Tag: Conferences

Resources, News and Updates

Harnessing AI Tools for Educators: Insights from MACUL 2025

Julie Darling

Michigan in early spring is magic….and rife with contrast. Frozen next to flowing water, sprouting plants next to dormant, wild temperature swings. It always feels like the beginning of something exciting – potential, possibility. I’ve started going on long outdoor walks, again. Walking has always been my best thinking time. I’ve solved plot issues, and outlined novels over the span of a walk. Lately, I find myself thinking about AI. I was fortunate to attend the MACUL conference this year where the majority of the sessions were focused on AI.

There were two points in particular, made by Dr. Sabba Quidwai at the keynote, that I can’t stop thinking about. The first, although many schools are writing policies that disallow AI, many businesses won’t hire workers unless they’re well-versed in the use of AI. This disconnect poses a significant problem that we need to figure out soon, in both K-12 and Higher Ed. The second, employees, now and going forward, will need to know how to supervise AI agents, or possibly a combined team of AI agents and human employees.

I get that this may feel overwhelming and scary, so I wanted to offer my advice – just pick one AI tool, experiment with that tool every day for a week, 5-10 minutes a day should suffice. Then, next week, pick a different one…and keep going. Maybe start with one of the resources in the last section?

Upcoming Event

On Saturday, April 12th at 11 a.m., I’ll give a STEM Storytime at the Ypsilanti District Library. Come make a Caesar Shift cipher decoder to take home, stick around to use LEGO spike and Ozobots for coding activities. Hope to see you there!

MACUL Conference Tools & Resources

Although certainly not an exhaustive list, these are some of the new to me, or most discussed tools and resources from the 2025 Annual MACUL conference.

Just about every session at MACUL at least mentioned Google’s NotebookLM, a truly powerful Google Workplace Labs project.  NotebookLM allows you to upload content such as documents, YouTube videos and web pages. You can then use NotebookLM to generate a summary, timeline, FAQs, or study guide. You can even have it develop the uploaded content into a podcast.

PadletTA is Padlet’s new AI-powered teaching assistant designed to help with lesson planning, developing quizzes, presentations, text leveling, rubrics and more. You can use links, text, YouTube videos or documents saved in your Google Drive to start.

Gamma is an AI tool that allows you to create presentations, documents and websites without requiring design or coding skills. You can generate the content from a prompt or import a file/URL to kick it off.

LTX Studio creates AI powered storyboards which include character images, short clips of movement within the storyboard, and even a movie poster.

Google Read Along listens to kids read aloud and helps them when they get stuck.

Vurbo.ai turns voice conversations into multilingual translations in real time, currently able to translate 90+ languages.

I’d love to hear about your favorites tools, prompts you’re using that are working well, ways in which you’re teaching AI to others, or anything else you’d like to share! Tell me in the comments below?

Julie Darling and Rebecca Lowe standing in front of the sign describing their AI Summit talk.
Resources, News and Updates

February News

Julie Darling
Julie Darling and Rebecca Lowe standing in front of the sign describing their AI Summit talk.

The 2nd Annual Michigan Virtual AI Summit was a whirlwind! If you’re interested, you can find many of the presenter slides posted. To find these, follow the link, scroll down, and click the + next to the meeting room assignment.

It was lovely presenting with Chad Williams and Rebecca Lowe (pictured right) about policy, practice and the power of the school librarian…and how that all relates to A.I. I briefly met keynote speaker Ethan Mollick. His book Co-Intelligence is fascinating and should be the next A.I. book you read.

I’m currently at work on a secret project (send me all your productivity and motivational tips!) and so the newsletter and events will slow down a bit. You’ll likely hear from me every other month for 2025 – unless there’s something urgent that I simply can’t wait to share.

Save the Date!

On Saturday, April 12th I’ll give a live STEM storytime at the Ypsilanti District Library.

MEDIA

I had a feature article in the December edition of Computers in Libraries magazine. Tips for Helping Little Computer Scientists and Little Hackers appeared in the print edition.

What I’m Reading Right Now

The American Library Association Youth Media Awards were just announced!

I’m particularly excited about the Newbery award winner The First State of Being which was also a National Book Award finalist. Caldecott honor and Coretta Scott King award winning My Daddy is a Cowboy is also delightful. Kwame Crashes the Underworld, a John Steptoe winner and Coretta Scott King honor is a really fun read and finally the Caldecott award winner Chooch Helped has really gorgeous illustrations. So many wonderful books on this list!

I’ve also been reading Unmasking A.I. and Infinite Education, two very different, but both timely and relevant books on A.I.

Image States that I'm Presenting at ISTELive24
Resources, News and Updates

Read | Write | Tech – June 2024

Julie Darling

This June I’m gearing up for two big events!

I’ll be presenting at the 2024 ISTE conference and Ann Arbor SummerFest in the same week! I’ll also be giving away signed copies of my first book, Social-Emotional Learning Using Makerspaces and Passion Projects at both. I’d love to see you there!

June also means Summer reading! Scroll down for details about programs and websites for kids and adults, alike.

There will not be a July newsletter, while we concentrate on book launch and book tour event planning. Sign up for the emailed newsletter here for this content, plus special book launch giveaways and discounts delivered directly to your inbox!

If you missed my National Children’s Book Week: CS For Young Readers panel presentation last month, the recording is now available here.

June Presentations – More Details

On Monday, June 24th from 3-4 p.m. I’ll be presenting Teaching CSTA K-2 Standards Using Books, Games and Songs at the 2024 ISTE conference in Denver, CO. This session will be in-person, live-streamed and recorded, for ISTE conference participants. You’ll need to register for the in-person and/or virtual conference to attend.

On Friday, June 28th from 5-8 p.m. you’ll find me with illustrator D. J. Cools and Booksweet in the KidZone tent at A2SF, giving a sneak preview reading from our forthcoming titles, Little Hackers and Little Computer Scientists, singing the Debugging and Silly Password songs from the Guidebook and teaching kids about binary, ciphers and cybersecurity vocabulary. Enter the in-person drawing for a signed copy of Social-Emotional Learning Using Makerspaces and Passion Projects and a basket of makerspace supplies. Free event.

Summer Reading Resources

AI powered Sona gives you recommendation based on book descriptions that you type in.

Literature Map asks you to enter the name of an author you like and then creates a map of other authors you may also enjoy.

Which Book gives you curated recommendations which can be selected by region of the world, mood, character, plot and bestsellers.

The American Library Association puts together recommended Summer reading lists compiled for Pre-K through 8th grade. You can access the lists here.

Barnes & Noble has a Summer Reading program for kids in grades 1st-6th as well as suggested Summer reading lists for all ages.

If you’re feeling nostalgic, Pizza Hut does in fact still have their read books for free pizza program for Pre-K-6th graders. It’s called BookIt. You can find more details and enroll here.

Don’t forget about independent bookstores and your local public library! They also have fantastic Summer reading contests, prizes and incentives (and everything is free)!

If you’re looking for additional reading ideas, the Library of Congress has great reading lists from every state, you can peruse the 2024 compilation here. Consider taking a walk in your area and exploring some of the Little Free Libraries! You can locate many of them on this Little Free Library World Map.

Happy Reading! – Julie

Resources, News and Updates

Read | Write | Tech Blog – May 2024

Julie Darling

In K-12 schools, May is the time of year where we feel like we’re speeding to the end, but there’s still SO much to accomplish. It’s Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPI) and the penultimate and last full month of the school year. Everyone seems antsy and, depending on your air conditioning situation (none?), perhaps a bit testy too. Hopefully some of these resources can help. I’’m excited this month to share with you the official covers for our forthcoming books, some fabulous resources to celebrate AAPI heritage month, three of my upcoming events and some fun, free digital music tools to pull out of your hat when everyone gets squirmy.

Official Cover Reveals!

These cover images are now live on Amazon for our forthcoming (Fall 2024) titles and it’s starting to feel real! Illustrator D. J. Cools did such amazing work. I’m delighted to see that there weren’t major changes made from the original design.

Upcoming Events

On May 2nd at 7 p.m. EST, I’ll be participating on a virtual panel presentation with Claudia Walker for National Children’s Book Week: CS For Young Readers. I’ll be speaking about my books and suggesting other resources for teaching computer science to kids. If you’d like to join us, sign up here. Tickets are $30 for non-members.

On Monday, June 24th from 3-4 p.m. I’ll be presenting Teaching CSTA K-2 Standards Using Books, Games and Songs at the 2024 ISTE conference in Denver, CO. This session will be in-person, live-streamed, and recorded for ISTE conference participants. Must register for the in-person and/or virtual conference to attend.

A2SF KidZone

Photo Credit: Nate Hatt

On Friday, June 28th from 5-8 p.m. you’ll find me and illustrator D. J. Cools with Booksweet in the KidZone tent at A2SF (formerly known as Top of the Park), giving a sneak preview reading from our forthcoming titles, Little Hackers and Little Computer Scientists, singing the Debugging and Silly Password songs from the Guidebook and teaching kids about binary, ciphers and cybersecurity vocabulary. Enter the in-person drawing for a signed copy of Social-Emotional Learning Using Makerspaces and Passion Projects and a basket of makerspace supplies. Free, In-Person Event.

AAPI Heritage Month

‘Ohana Means Family is a great read aloud with repeated phrases. Consider adding movement to this one for even more engagement. For example, we pretend to reach “…into the mud to pick the taro…”.

Bilal Cooks Daal is a delightfully illustrated story that won an Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature Honor, and it even contains a daal recipe at the end!

Measuring Up is a highly engaging, heartwarming, award-winning graphic novel. Perfect for your middle grade readers.

Ashima Shiraishi is one of the youngest and most skilled climbers in the world. How to Solve a Problem is an inspiring story that pairs well with her TedxTeen talk, “Just Climb Through It”.

Digital Music Tools

As the weeks speed toward Summer break and your students start getting squirmy, consider adding some digital music tools to your repertoire.

A.I. Duet is one of my favorites, it’s a fun experiment that allows you to play a duet along with A.I. Consider playing the video “How It Works”, first as it provides a good, basic explanation about how A.I. works, in general. Although the experiment shows the participants playing on a piano keyboard, note that you can just use the keyboard on your computer, or click on the notes with your mouse if you only want to play one note at a time.

Body Synth is a delight to watch. In order to make it work, you’ll need to enable your camera. The voice commands necessitate enabling the microphone too. You can then control the music with the movement of your arms, head, torso and voice.

Chrome Music Lab encompasses a variety of music experiments. My favorites are Kandinsky and Shared Piano, although Voice Spinner is guaranteed to get some laughs.

Hope you enjoyed those! I’d love to hear what you’re using to engage students for AAPI month, with digital music or A.I., in general. Consider leaving a comment below with your suggestions!

Resources, News and Updates

Read | Write | Tech Blog – April 2024

Julie Darling

This April is Poetry, a Solar Eclipse and A.I. (oh my)!

Cover from the book A Few Beautiful Minutes: Experiencing a Solar Eclipse
Image of phases of total eclipse
Path of total eclipse across North America

One week from today, on Monday April 8th there will be a total solar eclipse in North America! Check out this NASA site for a 3D visualization of the path of totality. To add a bit of whimsy, also consider this eclipse playlist (scroll down and preview before sharing with kids) compiled by NASA interns for the 2017 eclipse.

A Few Beautiful Minutes by Kate Allen Fox (with gorgeous illustrations from Khoa Le) is a great read to use to explain how solar eclipses work and build anticipation for this event.

MACUL name and logo

The MACUL Conference was fantastic as usual. A few of my new favorite A.I. resources were GoblinTools, a site that helps you break down tasks into manageable steps, just describe your task in the “add new item” box and click the magic wand on the right-hand side and Pi AI, an A.I. personal assistant (who doesn’t need one of those?!) I’m also intrigued by EduaideAI, a robust lesson planning (and more) tool.

April is National Poetry Month and it’s my birthday too!

Speaking of A.I., Verse by Verse is an intriguing tool that helps you compose poetry inspired by classic American poets. Click on “let’s write a poem”, choose up to three famous poets, choose your preferred poem structure. I wrote one just now about the solar eclipse, here’s how it turned out:

If you’re someone who buys me birthday gifts, in lieu of a gift this year consider leaving a review of my first book (assuming you read or skimmed it).

Resources, News and Updates

Read | Write | Tech – Blog

Julie Darling

Volume 3: March 2024

Our Developing Computer Science Concepts in Early Childhood – book series – is in production!

I received a fantastic gift on Valentine’s day – that was the day our books; Little Computer Scientists, Little Hackers and Supporting the Development of Computer Science Concepts in Early Childhood: A Practical Guide for Parents and Educators, officially went into production! They’re currently slated for a Fall 2024 release.

Get notified when these books are available for pre-order by filling out this two-question form.

One of our primary motivations for writing this forthcoming book series is to inspire underrepresented groups (girls and BIPOC kids) to develop an interest in, and feel comfortable with, computer science (and technology related) careers. My illustrator D. J. Cools and I asked my students for voluntary input, for the design of our main character; how she should dress, style her hair etc. We poured through hundreds of student responses before settling on Zuri’s design. It is my sincerest hope that all kids can see themselves reflected in the pages of our books.

Zuri character design tests – images by D.J. Cools.

The kids particularly liked the shirt design in the above illustrations, so D. J. Cools made one that you can wear in real life! Get yours here.

The MACUL Conference is really soon!

I’ll be speaking about the forthcoming book series and a plethora of resources related to teaching computer science concepts in early childhood at the MACUL conference on Friday, March 15th. I’d love to see you there!

Additional March Events & Resources

One of my goals (with all of my writing) is to encourage underrepresented groups (those who identify as girls/women, BIPOC folks) to feel comfortable, welcome, and empowered with computer science and technology. These organizations – Black Girls Code  and Girls Who Code are both doing really great work in that regard.

I currently run a Girls Who Code club for middle school students at my school. It’s one of my favorite parts of the week! We’re learning Python3 and web design, connecting over the shared interest of learning how to code and of course enjoying yummy snacks. I encourage you to connect with Black Girls Code and/or Girls Who Code to see if hosting a club might be something that works for you, too. You won’t regret it.

March is Women’s History Month! These are some of the Founding Mothers of Computer Science.

Portrait of Ada Lovelace from Wikimedia.

Ada Lovelace is considered by most to be the first computer programmer. She invented the concept of programming before computers even existed. This Kids National Geographic article has good, additional information about her.

Grace Hopper was a U.S. Navy rear admiral, one of the first computer scientists and popularized the term “debugging” (for finding and fixing errors in code) when a moth was removed from the Mark II computer she was working with. This quick video provides a great snapshot that compliments the Grace Hopper: Queen of Computer Code biography.

Dorothy Vaughan, one of the subjects of the Hidden Figures movie and books was a brilliant mathematician who taught herself and her staff the Fortran programming language. She was one of the women instrumental in helping to win the space race. This is a great animated short about her obstacles, and contributions.

I hope you enjoy these resources! I’m looking forward to sharing highlights from the MACUL conference next time. Until next month!

Resources, News and Updates

Read | Write | Tech Newsletter

Julie Darling
Read. Write. Tech.
Volume 1
January 2024
A photo I took on a walk around this time of year, a few years back.
Happy New Year from gray, cold Michigan, where everything feels…dormant. That’s what I love about early January, to me everything also feels possible. It’s a perfect time to curl up with a book, a warm beverage and have a little space to think. I hope that’s how you feel too. I hope you get a chance to slow down, and some headspace to recalibrate. Some time to be cozy, warm and perhaps even daydream a bit.
This is the very first of a monthly (or so) newsletter of my thoughts and resources related to librarianship, writing, making, reading and technology. Probably not all at the same time (although you never know)!
If you have ideas for books and resources I should consider including in my upcoming newsletters, or just want to say hello, I’d love to hear from you!  Feel free to email me at authorjuliedarling@gmail.com
January Resources
Resources to celebrate MLK Day Freedom’s Ring, King’s I Have a Dream Speech – Animated From Standford.edu.
This scrolling text features animated extras, including a spoken recording of the I Have a Dream speech, contextual images, and song. 17 minutes and 8 seconds (although you can skip through it if you’d like).

Kid Explorer: Who Was MLK, Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Presented by a kid, this video covers a lot of ground in 4 minutes and 15 seconds. This would likely work well for upper elementary school and older students. Make sure to preview first, to determine if it will work for your learner(s).

University of Michigan’s MLK Symposium 2024 In-person and live streamed events from the University of Michigan, for their annual MLK Symposium.

Tech Tools to Try
Common Sense Education has developed free lessons for K-12 to effectively teach about Internet safety, digital citizenship and more. The lessons are grade-banded, age-appropriate and comprehensive.

Alice is a free download for 3D worldbuilding. It can be used to teach the fundamentals of computer science and/or an introduction to the Java programming language. This one is SUPER engaging and fun (includes a full The Sims™ character builder). Since it’s image rich, the download takes up space (i.e. this won’t work on a phone or Chromebook).
Speaking Events
Image credit: MACUL, Bill Van Loo. Pictured: Bill Van Loo, Sarah Van Loo and Myself
MACUL 2024 Conference
March 13th-15th
Grand Rapids, MI.
I’ll be speaking on Friday 3/15 at 11:30 a.m. EST

ISTE 2024 Conference
June 22nd-26th
Denver, CO.
I’ll be speaking at Monday 6/24 at 3 p.m. EST

I’ll be speaking at both conferences about teaching the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) K-2 standards using books, games and songs. These talks are based on my 3 book series (forthcoming – Summer 2024); Little Hackers, Little Computer Scientists and Supporting the Development of Computer Science Concepts in Early Childhood: A Practical Guide for Parents and Educators.
As a Gen Xer who enjoys reading books featuring technology, I loved Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. It’s the story of two video game designers and how friendship can change and evolve over the course of decades. It also touches a little on the experience of women in male-dominated industries. Have you read it? Maybe we should start a book club?!
I recently received an exciting package in the mail. It came all the way from Japan! Yotsuba&! Is one of my favorite all-ages graphic novels. This copy is written in the original Japanese format (which I bought for a friend). The English-language version is readily available here. The whole series is really lovely.
Books My Students Loved
Some stuffies spent the night at our school and got up to shenanigans.
Just before Winter break we completed our district-wide Great Lakes Great Books competition (a Michigan-based, student choice award). K-5 students got to vote across the district (organized by one of my fabulous colleagues!) and were able to vote for their favorite selection for the actual award, regardless of the bracket winners. We’ll find out who won the official award in the Spring! In the meantime, we also voted as a district. Students learn about our district-level winners next week. Since you’re getting this sneak peek, please keep it a secret until this Friday (when all students will have heard who won during their library classes)!
District Winner for K-2nd Grades: Knight Owl by Christopher Denise
A whimsical, delightful book about bravery and unlikely friendship. Knight Owl also won a Caldecott Honor for the fabulous illustrations.
District Winner for 3rd-5th Grades: The Sweetest Scoop: Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Revolution by Lisa Robinson and Stacy Innerst
A picture book biography about the founders of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. This book is entertaining, engaging and will make you want to eat ice cream…even when there’s snow on the ground.
Interested in More From Me?
Want an autographed copy of my book Social-Emotional Learning Using Makerspaces and Passion Project? You can order one here through Booksweet!
Never want to miss a book release? Follow me on my Amazon author page for updates.
A cumulative list of books mentioned in the Read. Write. Tech. newsletters can be found here.
January 2024 Newsletter Read | Write | Tech