When Dyane Smokorowski leads professional learning on AI, she listens for two specific sounds that signal teachers are ready to actually use what they're learning.

The first: "Ooh!"

That's the moment when something clicks. A teacher realizes AI isn't abstract—it's predictive text suggesting "birthday" after they type "happy" in a message. It's Netflix recommendations. It's already part of their daily life. Dyane, Coordinator of Digital Literacy for Wichita Public Schools, recognizes this as the curiosity spark.

The second sound is quieter: "I wonder..."

This signals a shift. Teachers aren't just absorbing information—they're applying it to their own context. "I wonder if I could use this for my multilingual learners." "I wonder what would happen if I tried this with my ecosystems unit."

When Dyane hears "I wonder," she knows the teacher has moved from understanding what's possible to planning what they'll do tomorrow.

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How to Create These Moments

These sounds don't happen by accident. Dyane starts by asking teachers about their hobbies—cooking, traveling, reading—then demonstrates how prompting AI to plan a dinner uses the same approach as designing a lesson.

Who's coming to dinner? Who's in your classroom?
Any dietary restrictions? Any learning needs?
What experience do you want to create?

The parallel is immediate. Teachers recognize that AI isn't replacing their expertise—it's a tool they can direct. From there, they experiment with personal tasks first: planning trips, finding recipes, getting book recommendations. They learn to prompt and refine in low-stakes ways.

That's when professional application follows naturally.

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Why This Matters

Professional learning often focuses on measurable outcomes—completion rates, survey responses, implementation checklists. But these two sounds reveal something surveys miss: the exact moment when resistance shifts to curiosity, and curiosity shifts to action.

When a teacher says "I wonder," they've already left the training room mentally. They're thinking about their students, their next unit, their Monday morning plan. That's adoption starting in real time.

As you design AI professional learning, consider: Are you creating space for teachers to discover connections themselves, or just presenting information? Are they exploring with personal contexts before professional ones?

If you hear "Ooh!" and "I wonder," something's working. If you don't, the experience might need adjusting.

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Dyane Smokorowski shared more about practical AI implementation on The Best of Us podcast and you can learn more insights on February 11th at KickUp's webinar: How to Use AI to Elevate Instructional Leadership.