By Mike Mendelson and Erica Crane, EdD
It was so good to be in Mountain View, CA, for Khan Lab School’s sold-out AI in Education Summit on Saturday, October 24. Our co-founder, Mike, led a session called “No Hesitation,” and we learned a lot from the educators and students in the room.
A sign on the school’s wall summed up the day well: “Everyone’s a student. Everyone’s a teacher.”
Mike’s session:
Mike designed his 50-minute session so that participants could spend most of it learning from each other. Twenty-one of those minutes went to the room, with two 6-minute partner conversations and 9 minutes of hands-on building. As a former math teacher, Mike couldn’t help doing the math. With about 50 pairs talking, those 12 minutes added up to 600 minutes of conversation and 1,200 minutes of individual thinking. The building time added up to about 900 minutes of people making something with AI.
Both the conversations and the build time felt too short, and we think that’s a good sign. People left curious and wanting to keep going, which is how we hope every learning experience feels. It’s also how we think about professional learning at sideby: we learn better side by side, talking and trying things with our peers.
What we learned from students:
One highlight of the day was a panel of eight middle and high school students who talked openly about how they learn best. They want to do the thinking themselves. They described learning most when they explain their ideas out loud and get questioned on them, and they asked for assignments that give them room to come up with ideas on their own first. They see their teachers as their first and most important mentors. They spoke up for honest conversations and clear expectations over rules that only say no. They also said that school is moving away from memorizing and toward building things, making connections across subjects, and deciding which problems are worth solving. These students knew exactly what they need to learn well, and we were reminded how much we gain when we listen to them.
We’re grateful these students were so honest with a room full of adults. They reminded us how important it is to listen to the people closest to the learning, and that educators and students are figuring this out together.
What’s next:
Mike is bringing this session to the Washington K-12 AI Innovation Summits on December 8 in Lynnwood and December 10 2026 in Spokane. We’d love to see you there!
We’ll keep designing learning experiences where educators do the talking, thinking, and building together.
Thank you to Khan Lab School for hosting such a thoughtful day. If you’re an educator who wants to keep learning about AI alongside your peers, we’d love to have you in our community. Start learning for free at my.sideby.ai.
If you’re a team thinking about continuous professional learning, idea exchange, and the insights that come from this peer to peer approach, reach out to Mike at mike@sideby.ai.