Kids Discover… Kids Discover Blog Post: C-H-A-T-G-P-T, Find Out What It Means To Me 17 Oct 2025 When I talk to my colleagues about AI (artificial intelligence), I usually hear one of three responses: "No way! I'm not using AI to help me with teaching." "Maybe... but…
Classroom Management… Kids Discover Blog Post: Preparation is Relaxation: Calming Your Nerves Before the School Year Starts 31 Aug 202531 Aug 2025 Back-to-school anxiety isn’t just for students. Teachers, new and experienced, feel it, too. Those creeping worries, the flurry of “what ifs,” and that last-minute scramble the day before school starts……
Curriculum… Kids Discover Blog Post: Why Every Unit Needs a Culminating Event! 26 Feb 2025 I've always felt that educational units of study fall flat when they don't have some sort of culminating event - a project, a field trip, an experience that provides students…
Curriculum… Kids Discover Blog Post: Breaking news – every subject is trending! 2 Nov 20242 Nov 2024 Having trouble engaging your students? If you said "No," what planet do you teach on? Because here on planet Earth every teacher has difficulty engaging their students at least once…
Planning Instruction… Kids Discover Blog Post: SCHOOL’S IN FOR SUMMER! 26 Jun 20245 Sep 2024 Not every student and teacher have the summer off! If you are in charge of a summer school class, OR you are a parent hoping to maintain learning at home,…
Conservation… Kids Discover Blog Post: Place-Based education 15 May 202415 May 2024 Who doesn't love a great field trip? But field trips can be much more than just fun journeys that connect with topics students are learning about. They can be "place-based"…
Curriculum… Kids Discover Blog Post – Poetry isn’t just for April 5 Mar 20245 Mar 2024 As April - National Poetry Month - draws closer, and I prepare to lead an after-school poetry club, I am reminded of the importance of poetry. I am also reminded…
Classroom Management… The Third Quarter Blues 25 Jan 2020 As we enter the third quarter, I remember one of my favorite mentors and how he would compare a school year to a footrace. He would get in front of…
Collaboration… Place-Based Education: Field Trips with a Long-Lasting Focus 5 Sep 2018 Did you know that Christa McAuliffe was also known as “the field trip teacher?” This was because McAuliffe understood the value of place-based education. But, what exactly is place-based education?…
Collaboration… Friday was Sci-Day 11 Mar 201711 Mar 2017 Yesterday was chock full of science! Thanks to Kevin Johnson, the Hillsboro-Deering School District’s Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Coordinator, I had the privilege of working with his district’s Vertical Science…
Thom R. Smith 