What if the missing ingredient in your classroom isn't a new tool, a new curriculum, or another PD session, but curiosity itself?

In this episode, I sit down with Olivia Odileke, founder of Spark Curiosity EDU, Education Week contributor, and creator of the Spark Curiosity GPT Coach. Olivia brings an industrial engineering background into the world of education, and her perspective on how we teach, how we evaluate, and how we use AI in classrooms is one you don't want to miss.

We get into why so many teachers are burning out trying to cover the curriculum instead of letting students uncover it. Olivia shares her seven-minute teacher talk rule, her Spark Task method with multiple entry points for every learner, and the powerful idea that the smallest unit of school improvement is a teacher who feels psychologically safe to try something new.

We also dig into AI in the classroom and how Olivia is using it to amplify student thinking, not replace it. From the Spark Curiosity GPT Coach to her Fearless Educator Radio project with 100+ AI-generated songs for educators, Olivia is showing what it looks like when teachers use AI as a thought partner instead of an answer machine.

Plus, get all the details on the Spark Curiosity Conference, July 31 to August 2, 2026 in Austin, Texas, where Olivia and her team are modeling what a curious classroom can actually feel like.

Chapters
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
02:38 Olivia’s Path to Inquiry
10:00 Engineering Mindset in Teaching
14:05 Seeing Students and Sparking Curiosity
34:26 Fail Forward Culture
39:04 Spark Curiosity GPT Coach
45:27 Curiosity With AI
49:26 Conference And Closing

Connect with Olivia:
🌐 Website: https://oliviaodileke.com/
🤖 Spark Curiosity GPT Coach: https://ai.sparkcuriosityedu.com
🎵 Fearless Educator Radio: https://fearlesseducator.com
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-odileke/

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