I’m thrilled to share some exciting news: I’ve accepted a position as an Instructional Designer with the Mark Cuban Foundation, working on their national AI Bootcamp program for underserved high school students. Initially, I will be helping to launch the inaugural Teacher Fellowship program and the Teacher Bootcamps, along with my supervisor, Charlotte Dungan. For … Read more
The TX Youth Code Jam is a virtual hackathon, and open to submissions from any student in the United States in grades K-12. Entries are due on April 24, 2020. Coding is not required for the projects, but any students who are registered can learn more about coding and other topics in the scheduled online … Read more
I learned quite a bit about Artificial Intelligence at a TCEA session this year presented by Anita Johnson of Austin ISD. She explained the difference between Expert Systems (where explicit rules are programmed – think “If…Then” statements) and Machine Learning (where the computer identifies and learns from patterns). Johnson teaches middle school, and introduced … Read more
If you read last year’s “Gifts for the Gifted” posts, then you may remember that one of my suggestions was Circuit Playground Express. After publishing the post, I found out that there was an e-book published by Rob Merrill with some fun ideas for different ways to use this product, which is an awesome introduction … Read more
I think I’ve finally come to terms with my Kickstarter addiction. Basically, I choose an item to “back”, and wait until that product arrives on my doorstep before I find something else to invest in. Most of the items I fund take around a year to get manufactured, so this seems to be a compromise … Read more
As regular readers know, I share a lot of freebies on this blog. Usually, if I’ve made a lesson or activity, I post it here for anyone to download. However, I sometimes create collections of my work and sell it on Teachers Pay Teachers. My “Undercover Robots – Spy School” packet is one of those … Read more