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In this episode, I explore the concept of schoolwide habits and personality, focusing on how educators can shape these habits to foster a more curious and engaging learning environment. I discuss the importance of personality tests, the role of habits in personality development, and the potential impact of cultivating curiosity on students from kindergarten to 12th grade. I also highlight the example of Hillbrook School and propose strategies for implementing a culture of curiosity and innovation in education. This is episode 139 of Bill Selak Talks.

In this episode, I rethink the old build-versus-buy decision through a student badging project at Hillbrook. We bought a reliable ProdataKey access-control system, paid for API access, and then used Codex to build the simple, live dashboard our team actually needed—who is in each building, who has not arrived, and where an individual student last badged. The lesson is a new middle path: buy the sturdy enterprise backend, then build the final 15 percent that makes it useful for your actual colleagues. I talk about APIs and webhooks, why detailed prompts matter, and how school technology leaders can look for everyday friction and create focused tools around systems they already trust. Sometimes the best answer is not build or buy. It is buy, then build. Bill Selak Talks, Episode 138.

In this episode, I follow curiosity from a daytime moon to the classrooms and culture of a school. After hosting a delegation of educators from South Korea at Hillbrook, I kept returning to the same idea: schools are at their best when they help students notice something, ask better questions, and build something that matters. I share an applied-calculus traffic-safety project sparked by cars speeding past campus, two students building a unified lunch-ordering platform, and the role AI can play when curiosity runs into real-world constraints. I also talk about hiring curious educators and protecting time for inquiry. Curiosity is more than a personality trait—it is a path toward meaningful learning, useful solutions, and a better world. Bill Selak Talks, Episode 137.

In this episode, I explore the famous story of Van Halen’s “no brown M&M’s” rider—and why it was never really about the candy. That idea got me thinking about what I call the inverse of a Brown M&M: the small, intentional experiences that communicate your organization’s values from day one. I share how building a custom onboarding app for new employees changed the way I think about technology, professional learning, and school culture, and I challenge you to identify your own “inverse of a Brown M&M” as you prepare to welcome new members of your community this fall.

In this episode, I react to Anthropic’s new Claude for Teachers announcement and explain why I’m excited—but also frustrated—as a school technology director. Great AI tools need great administrative tools, and there’s still work to do. Then we zoom out to a bigger question: what should educators actually be building with generative AI? I share a few of my own projects, including a private podcast recording app, a new employee onboarding app, and some experiments with web apps and NFC automations. My challenge for this summer is simple: notice the friction points around you, then build something that makes them disappear.

In this episode, I share how I finally moved my websites off Bluehost after more than 20 years. What started as a simple side project with Cloudflare turned into a complete migration of my domains, DNS, and WordPress hosting—and it ended up being much less intimidating than I expected. Along the way, I talk about why I chose Cloudflare and KnownHost, how ChatGPT helped me work through each step with confidence, and why having an ongoing AI conversation made tackling a project like this feel manageable instead of overwhelming. If you’ve been putting off a website migration because it feels too risky or too technical, this episode is for you. I’ll walk through what I learned, the mistakes I avoided, and why now might be the perfect time to make the move yourself. more-text-here-if-needed

In this episode, I talk about a new idea for identifying misplaced devices. We often find ourselves asking, “Whose device is this?” Join me as I share my journey of creating a solution using ChatGPT and Codex to build a macOS app for device lookup. I discuss the process of developing the app, from brainstorming to coding, and how leveraging technology can streamline our inventory management. The wild thing is that building this app took only a couple of hours! Codex 5.5 (very high reasoning) is incredible! Whether you’re in tech management at a school or just curious about the intersection of education and technology, this episode is packed with insights and practical advice on how to solve recurring problems with innovative solutions.

In this episode, we dive into the world of automation and synchronization for school events, including concerts and musicals. Starting from the chaotic process of managing audio and lighting cues, I walk you through changing the workflow into a seamless experience using QLab, Light Key, and OSC commands. Heard how we’re setting up QLab for audio playback, integrating lighting control through Light Key, and utilizing a Behringer X32 digital mixer to manage audio snippets effectively. The trick here is leveraging the power of OSC commands to create an automated workflow that enhances the production quality of school performances.

I just shipped an app — and this episode is the full story of how it came together. NextUp Music started as a simple frustration: shared listening is messy. People fight over songs, and somehow your Apple Music Replay ends up reflecting everyone except you. So I followed that problem and built a system. In this episode, I walk through all 31 sprints that led to the app: from the first idea around turn-based listening, to profiles without accounts, to Replay Shield, to getting rejected by App Review and working back from there. Along the way, I talk about what it actually looks like to build with tools like ChatGPT and Codex. Not as magic, but as collaborators that still require direction, taste, and ownership. This isn’t just about writing code. It’s about holding a vision long enough to make something real. NextUp Music is now live!

In this episode, the extraordinary Nick Provenzano joins the pod: an educator, maker, and AI enthusiast. We talk about the transformative power of generative AI in education, discussing how it can enhance creativity, support neurodiverse learners, and foster inclusivity in the classroom.