takeaway: the teacher who embraces this moment has more power than at any point in the history of education. Follow Marc: Website X (Twitter) TikTok YouTube CAPTIVATE on Amazon LinkedIn Find State of Ed: Apple Podcasts Spotify Amazon Music stateofedpodcast.com GUEST LINKS Dan Thomas | Coach Thomas Tech coachthomastech.com @coachthomastech on X (Twitter) LinkedIn: Dan Thomas (coachthomastech) The TechEd Clubhouse Podcast on Apple Podcasts The TechEd Clubhouse Podcast on Spotify