Does A Machine Like Yourself Ever Experience Fear?

super saiyan

It’s rainy here in the Bluegrass State as another Friday rolls around. Spring Break is right around the corner for many of us, but not before we complete the last barrage of testing leading up to our end-of-year assessments—and my, aren’t those fun?

Still, there are so many things happening and more cool stuff than ever to share, so here are 10 Things worth sharing with you this week.

10 Things Worth Sharing


Thanks for taking the time to read this post. If you’ve enjoyed the insights and stories, consider showing your support by subscribing to my weekly newsletter. It’s a great way to stay updated and dive deeper into my content. Alternatively, if you love audiobooks or want to try them, click here to start your free trial with Audible. Your support in any form means the world to me and helps keep this blog thriving. Looking forward to connecting with you more!

Snow Days and AI Plays

kentucky schools in winter
Live look at Kentucky schools

It’s a Friday in mid-January, which means there’s snow on the ground here in Kentucky, and many of our schools are either working remotely or out of session. I’m checking in with my teachers while enjoying cup of coffee number 3, swaddled up in my old man sweater.

Next week, I’m attending FETC and will be presenting on Thursday afternoon. If you’re there and want to chat, hit me up!

For now, here’s this week’s 10 Things. Stay warm!

10 Things Worth Sharing


Thanks for taking the time to read this post. If you’ve enjoyed the insights and stories, consider showing your support by subscribing to my weekly newsletter. It’s a great way to stay updated and dive deeper into my content. Alternatively, if you love audiobooks or want to try them, click here to start your free trial with Audible. Your support in any form means the world to me and helps keep this blog thriving. Looking forward to connecting with you more!

Reading, Writing, but maybe not ‘Rithmetic

Summer Starfighter, a sleek interstellar vessel with a polished silver hull reflecting the setting sun, intricate markings adorning its wings like tribal tattoos, Coastal cityscape during twilight, skyscrapers casting long shadows onto the shimmering sea, the atmosphere tinged with both anticipation and tranquility as the starfighter hovers, ready for takeoff, Photography, captured with a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, 24-105mm lens

Greetings starfighters. It’s time for another edition of “10 Things” worth sharing with you. It’s almost the end of the school year here in the Bluegrass, and my thoughts turn to summer and to my daughter’s impending move to middle school. I’m old.

Anyway, I hope your life is just as interesting. Perhaps some of these shares will make it even more so.

10 Things Worth Sharing

-I read around 100ish books per year, but as a doctoral student, I’m having to read more. Here are some tips from two experts on how you can read more than you thought possible.

-If you’re in grad school, these books will help you get through and maintain your sanity.

-Some thoughts on how we can avoid raising machines (hint: let’s stop standardized testing) and raise humans.

-I put together some quick resources on Juneteenth that you may find helpful. I know most schools aren’t in session by the time Juneteenth rolls around, but we can’t overlook teaching this important date.

-One of my elementary teachers (and Future Shift Fellowship cohort member) created a podcast with her students. Actually, the students did all the work. It’s pretty awesome.

-Friend and professor John Nash, Ph.D., has done some amazing work with AI in his classes. In a recent episode of his podcast, he talks about testing AI and what does and doesn’t work.

-Fun stuff: if you’re of a certain age, you may remember The Midnight Special. What you may not know is that the show is back, thanks to the official YouTube channel.

-Have you ever seen a copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio? Here’s your chance.

How Makerspaces in Schools Can Support Student Mental Health

-Final thoughts: Daft Punk released a tenth-anniversary edition of Random Access Memories, including what may be the “last Daft Punk song ever” and I’m totally not over it yet.

BONUS: As I was compiling this list, I got the notification that you can now provide input on the National Educational Technology Plan. Polls are open for K-12 Educators and Families. Please take some time to let your voice be heard. This is the first time since COVID-19 hit that this important policy document is getting an update. You can access the links to either poll right here.


Thanks for reading. The end of the school year means we’re officially in the “dads and grads” gifting season. I’ve put together a couple of book lists for quick and easy gifting. Here’s one for dads and one for grads. Enjoy!

Safe places and dark spaces

dark library

Hey gang, here are 10 things worth sharing with you this week:

10 Things Worth Sharing

  1. Wil Wheaton spoke in Kentucky in March, and I missed it. However, he kindly posted his remarks on why “The library is a safe space.”
  2. We need more trust and vulnerability in schools.
  3. The 2023 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced this week; one of the winning fiction books is a retelling of Dickens’ “David Copperfield.”
  4. Why sing a song when you can just sing a note and do some crazy stuff?
  5. Cool use of AI: Midjourney recreates ancient battles.
  6. Would AIs make better professionals (or teachers) than humans?
  7. Testing season is in full swing, and we need easier edtech integrations to service the nonsense.
  8. The Oppenheimer trailer dropped this week, and it looks amazing… and disturbing.
  9. First, Chegg took a hit from AI, and now the popular Stack Overflow loses traffic to ChatGPT. AI is here to stay, and it is disruptive.
  10. Lastly, there is no shame in getting help when you need it.


Thanks for taking the time to read this post. If you’ve enjoyed the insights and stories, consider showing your support by subscribing to my weekly newsletter. It’s a great way to stay updated and dive deeper into my content. Alternatively, if you love audiobooks or want to try them, click here to start your free trial with Audible. Your support in any form means the world to me and helps keep this blog thriving. Looking forward to connecting with you more!

All your base are belong to us

Hey, y’all. We’re nearing the end of March, and for many public schools, that means Spring Break is near (or maybe already arrived). It’s a very busy time for educators as one school year ends, and plans for the next are already taking shape.

My hope for you as we approach the end of another school year is that you take the time to take care of yourself. You cannot pour from an empty cup, and it’s easy to get caught up in all the things at the end of the school year.

atomic habits by james clear

Take a beat, catch a deep breath, and center yourself. Rediscover what is really important to you and what you can control.

“We have so little control over our lives. The only thing we can really control is what we spend our days on.” – Austin Kleon

Anyways, here are ten things I thought were worth sharing with you this week:

10 Things Worth Sharing

  1. I worked with a senior English class this week, showing them some AI tools. They might write a book.
  2. Here’s a curated list of prompts, tools, and resources regarding the GPT-4 language model.
  3. Wanna learn financial literacy? This 300-page book was written completely with ChatGPT.
  4. The TikTok trial is a mess and is only proving that the US government is targeting this specific company over other social media platforms. Any issues with TikTok are the same with Facebook, Instagram, Snap, and many others.
  5. What is the right amount of agency to give to learners during their interactions with EdTech? Blog post and paper
  6. Are you a Wordle fan? I’m totally not, but I’ve also never liked Scrabble. Not that you care. Here’s Every Possible Wordle Solution Visualized
  7. An AI course creator – according to the page: “Start with a description and let AI-Assistant offer title and outline suggestions.”
  8. You might be violating copyright in your classroom. Maybe.
  9. Bill Gates explains why AI is as revolutionary as personal computers, mobile phones, and the Internet, and he gives three principles for how to think about it. Also, he recommends this book, this book, and this book as helpful in shaping his own thinking about AI.
  10. An Introvert’s Field Guide to Friendship: Thoreau on the Challenges and Rewards of the Art of Connection
rocking the boat
Rocking the Boat by Debra Meyerson

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Running on Empty

Hey, y’all. It’s time for another “10 Things” to clutter your inbox. I don’t know about you, but it’s been a week for me. I’m looking forward to a little break this weekend.

10 Things Worth Sharing

  1. Noam Chomsky thinks ChatGPT is “basically high-tech plagiarism”
  2. ICYMI, Google debuted their own AI-powered chatbot this week, Bard
  3. What if George Lucas had directed “2001: A Space Odyssey”? (It’s flipping brilliant)
  4. Polymath Tyler Cowen talks about ChatGPT and reading in clusters
  5. We’re digging deep into crafting a profile of a graduate in my home school district. I found this great article for steps to take in that long and very rewarding process right here.
  6. Busting the attention span myth
  7. Call me a nerd, but I’m super excited about this upcoming book on the history of the keyboard
  8. I see this pop up every now and then, and I always love this Gregory Hines tribute to Sammy Davis, Jr.
  9. While some are continuing to freak out about AI, others are getting right to work. My current favorite visual AI project exists at The Visual Dome.
  10. RIP Burt Bacharach. He made music that sounds like that of no one else on earth. He had a special and creative way of making music, blending jazz, pop, and classical sounds, which made him one of the most famous and beloved pop music composers ever.

Thanks for reading. This newsletter is a completely reader-supported publication. The best way to support it is to check out my recommendations or become a paid subscriber.

Every Day is Groundhog Day

Hey, y’all. It’s Friday, the day after Groundhog Day here in the US. And here’s this week’s “10 Things”

10 Things Worth Sharing

  1. I say “Every Day is Groundhog Day” because of the intro to Austin Kleon’s “Keep Going”. The book is the final installment of his series on creativity. Here’s Austin reading the first chapter. Also, full credit to Austin for the format of this newsletter, as I blatantly stole it from him 😉
  2. I’ve been spending a lot of time with several of the teachers in my Future Shift Fellowship as they are working through the lessons they redesigned this year. I shared a little about one of them on Twitter this week.
  3. George Couros has 4 questions to consider about using ChatGPT in education.
  4. Speaking of ChatGPT (no, I’m not going to stop talking about it and every other AI platform), here are some ideas for how to put the tool to work for academics.
  5. Learning loss: a topic I’ve heard far too much about and believe that it only exists because we measure the wrong things in education. I wholeheartedly agree with Jo Boaler’s thoughts on this one.
  6. Let’s face it: most self-help books are bad and are just generalizations put into print. Here are 8 that are actually worth reading.
  7. I read 12 books in January 2023. Here’s a recap of all of them, along with my thoughts.
  8. If you’ve never caught an episode of “Live from Daryl’s House” featuring Daryl Hall performing with some incredible (and huge) stars of the music industry, you should check it out. Here’s an episode featuring Tommy Shaw (whom I may have performed for once upon a time when he came to my church) that’s brilliant.
  9. Speaking of Groundhog Day, the almost-perfect movie turns 30 this year.
  10. Finally, here’s a documentary from 1981 featuring behind-the-scenes footage from The Muppet Show. The documentary features a “table read” for one of the episodes that confirms why I believe The Muppets are the gateway to good comedy.

Thanks for reading. This newsletter is a completely reader-supported publication. The best way to support it is to check out my recommendations or become a paid subscriber.