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Martian Perchlorates in Minecraft Education
My middle school computer science students are wrapping up the last project in our “Minecraft Mars” or Coding Mars” unit this month. (In April 2025) In this unit, my 6th, 7th and 8th graders use Microsoft MakeCode for Minecraft to make a “robot” (their “agent”) autonomously farm different kinds of plants, build protective glass domes…
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Our Family: Ghibli Style
Wow, the Substack article, “The Colors Of Her Coat” by Scott Alexander taught me several new things: For deeper reading see “Welcome to the semantic apocalypse: Studio Ghibli style and the draining of meaning” by Erik Hoel. Via Ethan Mollick’s March 30th Substack article, “No elephants: Breakthroughs in image generation – When Language Models Learn…
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Media Kit Lesson
Today in my middle school web design class, we wrapped up a multi-week unit and project I call our “Image and Video Media Kit.” In this post I’ll summarize the unit and share the techniques I used for student presentations this semester, which went smoothly. You can access this full lesson (including sample media kits…
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Coding Mars
This is an audio recording and the presentation slides from “Coding Mars with Minecraft Makecode and Scratch,” my presentation on March 25, 2025 at the NCMLE ‘Middle School Matters’ Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. The session description was: Build a Mars Colony In Minecraft with Robots and Code? YES! In our middle school computer programming class,…
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Microaggressions in Middle School
These are my notes from Dr. Laurie A Ramirez’ presentation, “Microaggressions at the Middle – What are they and what do we do about them?“ at the March 25, 2025 NCMLE ‘Middle School Matters’ Conference MY THOUGHT AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Presentation slides MICROAGGRESSIONS in Middle Level Education NCMLE – March 2025 by…
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Wisdom from Heather Smith
Heather Smith is the 2024 North Carolina Teacher of the Year! She teaches 8th grade math teacher at Waynesville Middle School in Haywood County Schools. These are my notes from her presentation, “Teachers: The Ultimate Influencers“ at the March 24, 2025 NCMLE ‘Middle School Matters’ Conference MY THOUGHT AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. In this…
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Teaching Local History
These are my notes from Liz Davis’ presentation “Local History: Universal Truths – Exploring and enriching Hometowns at the March 24, 2025 NCMLE ‘Middle School Matters’ Conference. MY THOUGHT AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Liz teaches at Pollard Middle School in Chatham County Schools Liz grew up in Wilmington and knew very little about…
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Road to Awesome
These are my notes from Darrin Peppard’s keynote at the March 24, 2025 NCMLE ‘Middle School Matters’ Conference. MY THOUGHT AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Darrin’s books include: “The Road to Awesome: The Journey of a Leader”: roadtoawesome.net and roadtoawesome.net/books Darrin’s most recent book with Katie Kinder is “Culture First Classrooms: Leadership, Relationships, and…
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Why Regulate AI?
Why should we regulate artificial intelligence? This was the question we tackled at the Thursday evening discussion group at Meadowlark Hills Retirement Community in Manhattan, Kansas, on March 20, 2025. This presentation and conversation was shared by Wes Fryer of Charlotte, North Carolina, a 1988 graduate of Manhattan High School and current middle school and…
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Reading Wish List
Long form reading may be a relic of the past for younger generations in US society and culture for a variety of reasons, but I still believe in both the power of reading and its importance in our shared civic culture. For a number of years now, I’ve maintained a public aspirational reading list on…
