In this episode, I sit down with Austin Levinson, Director of Learning at Mega Minds and a former educator with over 20 years of classroom experience. We dig into what’s missing in education right now—especially in CTE and career pathways—and why certifications alone aren’t enough.

We talk about critical thinking, adaptability, workforce readiness, and immersive AI simulations that go far beyond videos, worksheets, or “edtech for edtech’s sake.” Austin shares how Mega Minds is using 3D environments and AI characters to give students realistic, high-stakes experiences—from healthcare triage to AI ethics to job interviews—while keeping teachers at the center of the work.

If you care about real learning, transferable skills, and preparing students for a future that keeps shifting, this conversation is for you.

🔑 Key Topics We Cover

• Why critical thinking can’t be taught directly—and what can develop it

• The difference between compliance-based learning and real workforce readiness

• What CTE programs do well—and where they’re still falling short

• Why videos and slide decks aren’t enough for career exploration

• How immersive AI simulations create tension, decision-making, and real learning

• Teaching skills like triage, adaptability, communication, and judgment safely

• AI ethics through lived experience, not lectures

• Why failure, replayability, and reflection matter more than right answers

• Supporting ELL students, neurodivergent learners, and accessibility through AI

• • Keeping humans at the center while using technology intelligently

  
  

  🧠 Big Takeaways

• • Students don’t remember worksheets—they remember experiences

  • Certifications matter, but durable skills matter more

  • Not all screen time is equal

  • Feedback needs to be immediate, human, and actionable

• • Career exploration should help students say “yes,” “not yet,” or “definitely not”
  • AI works best when it supports teachers, not replaces them

• 🔗 Learn More About Austin & Mega Minds

  
  

• • 🌐 Website: https://gomegaminds.com

  • 💼 Connect with Austin on LinkedIn: Austin Levinson

  🎧 Who This Episode Is For

  • CTE teachers and directors

  • STEM, tech ed, and special area educators

  • School and district leaders

  • Anyone questioning whether current systems are truly preparing students

  • Educators looking for real solutions, not shiny tools

  
  

In this episode of the Tech Ed Clubhouse Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Marialice Curran to unpack one of the most important—and most misunderstood—topics in education today: mental health.

What starts as a conversation about digital citizenship quickly turns into a powerful discussion about language, stigma, masculinity, school culture, and why mental health needs to be treated like physical health—something we actively train, track, and support.

Marialice shares her personal journey into the mental health space, her work with Same Here Global, and how a simple shift in language—from “us vs. them” to “five in five”—can completely change how schools, communities, and individuals show up for one another.

This isn’t a surface-level conversation. It’s honest, human, and long overdue.

• Why “1 in 5 have mental illness” is the wrong message

• The Same Here Global philosophy: five in five of us have mental health

• How language shapes stigma in schools and society

• Why mental health should be treated like going to the gym

• The “Gym for the Brain” model and what it looks like in schools

• Masculinity, vulnerability, and the unique mental health challenges men face

• How sports, coaching, and education intersect in powerful ways

• Why proactive mental health work beats crisis response every time

• Simple ways teachers can support students tomorrow—without new programs or mandates

Mental health isn’t something some people have.
It’s something all of us live on a spectrum with—every single day.

When schools change the language, normalize the conversation, and model regulation instead of compliance, everything shifts: culture, trust, and learning.

• Same Here Global: https://www.samehereglobal.org

• Contact Mary Alice: marialice@samehereglobal.org

• Instagram: @dr_mbfxc

• Same Here Scale App: Available via Same Here Global

• Teachers and school leaders

• Coaches and athletic directors

• Counselors and support staff

• Parents and caregivers

• Anyone who believes schools should be more human

If this conversation made you pause, reflect, or feel a little more seen—you’re not alone.

Same here.

If you enjoyed this episode, follow the podcast, share it with someone who needs to hear it, and leave a review—it helps more educators find conversations like this.

We talk a lot about fixing education.

But what if teaching isn’t broken?

In this episode of The Tech Ed Clubhouse, I explore the idea that we’re standing at the beginning of a Renaissance in education—a shift away from scripts, compliance, and performative engagement, and back toward the human craft of teaching.

Drawing parallels to the early Renaissance at the end of the Middle Ages, this episode unpacks:

• how schooling quietly became more about obedience than judgment

• why teachers are feeling tension between what they’re told to do and what they know works

• what the first Renaissance actually looked like before the masterpieces

• how today’s classrooms mirror that same uncomfortable, hopeful transition

• and where tools and AI fit—using the printing press as a guide

This isn’t a call for new programs or shiny tools.

It’s a call to reclaim professional judgment, trust human thinking, and teach like a Renaissance human—right now, even while the old systems are still in place.

If you’ve felt like something in education doesn’t quite fit anymore…
this episode will give you language for why.

After 32 years in the classroom, I’ve been thinking a lot about why teaching feels heavier now than it used to—even though we have more tools, systems, and strategies than ever before.

In this episode, I reflect on the invisible cognitive and relational work at the center of teaching: the constant judgment calls, the timing, and the real-time decisions that never show up on a plan or a platform but shape everything that happens in a classroom.

This isn’t an episode about tools or advice. It’s a quiet conversation about teaching as a professional, judgment-based practice—and why the weight teachers feel is often a sign of meaningful work being done.

Every scroll promises a fix.
A new tool. A new strategy. A new way to boost engagement.

But after coming back from FETC, one question kept sticking with me:
What if the biggest thing missing in education right now isn’t another tool—but permission to just be a teacher?

This episode is a reflection on great conversations, real engagement, and the growing overload of “solutions” in education. While the presenters, sessions, and people at FETC were thoughtful and inspiring, the most meaningful moments didn’t come from platforms or products—they came from honest conversations between educators.

We talk about:
• Why engagement isn’t missing—it’s being crowded out
• How too many tools can quietly make teaching feel heavier
• What we’ve lost in the rush to fix teaching
• Why “just teaching” might be the most radical move right now

No tips.
No tricks.
Just space to think.

If teaching has started to feel more complicated than it should, this episode is an invitation to pause, reflect, and remember that you already know how to do this work.

What happens when engagement isn’t enough?

In this episode of the TechEd Clubhouse Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Lisa Riegel to explore what’s really happening beneath student behavior, disengagement, and classroom stress.

Drawing from neuroscience, classroom practice, and systems-level work with schools, Dr. Riegel reframes behavior as the intersection of biology and context—not compliance or character.

This conversation challenges traditional discipline models and offers practical strategies educators can use immediately to create classrooms where students can think, regulate, and learn—without killing joy.

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WHAT WE TALK ABOUT:

• Why behavior is a regulation issue, not a motivation issue

• How past experiences shape present classroom reactions

• Calm, alert, and alarm states in the brain

• Why productive struggle fails under chronic stress

• How instructional design can unintentionally escalate behavior

• Why relationships matter more than routines

• Why teacher regulation matters as much as student regulation

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KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Behavior = Biology + Context

• Calm comes before cognition

• Escalation shuts down thinking

• Instructional design can reduce or increase stress

• Regulation systems matter—for students and adults

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PRACTICAL STRATEGIES DISCUSSED:

• “Fizzy or Flat” emotional check-ins

• Name it, Own it, Control it language

• Consistent, non-confrontational discipline structures

• Designing for intellectual safety before challenge

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RESOURCES:

• NeuroWell – Book by Dr. Lisa Riegel

• ⁠Aspirations to Operations: A leader’s guide to making transformative change stick⁠ – Book by Dr. Lisa Riegel

• Jakapa (https://jakapa.com)

• Dr. Lisa Riegel’s website: https://lisariegel.com

• Dr. Lisa Riegel’s LinkedIn

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REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

• What behaviors might actually be stress responses?

• Where might my instruction unintentionally escalate anxiety?

• How am I supporting my own regulation as an educator?

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SUBSCRIBE & SHARE:

If this episode resonated, share it with a colleague or administrator and subscribe to the TechEd Clubhouse Podcast for more conversations about learning, design, and humanity in schools.

We’ve spent the last few episodes unpacking engagement—what it is, why it matters, and how it shows up in classrooms. This episode is the next step in that conversation.

Because while engagement matters, it’s not the finish line.

In this episode, Dan explores a tension many educators feel but struggle to name:
What happens when students are engaged… but the learning doesn’t stick?

Students can be busy, smiling, and compliant—and still not thinking deeply.

This conversation reframes engagement as a starting point, not the outcome, and makes the case for moving toward student ownership, decision-making, and cognitive engagement.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• Why engagement became something we measure instead of something we use

• The difference between behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement

• How compliance can look like learning—even when it isn’t

• Why engagement alone can actually add noise and anxiety

• What engagement is really for in today’s classrooms

• The shift from teacher-driven engagement to student-driven ownership

• One simple question that can instantly deepen learning

Key takeaway:

• Engagement gets students ready.
• Ownership is where learning actually happens.

Try this tomorrow:

• Ask yourself (or your students):
  “What decisions were made today?”
• If the answer is “none,” you don’t need a new lesson—you need a better question.

What’s next:

The next episode continues this arc by digging into how to move from engagement to real ownership—without blowing up your curriculum or adding one more initiative.

🎧 Listen, subscribe, and share if this episode gave you language for something you’ve been feeling in your classroom.

We talk about engagement like it’s something we can flip on — a switch, an app, a strategy.
“What’s your engagement strategy?”

But after decades in the classroom, one truth keeps showing up:

Engagement isn’t something we create. It’s something that emerges.

Students don’t engage because lessons are flashy or entertaining.
They engage when the work matters, when they have ownership, and when their thinking is required.

In this episode, Dan challenges a common framing that impacts both classrooms and schools: we often treat engagement as a performance problem instead of a design problem. When we chase activity, speed, and surface-level participation, we confuse busy with engaged — and that’s where frustration, burnout, and disengagement creep in.

Through real classroom stories, analogies from sports and the arts, and practical reflection questions, this episode reframes engagement around cognitive demand, relevance, autonomy, and purpose — not compliance or quiet classrooms.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why engagement is often misread as entertainment or activity

• The critical difference between compliance and true engagement

• How cognitive demand and relevance drive student motivation

• Why some of the most engaged students don’t look compliant

• What teachers and administrators can design differently to support deeper learning

• Three reflection questions to reset how you think about engagement heading into the new year

This episode is especially timely for educators on break — not as another “do more” conversation, but as an invitation to rethink what’s worth designing in the first place.