Engage Their Minds

Remember Scantrons? Those bubble sheets that were supposed to revolutionize grading? They saved teachers time on one thing, sure. But did they make learning better? Did they actually reduce our workload? Nope. Other duties flooded in to fill the vacuum.

In our latest newsletter, I included a link to an interview Justin Reich recently did on PBS Newshour where he compares AI to the Scantron. Everyone keeps throwing artificial intelligence "productivity hacks" at educators, promising to make our lives easier. But what if we're just building a fancier way to miss the point?

We've got 900+ teachers in our bootcamps now, and they're not asking how to save time with AI. They're asking how to make learning better. How to use it responsibly. For example, one of our Teacher Bootcamp participants, Yolanda Lau, shares a prompt in this issue for finding new ways to motivate students in courses with non-traditional grades. Wally Luckeydoo, Ed.D. gives us an insight he gained from one of our recent deliverable assignments on AI cheating.

We've got new tools, an AI Challenge, an invitation to enroll in DataCamp for free, and MORE this month. If you're getting our newsletter, this month's issue is worth opening. If not, click on the link so you can read it, too. You won't be disappointed!

Photo Credit: Packer1028, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Newsletter: https://sh1.sendinblue.com/3gske7vm079pfe.html?t=1767914457570

All teachers are invited to this free Snorkl webinar tomorrow, January 6th, at 8 pm CT. You do not have to be a participant in the Mark Cuban Foundation teacher programs. With your signup, you will also get a FREE Premium account with Snorkl for the rest of this school year. Sign up at tinyurl.com/snorklwebinar

Hi everyone!

If you know of anyone who might be interested in volunteering/mentoring at our Mark Cuban Foundation AI Bootcamp at Girls Inc. here in San Antonio, please reach out. We will have 30 high school students learning about AI on November 1, 8, and 15 (10:30-4:30). Volunteers do not need to know anything about AI as all of the curriculum is online. I will be facilitating. It's a great opportunity to work with kids who applied for this (so we know they are interested!) and learn a little about AI!

Let me know if you have any ideas of someone who might be able to help out.

Thanks,
Terri

I'm excited to announce that the Mark Cuban Foundation AI Bootcamps has decided to open up registration for the 2025-2026 Teacher Bootcamp to all high school educators located in the United States. This program is absolutely FREE, and it's an incredible opportunity for teachers of any high school subject to enhance your AI Literacy and classroom integration skills. No-Cost Professional Development…...

Join the Free 2025 Teacher AI Bootcamp - Register Now! Join the free 2025 Teacher AI Bootcamp by the Mark Cuban Foundation to enhance your AI skills and classroom integration. Sign up today!

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 those of you who know me through my work with…...

https://engagetheirminds.com/2025/06/08/new-chapter-designing-for-the-future-of-ai-literacy-at-the-mark-cuban-foundation/

So, I decided to check out what Canva's AI knows about Hexagonal Thinking and Tuck by giving it the challenge of creating an interactive drag and drop activity for students that would allow them to move the hexagons around and connect them....

Vibe Coding an Interactive Hexagonal Thinking Activity with Canva So, I decided to check out what Canva’s AI knows about Hexagonal Thinking and Tuck by giving it the challenge of creating an interactive drag and drop activity for students that would allow t…

Could we make Mystery Action Figure packages of notable people from history?...

Engaging Students with Mystery Action Figures Could we make Mystery Action Figure packages of notable people from history?

Anyone who has designed PBL units will recognize how valuable this AI/Teacher collaboration is....

SequoiaCon Insights: AI-Powered Project Based Learning Anyone who has designed PBL units will recognize how valuable this AI/Teacher collaboration is.

My first FREE AI Webinar is coming up on April 23, 2025. It's called, "ChatGPT for Real Life Simple, Practical Ways to Use AI (Even if You’re Not Techy)."...

Free AI Webinar: ChatGPT Made Easy for Everyone My first FREE AI Webinar is coming up on April 23, 2025. It’s called, “ChatGPT for Real Life Simple, Practical Ways to Use AI (Even if You’re Not Techy).”

Think AI is too complex to bother with? Think again. Discover how ChatGPT can save time in your everyday life and tell me what you want to learn in my upcoming free webinar.

https://engagetheirminds.com/2025/03/25/ai-without-the-intimidation-a-free-webinar-for-the-ai-curious/

If you want to hit nearly all of the icons of depth and complexity in one giant unit for upper elementary, the one I did for years with my 4th graders on the Faberge Eggs will help you to achieve that goal. This was one of the rare lessons that I repeated because it just had everything: history, intrigue, ethics, multiple perspectives, art, and much more....

Faberge Eggs Lesson Resources Update 2025 If you want to hit nearly all of the icons of depth and complexity in one giant unit for upper elementary, the one I did for years with my 4th graders on the Faberge Eggs will help you to achieve t…

GenChess: Design Your Own Virtual Pieces My latest curated list of chess resources was in 2020 and, predictably, some of the links no longer work. I updated that post accordingly, and now I have something else to add! GenChess is a fun Google Labs Experiment that uses the power of AI to allow the user to design their own chess pieces by describing a theme....

https://engagetheirminds.com/2025/03/14/genchess-google-labs-experiment/