ItsTheMitchell

 Catching Up with The Squatter (Part 3) Finally, we’re caught up with Squatter 35: Hallomeme 2.0 — a Halloween special full of meme-based humor with real teaching hacks underneath. From Drake’s grading face-off to Surprised Pikachu discovering NotebookLM, every meme ties back to making AI + AVID work for teachers. This one might be the most fun to date — a reminder that sometimes the best PD fits on a bathroom wall and makes you laugh while you learn. 📄 Download Squatter 35 (PDF) Which meme in this issue nailed your exact teacher life experience?

 Catching Up with The Squatter (Part 2) Next in the catch-up series is Squatter 34: Return of the Squat . This one takes a movie-themed approach to Chromebook use in the classroom. It’s a lighthearted but practical look at how to keep Chromebooks from being the villain in your lesson — instead turning them into the supporting character that helps everything run smoothly. Think of it as your director’s cut for classroom tech management. 📄 Download Squatter 34 (PDF) If Chromebook use in your class was a movie genre, what would it be — comedy, action, or horror?

 Catching Up with The Squatter (Part 1) I’ll admit it — I’ve fallen a little behind posting Squatters here. They’ve still been popping up on campus, but not always making their way online. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be dropping one Squatter per week until we’re caught up. First up is Squatter 33: Prompt Engineering . This edition digs into the idea that AI is only as good as the questions we ask it. Better prompts = better outputs. Inside are teacher-friendly examples of how to craft prompts that save you time while still giving you usable results. 📄 Download Squatter 33 (PDF) What’s one classroom task you’d like to try writing a “perfect prompt” for?

 Keeping up on the rapid fire posting of squatters. Don't expect it to continue. I was WAY behind on posting. That being said, this Squatter asks the question what exactly is "cheating" when it comes to A.I.? It's not as black and white as you would think. Teachers need to consider this question on a continuum, rather than a yes or no. Check out Squatter 32 to see what I mean. Drop a comment and share your thoughts. Do you have experience with students trying to pass of AI generated work as their own? What do you do in your classes to encourage responsible use of AI... or do you just ban it and pretend it doesn't exist? As usual, click the image below for a full-sized PDF of Squatter 32.

 Wow. Three Squatters behind. It really has been a while. I'll save the normal content, and just get to the Squatting. Squatter 29 - This is Hallomeme is all about staying vigilant against Phishing attacks. Another meme based Squatter, hopefully you catch on to some of the humor while learning important information. As usual, click on the link below for a full resolution PDF of Squatter 29.

 I love failures. I also (generally) enjoy playing the long game. This has been a really  long game. I've been into 3D printing since purchasing my first printer for the STEM lab where I used to teach. I started with no printers, and by the end of my second year in that lab, I had six! Fast forward to a career change, and I no longer had access to the 3D print farm I had built. My darling, beautiful wife bought a 3D printer for me to use at home. My learning continued there. The biggest lesson I learned... Upgrades aren't always upgrades. Anyway, without getting too off in the technical weeds, I've been learning how to use Time Lapse software to make nice, smooth videos of my 3D prints as they're being made. I threw all (err... most... well... some) of the videos in a compilation for YouTube. I think most of them came out well considering the quality of the potato (camera) I used for filming. That being said, if you want me to get in the technical weeds of 3D printing, ...

Good news everybody! Jamboard is now a part of Google Meet. Take a look at the incredibly brief and low quality demonstration of how to create a Jam from within a Meet, and how to take a look at the Jam after the Meet has finished.

Your digital footprint. According to techterms.com, it is "a trail of data you create while using the internet. It includes the websites you visit, emails you send, and information you submit to online services." Considering that, your digital footprint includes; every email you have sent, every tweet you've posted, every Facebook status update, every comment, every video, every website you've visited, every shared post, every time you shared misinformation with knowing, every reply, every picture, every thing you have ever done on the Internet, ever, ever, ever, ever. Here's is what I tell my students are the two biggest things to keep in mind when thinking about your digital footprint... 1. The Internet is all knowing. 2. The Internet is forever. Imagine this. You (yes, the real you sitting there hopefully reading this right now) have an imaginary backpack. That imaginary backpack keeps a list of every thing you do, everywhere you go, and everything you...