The countdown is on. The pencils are dull, the coffee mugs have been abandoned in questionable locations, and educators across our 5 county region are preparing to enter their well-earned summer era. 🪩

Before you fully transition into sunscreen, snacks, and pretending not to check your school email, I wanted to send you off with a few AI-in-education resources to toss into your summer beach bag. No pressure. No homework. Just a few things to explore when your teacher brain surfaces from the snorkel dive that is summer break.

Your “Wait, How Does This Actually Work?” Watch

Still wondering about the nuts and bolts of AI? Few people have explained it better — or with better drawings — than Henrik Kniberg. This video is a clear, visual, surprisingly fun introduction to how generative AI works and why it sometimes feels brilliant and sometimes confidently wrong. 🔗 Generative AI In a…

Summer is right around the corner! No need to reinvent the wheel; my favorite ECE idea source, Busy Toddler, has shared her Summer Bucket List and Boredom Busters to keep kids of all ages engaged, active, and learning through play all summer long. You can share these with your class, use with summer school students, or try with your own kids!

First on my list to try are making bubble foam and setting up an obstacle course outside. 🙂

This spring, I had the pleasure of racing groups of middle school students from across the region to find out which of us is at the top of the food chain (spoiler alert... not me!).

CGCC's 5th annual Math Day was a huge hit! Middle schoolers got to learn hands-on, applicable math from professors, industry professionals, and local STEM geniuses. Topics ranged from How Not to Kill Your Patients to Stomp Rocket Science. Leaning into this year's "Math in the Wild" theme, I brought an Animal Speeds activity.

First, students recorded three of their own speeds (tortoise crawl, normal walk, and all-out sprint) on a 20-meter track. They then calculated their speed for each using the formula speed = distance/time.

The best part was comparing our results to different animals. While most of us landed somewhere in the neighborhood of a chicken or a pig (a humbling realization), one student actually reached "Almost Elephant"…

As graduation season approaches, many educators are asking an important question: Are students truly prepared for what comes next - not just academically, but professionally and personally?

A recent Forbes article by Mark C. Perna, “How The Class of 2026 Can Launch Successful Careers,” offers timely insights for educators supporting students as they transition into college, careers, apprenticeships, military service, or training programs. Perna is widely known for his work connecting education, workforce development, and career readiness for younger generations.

One of the strongest themes from the article: technical knowledge alone is no longer enough. In an AI-influenced workforce, durable human skills matter more than ever. 

1. Prioritize Durable Skills Daily

Communication, critical thinking, adaptability, teamwork, and problem-solving consistently rise to the top of employer expectations.

Last week, I attended this great webinar hosted by AI for Education. When we hear AI, we usually think of ChatGPT or high-tech tools that aren't exactly age-appropriate for a 6-year-old. But the session made a compelling case: AI is already part of our students' lives, from the videos recommended to them on YouTube to the voice assistants they talk to at home.

The big takeaway? We aren't recommending direct student use of AI before third grade. However, we have a responsibility to build AI Literacy early on, and we might be surprised how much will click with our students.

How do we teach AI to young learners?

The goal isn’t to get kids "on" the tech, but to help them understand the world around the tech. Here’s what was covered:

• Spotting AI in the Wild: Using real-world examples to show kids that AI is a tool humans built. It’s in our Netflix recommendations…

(Simple shifts to build career readiness - without adding more to your plate.)

Career readiness doesn’t have to be one more thing - it can be how your classroom already operates!

A recent webinar EdWeb “Design for Career Readiness: Using the National Career Clusters Framework to Build Classrooms That Function Like Industry” - highlights a simple but powerful idea: any classroom (CTE, STEM, or core content) can function more like industry with a few intentional moves!

📊 A Quick Foundation: What’s the Career Clusters Framework? 

The Advance CTE National Career Clusters® Framework organizes careers into broad pathways and emphasizes:

• Real-world application of academic skills

A recent edWebinar - Boost Math Relevance with Career-Connected Learning edWebinar- highlighted a simple shift with big impact: when students see how math is used in real careers, engagement and understanding increase.

This isn’t about new curriculum - it’s about connecting what you already teach to real-world application.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Construction & Skilled Trades

• Math: Measurement, geometry, ratios

Thanks to one of the latest ChatEDU episodes, I recently came across a post by Carla Engelbrecht Fisher that felt really relevant as we look at infusing AI into existing engineering lessons for this year's for Oregon STEM Week:

14 Ways to Remind Yourself (and Your Kids) AI is a Machine, Not Your Friend

This article is full of simple, relatable ways to help students (and us!) understand what AI is (and isn’t).

At its core, the post reinforces a few key ideas that are essential for students: AI doesn’t think - it predicts. AI doesn’t understand - it patterns. And sometimes, it gets things wrong in ways that feel surprisingly human.

What I appreciate most is how actionable her approach is. Here are five of the 14 ways she suggests we can start talking about AI with kids:

1. AI is an it.