August 30, 2025 • 31 mins
TD Flenaugh and Tarquinn Curry discuss the impact of AI on education and career preparation. Curry, an educator and parent, emphasizes the importance of teaching students to use AI responsibly and effectively. He shares his journey from teaching biology to robotics and film production, highlighting the practical benefits of hands-on learning. Curry introduces AI tools like ChatGPT and prompts, stressing the need for students to develop critical thinking and creativity. He also mentions his role in promoting AI in schools and his recognition as an AI innovator. The conversation underscores the necessity of adapting education to prepare students for an AI-driven future.
Tiffany's Tips! This episode features another segment with Tiffany Curry, who is also Tarquinn Curry's wife!
Websites and AI tools mentioned during the interview:
- AI Classroom 2.0 (YouTube channel): https://www.youtube.com/@AIClassroom2.0
- ASU GSV (AI Innovator program): https://www.asugsvsummit.com
- CSTA (Computer Science Teachers Association): https://www.csteachers.org
- ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com
- Google AI Studio: https://makersuite.google.com (for prompt engineering and AI experiments)
We drop new episodes every Saturday at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
TD Flenaugh (00:03):
TD, AI is taking over all over in education and
all over the world. ArtificialIntelligence is a tool that is
being used to help elevate humanproduction, and it also is
changing the face of productionand even replacing some jobs, we
(00:24):
have an educator today andparent, Tarquin curry, who's
going to tell us aboutartificial intelligence and how
to prepare our students and ourchildren to make sure they're
successful, even with advancingtechnology. Hi. Thank you so
much for joining the followingfor learning podcast. We have
this podcast to help parents andcaregivers with having the
(00:46):
resources, strategies and toolsneeded to make sure that their
children are on track forlearning and to stay on track
for success.
Thank you so much for joining ustoday. Mr. Curry,
Tarquinn Curry (00:58):
thank you for having me on the podcast.
Appreciate it. So we firstalways ask our guest, what is
that thing that made you fall inlove with learning as a child?
Well, I was always a verycurious child. Always curious,
you know, things around me,something I see on the news, you
(01:18):
know, something my teacher wouldsay would always like spark
curiosity. And I was alwaysnaturally curious. I always felt
like I was more curious than theother kids around me. I was
always wondered, you know, and Ialways felt different because I
was into things that the kids myage weren't into. I was into,
you know, more I guess you cansay more mature concepts. I
(01:41):
guess you could say, but I wasjust always interested in the
world. And so, you know, myparents always had me reading at
an early age. So I was read. Andso I was just always a very
curious child in general. Sothat was the spark for
everything, Alright, so now,when you're saying you had some
more advanced or mature kind ofinterest. Can you tell us more?
(02:05):
I was always into history forone, right? So,
okay, I'll give you so when Iwas a little kid, I used to live
in Louisiana,right? And I have very vivid
memories of being a four yearold kid living in Louisiana.
And, you know, we lived, youknow, was very rural, very small
(02:26):
city called Kaplan, Louisiana,and there was the black side and
there was the white side. And Iremember being aware of that as
a young kid, right? And I alsoremember watching television,
and the other kids, you know,watching the cartoons and right?
And I would focus on thecommercials, and I would, I
(02:48):
would look at the commercials,and I would see that all of the
positive images of, you know,people on the commercials were
Caucasian and the negative wasblack. And I realized I said, as
a four year old, I thought aboutthat, right? And I was like,
Well, why is that, you know, buteveryone around me, like the,
you know, the kids around me,they're not thinking about that,
(03:09):
right?
TD Flenaugh (03:12):
Yeah, they're not adult. That's like critical
media literacy,
Tarquinn Curry (03:17):
so, but I always, but I always, I just
noticed that, and I thoughtabout that, you know, you know,
and all through, you know,middle school,
you know, high school,you know, I just
politics and stuff going on, andI was just curious and wonder,
(03:38):
you know, I wondered about This,and I wondered about that. And
so I just always wasaware of things going on in the
the bigger picture as far asthings that the adults cared
about, right? And I always feltlike the kids my age, cared, you
know, like you guys are into,like, just nonsense. Like, who
(03:58):
cares? Like people would talkabout stuff as a middle I don't
care about that. Who cares,right? And so I, you know, but
you know, you're a middleschooler, of course, you're
gonna care about that. But Ididn't, right, so I don't know.
I was always, I guess, had anold soul in that, in that sense,
so and so that just kind of, youknow, let me, you know, in
college and I became a lifelonglearner, right? I was just just
(04:20):
read and just curious. And onceI, you know, I'm interested in
something, I just go hard withit. I just got to figure it out.
And I go down, I can go down arabbit hole of a topic very
easily, you know. And thenthat'll bring me back to the
whole AI topic, you know. So,I'm I go down the rabbit hole of
(04:40):
things.
TD Flenaugh (04:42):
Well, okay, and so how did the you know what? How
does the those skills, thethings you do now, and you're
saying, AI, you got it. You'reinto AI. And I know you're also
an educator.
Later and getting involved inAI.
Tarquinn Curry (05:01):
So after high school, you know, I went to
college.
Unknown (07:14):
and that's like people that aren't from LA, that's like
60 miles east of Los Angeles.
And then after that, I startteaching middle school life
science. So I saw him from highschool biology to middle school
life science, and then fromthat, I moved to Long Beach.
Well, I met my wife, Tiffany,and then we moved well. We moved
to the valley. It was calledlike San Fernando Valley, and
(07:37):
from there, we moved to LongBeach. Audience members.
TARQUINN is Tiffany Curry'shusband. So they have their
kids. She homeschools the kids,and he's he's the educator
husband that you know, shetalked about on the show. So
we're so glad that you'rejoining us, and we're glad you
know, the power couple hasblessed us our podcast in in
more ways than one. And then Istarted teaching middle school
(07:59):
life science. And then fromthere, I start teaching that
with robotics. So they, youknow, I was asked, Hey, you
know, can you teach robotics?
And like, I've never taughtrobotics. So I started, I went
(08:19):
to a course on how to teachrobotics. So I just got into
teaching robotics. And then Iwas like, You know what? I just
think I would rather teach justrobotics. I don't really want to
teach science anymore, because Iwas tired of that. Was this, you
know, I wanted to teachsomething that was like,
practical. And I started seeinghow the education system, I
started seeing how the educationsystem wasn't preparing these
kids, okay, or preparing thekids. And I just felt like a lot
(08:42):
of the stuff that I was teachingwithin biology
Tarquinn Curry (08:46):
wasn't practical. You know,
TD Flenaugh (08:48):
we go back real quick to the biology. Can you
give me example of somethingthat you're supposed to be
teaching in biology that youdidn't feel that was practical?
The Rock Cycle,
Tarquinn Curry (08:58):
the rock like, Oh, when I say preparing the
kids right. I get it right.
Certain things you teach kidsright, like teaching them facts
of the different types of rocks.
This is an igneous rock, this issedimentary rock. And I just
felt like teaching these randomfacts kids would be like, Mr.
Curry. When are we ever going touse this in the real world? And
(09:18):
I want to say, you're right. Youwon't. I can't tell you that. I
gotta act like this matters. Weall know it doesn't, you know,
TD Flenaugh (09:27):
because, yeah, that's okay, yes, okay.
Tarquinn Curry (09:29):
And so I and so I said, I love robotics,
because, you know, they makesomething, and they get a
tangible product, and kids areall hands on. So I'm sorry. I
just started teaching robotics,and then after teaching robotics
for about four or five years, Istarted getting into film
production. So on the side, Istarted, I started a videography
company, because I was alwaysinto videography and
(09:51):
storytelling. I just felt asthough teaching facts, and I
would try not to do it that way,right? But the curriculum you're
forced to, you know, I just feltlike. We weren't preparing these
kids, right? And so my wholething was, like, I want to
prepare these kids for the realworld, you know, what's, what's
they're going to get graduatehigh school. And so I just felt
(10:13):
like the curriculum was just,you know, I mean, some of the,
you know, I did like biology, weused to do labs. So I used to
try to as many labs as possible,because the kids love the hands
on, yeah, they want to do a labevery day. I can't do that. I
don't have the money or the, youknow, resources. So, but with
robotics, it was like a labevery day, because it was hands
(10:33):
on, right? And so, so I taught.
I started teaching robotics, andthen, since I was doing the
film. I got asked to teachrobotics and film. So my prince
was like, I'll buy all this filmequipment. And so I taught. So
currently, as we speak, I teachrobotics and I teach film. So I
do film outside of the schoolfor, you know, different
(10:55):
nonprofits, I mean, video,videos, I'll, you know, do I've
done weddings, I've doneweddings, I've done a lot of
different things, right? So Ihave a film company called
Silver eye films, and so I teachfilm to the so we, in my school,
we have a whole film production.
We make videos for the school.
And, you know, it's a wholething, right? It's, it's a, it's
(11:16):
a lot, right? So we have a bunchof cameras. I teach the kids how
to, you know, how to edit andhow to do lighting and
storytelling, and we use AI forthat as well. I use AI, use AI
for that. Yeah, I'll get to theAI piece. And so where AI, I
guess, comes in is when, youknow, chatgpt first came out
three years ago. In three yearsago, 2022 I'm like, Oh, I heard
(11:40):
someone talking about I'm like,Oh, this is interesting. Like,
what is this? And then I startedplaying with them, like, Oh, my
goodness, this is going tochange everything.
TD Flenaugh (11:58):
The rewrite method and the rewrite method workbook
are your go to resource forhelping kids to learn to fall in
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(12:24):
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This episode is going to includeTiffany's tips. She is a
(12:46):
homeschooling mom. She's gonnagive us some tips about what she
does. She's a mom of three, andwe're gonna get some tips from
her on how to get our childrenthe competitive advantage.
Tiffany Curry (12:59):
The book is called 30 million words building
a child's brain, by Dr Danasuskin, yeah. And then the point
is about taking turns. Let's saythe example of getting ready to
go, right? We could go, Oh, I'mgonna put my shoes on. I'm gonna
put my right shoe on, then I'mgonna put my left shoe on. Can
(13:20):
you put your shoes on and thenengaging with them in that way,
taking turns, doing things. Oh,now I'm gonna put on my jacket.
Can you put on your jacket? Allright, we're ready to go. Are
you ready to go? I'm ready togo, you know, going back and
forth and engaging in that way,doing things together and taking
turns, or even, like, with theexample of building blocks. Oh,
(13:42):
wow, this is really tall. Iwonder what will happen if you
add three more, you know, andcounting 123, more. I'm gonna
add 212. Can you add two? Youknow? Yeah, coming down to their
level and participating in whatthey're doing is also really
helpful with the building theirtheir awareness of engagement
(14:11):
with other people and the worldaround them. Yeah? Because
children, naturally are just intheir own little world. Yeah,
they just see what's right infront of them. So helping them
realize that, you know, thatengagement is really helpful. So
those are some of the thingsthat I've done with my own kids.
(14:35):
Yeah, just even going on naturewalks. And I used to love to do
that with my kids. We would goon AJ Watson and just describe
everything that we see andeverything that we're doing, and
all the animals and the treesand the leaves and everything
that we observe in ourenvironment, just describing it
and talking about it. Yeah, thatcan be really, really powerful.
(15:00):
For them in building thatvocabulary,
TD Flenaugh (15:03):
I think it also just makes things fun, right?
Because, rather than put yourshoes on, let's keep walking,
let's go. We're just finding joyin exploring and doing things
together, like it'scollaboration rather than
domination, though,
Tarquinn Curry (15:29):
I knew at like, the week it came out, that it
was going to change everything.
Yeah, right. And so I just wentdown the rabbit hole. And I just
looked at, I started looking atother AI tools, and then I
started following differentpeople on Instagram and Twitter
and YouTube, and my algorithmjust, you know how the hat
works, right? Yes. And it justgets filled with right now, if
(15:50):
you all I get is AI, everything,yeah. You know, YouTube,
Facebook, it's all AI, so I justconsume it. And then I started
realizing, then I started usingit in my actual school, right? I
started looking at AI tools forteachers, and I'm like, This is
amazing. It's cutting down on mygrading, on my lesson planning.
(16:11):
And I'm like, why is everyonenot using this? So I started
telling other teachers. I'mlike, you know, you should, you
could use this, right? They'relike, what? They were amazed.
I'm like, You don't know this.
And, you know, other teachers, Inoticed they weren't using any
AI tools, and I would share itwith them, and they would be in
awe. And I'm like, Oh, thiscould really help teachers. And
(16:34):
then, you know, I started aYouTube channel, nice, okay,
it's called, I have a YouTubechannel called AI classroom 2.0
where I just highlight
TD Flenaugh (16:44):
AI tools for teachers, so definitely be in
the show notes. You know what Ihave to say as an English
teacher, that English teachers,some of them, were very
suspicious of it, even with whenI said, Oh, I'm going to use it
for parallel prompts, like, if Iwant them to write about an
(17:07):
argument about something right,I want the students to choose
what they care about arguingabout right, what they want to
persuade people about, but then,but I also like to give them
some type of model or something.
So I'm like, Okay, I use somemodels for them to and they're
like, they kind of look at me ina weird way. So that that is, I
mean, I don't know that waslike, when it first came out.
(17:29):
They're very, like, suspicious.
And I'm like, Oh, well, yeah, Iused to hand write my my things,
but I already know how to writeessays. So it's not like, like,
it's helpful for the kids, butthey were really, they were so,
not everybody,
Tarquinn Curry (17:44):
so I've given so. So that leads into the fact
that I started doing PDS, right,yeah, at my school for teachers,
because I became known as the AIguy, right at my school. Then,
you know, then I, I became, Iwas named an ASU GSV AI
innovator, which is they pick ahandful of teachers from around
(18:06):
the country. And so I was, I gotthat honor, and I spoke in San
Diego. I was, I got to speak inCleveland a couple weeks ago
about AI to the CSTA at the CSTAconference, I just got named as
being a part of the CaliforniaState AI group to create the
framework for AI for the schoolsacross state. Oh, you know, I'm
(18:28):
getting on different you know.
So I'm known as, like, the AIguy, I guess you could say right
in my district, in my school,and I get a lot of teachers who
give me a lot of pushback.
Number one thing is plagiarism,on English teachers like this is
gonna Yes. You know, yes. Butthe way I look at it is, this is
(18:49):
where the world is headed. Itis. And a lot of teachers, I'm
kind of honestly shockedsometimes that what some
teachers aren't aware of thatyou can do, or what kids are
doing and where the world isheaded. And I tell them, I say,
if you don't prepare these kidsfor what's about to happen,
(19:11):
you're setting them up forfailure. Because yeah, a I take,
I tell people this, like, rightnow college this is a perfect
example. College graduates rightnow have a worse unemployment
than people that don't have acollege degree. For the first
time ever there, theunemployment for new college
grads is higher than people thatdon't have a degree, and the
(19:31):
reason is because new collegegrads typically get entry level
jobs, and AI is the best atentry level, right? And all
these companies are using AI todo all the entry level right.
And so a lot of kids are goingto college there. They don't
realize that what they're goingto college for an AI can do it
(19:52):
right, yeah, or and they are.
They don't have any skill sets,right. And so my biggest thing
is just preparing schools. TD.
Teachers, parents like, andwe'll talk about this later,
like skill sets that kids needto learn in order to prepare for
this AI world. Because I feelthis is me. I feel like AI.
(20:12):
People like, oh. People say, Oh,you're into the AI stuff. And
what I look at it as, no, AI isthe biggest innovation ever.
Yeah, not one of the biggestpeople like I'm talking about,
it's bigger than the cell phone,it's bigger than the internet,
it's bigger than the GutenbergPress. It's as big as the wheel
in the 1000s of like. It'sliterally, because if, when
(20:33):
people understand the scope ofthe the ripple effect that AI is
going to change every aspect oflife, right? You know, people
are like, I'm not into AI. Whereyou're going to be, you're going
to be forced to be into it,because it's going to affect
your life. It's going to affectyour job, it's going to, it's
going to be in every app, it'sgoing to, it's going to
(20:55):
literally affect yourlivelihood, right? Um, every
sector of society. I don't careif you're a doctor, I don't care
if you're a doctor, I don't careif you're a lawyer, I don't care
if you're in real estatemarketing. I tell people that AI
is affecting every sector, andso the schools tend to be last.
Schools tend to be slow on thewagon, right? Very, very, very
(21:18):
slow.
TD Flenaugh (21:19):
And the other thing about it is, you know, while
we're trying to keep them fromAi, is like they have access to
it already, so it's notsomething that you can really
keep them from. The best thingthat we can do is show them how
to use it responsibly so they'renot getting in trouble. They're
not getting, you know, failingout of their college class
(21:39):
because they think that they canuse AI just to replace their
work, right? Like, if they askme for an essay on on, you know,
the industrial revolution, thatI can just ask AI to do it and
then turn it in. Now, oh, yeah,some people still may be able to
do that and make it undetectedor whatever. But obviously, if
(22:00):
my professor knows that I justturned it in and I didn't do any
work on it, I'm going to be introuble for that or whatever. So
helping them to use it in a waythat's more effective, or like
responsible, is the best thingthat we can do, rather than act
like it doesn't exist. You know
Tarquinn Curry (22:22):
exactly. And you know, a lot of teachers try to
or the ai, ai detectors don'twork, right? There's lots of
different ones. I tell peoplethis all the time, and there's a
million ways to get around that.
And these kids are smart, yeah,I can get around that easily.
Most in most kids that aresavvy, they know how to get
around that. So teachers,because of AI. I tell teachers,
first of all, if you're if youteach English, never just give a
(22:43):
kid an English assignment andsay, Go do that home and come
like that. That's not that wholeframework that's gone. You can't
do that anymore. Yes, right now,if you want them to learn, if
you want them to writesomething, you must do it in
class. But you must, I tellteachers, especially like high
school, you must assume they'reusing AI, right? So have them so
(23:03):
because they're using AI, tellthem, Okay, go create this AI.
Come back to the class. Let'scritique what the AI gave us.
Let's look at the bias in it,right? Let's look at ways we can
critique the AI, but you canstill create a lesson from that,
right? But assume they're usingit because, and it's another
(23:25):
thing too. Yeah, this is why Iget upset at teachers, because
I'm like, do you I tell them? Doyou realize that everybody in
the real world is using thiseveryone? So we're telling our
kids not to use it when jobs aregoing to expect them to know how
to use it. It makes no sense,right? And you, because you,
TD Flenaugh (23:44):
you know, yeah, we just have to change up. Yeah,
yes. I've been doing some someteacher research on that and and
using it with differentpopulations of students, like
how to integrate into thewriting process, yeah? So you,
obviously, you know, have a lotof expertise. What are those
(24:04):
skills? You mentioned it earlierthat they we need to really be
helping them develop so.
Tarquinn Curry (24:13):
So one skill is, all kids should learn. Know how
to prompt. Kids need tounderstand prompting skills.
It's, that's, it's a skill set.
You know, a lot of did I tellpeople I can ask chat GPT to
create me something, but thensomeone who knows how to prompt
and how to craft a prompt knowsthat I need to, like if, for
example, if I want chat GPT togive me a lesson from my fifth
(24:39):
grade science class. The firstthing I'm going to say is, I'm
going to give it a roll. I'mgoing to say, act as a 25 year
veteran fifth grade scienceteacher. Okay, AI will take on
that role. You always gotta givethe AI a role. You always gotta.
You always so it'll, it'll takeon that. Role, you always have
(24:59):
to give the AI like, how do youwant it produced? You want it in
bullet points. You want as aparagraph. You want because
it'll just assume. You alwaysgotta give the AI context. Okay,
you're a teacher. It knowsyou're a teacher, but you're
teaching inner city schools in arural school. You got kids that
can that are grade level. Yougive it the context, you give it
a role, you give so these areskills that kids need to
(25:21):
understand. Because, yes, youknow, everybody can ask the
chat, you know, chat, TD or clodor Google, AI, studio, whatever.
People who get the best resultsare those who know how to
prompt. I taught a class thissummer. It's the kids two week
course, and that's the first.
(25:42):
That's the first. Whenever Iteach the courses on AI, the
first day, all we do isprompting. Because everything is
prompting, whether you'reprompting for large language
models like a chat TD or artgenerators, or you're
TD Flenaugh (25:53):
doing okay, you got to prompt it correctly. Okay,
Tarquinn Curry (25:57):
so there's video generators, it's all prompts.
Everything is prompts. Coding.
You got a prompt, right? We Iteach, I teach kids how to code
with AI. It's all prompting,okay? And so that's a skill,
though, right? And you have tolearn how to do that. So that I
think I feel as though anotherskill that that because of AI,
because the AI is going tobecome smarter than any human it
(26:21):
are in about four years. It'sprojected that the AI will be
smarter than the collective ofall humans on Earth. Alright,
guys, AI, then there's AGI,which is the next step, then
there's asi.
TD Flenaugh (26:37):
All right, wait, what's a What's you said? The
second one is age, artificial
Tarquinn Curry (26:40):
super intelligence, right when you get
to the artificial general soit's eight artificial general
intelligence when the AI issmarter than any human on Earth,
okay, it's not quite there yet,because there's it's almost
there. It'll be there by nextyear. And then there's a si,
okay, that's when it's not justsmarter than any one human.
(27:02):
Earth is smarter than thecollective of all humans on
Earth, right? And that's goingto happen in the next four to
five years. So when thathappens, like I our whole
concept of learning has tochange, because the skills that
are going to be needed I and Itell parents what they're going
to need to teach their kids.
Kids are gonna need to know howto be critical thinkers and to
(27:23):
be creative. And the creativitypart is extremely important.
Because if anyone like, rightnow, I can teach a seven year
old, literally, to make a Pixarlevel cartoon quality. So if
anyone can do that, I tellpeople this little if anyone
could create an app, or ifanyone can create a movie or a
(27:44):
poem, or if any random personcan create the best quality,
what's going to separatecreativity, right? So
TD Flenaugh (27:53):
they can't always read it, though, and that's,
that's how I could see some ofthis stuff.
Tarquinn Curry (27:59):
Read it. What do you mean? Like,
TD Flenaugh (28:01):
you know? And because, well, no, like, you
know, I'm still talking, youknow, like, I'm still talking
from an English lens, right? Butso, like, for a long time, kids
have been plagiarizing, youknow, they'll just copy stuff
off of the internet before AI,right? But it's like, that's
but, but they can't reproduceit, obviously, like, a lot of
(28:21):
times, if they're not developingtheir actual skills, then
they're just having the AI do itor whatever. They can't
reproduce it if I ask them to doit in class or whatever. And
then also they can't even readthat assignment sometimes,
right? Like, so I'm like, Oh,you wrote, read this. You wrote
this report. Go ahead and readit. And it's like, they're not
able to a lot of a lot of times,you know, well, like they're
(28:43):
skipping over words, yeah,
Tarquinn Curry (28:45):
that's why the type of assignments we give,
okay, go create a podcast now.
Go create a book with with artthat reflects the text. Go, you
know, one simple thing you cando with your Excel, with with
kids, is you can have aI giveyou two sides of a debate and
have the kids, the kids inclass, or your or your kids,
(29:07):
dissect both opinions, bothsides of that debate, right? You
can have you can have the AI,whatever the it produces. You
can have the kids, okay, where'sthe bias in this? Because that's
(29:28):
another thing that I teach, isthat AI is bias. And can a kid
detect the bias? Because AI istrained on certain data, right?
If I tell an Art Generator tocreate a person, the default is
someone who's Caucasian. Byfault you have to as the
default, or the default withanything is, you know, whatever
the data sets you gave it. SoCan kids see the that's an
(29:51):
assignment of itself, okay? Canthe kids see the bias and what
the AI is producing? Right here?
You tell it to write a reportabout whatever, and the
assignment can be detective, youknow, no, you know, detect the
the bias in this.
TD Flenaugh (30:10):
Thank you so much.
Thanks so much again for joiningus on the following for learning
podcast. And Mr. TARQUIN currygave you all kinds of resources,
your website, all of it's in theshow notes. And make sure,
again, you're doing something togive your kids the competitive
advantage. Have a great week.
Thanks again for supporting thefalling for learning podcast.
(30:32):
New Episodes go live everySaturday at 5pm you can watch us
on youtube.com at falling forlearning, or listen on all major
podcast platforms such as Apple,Google, Audible, Spotify and
much more for more resources,visit falling in love with
(30:55):
learning.com. We reallyappreciate you. Have a wonderful
week.
TD, AI is taking over all over in education and
all over the world. ArtificialIntelligence is a tool that is
being used to help elevate humanproduction, and it also is
changing the face of productionand even replacing some jobs, we
(00:24):
have an educator today andparent, Tarquin curry, who's
going to tell us aboutartificial intelligence and how
to prepare our students and ourchildren to make sure they're
successful, even with advancingtechnology. Hi. Thank you so
much for joining the followingfor learning podcast. We have
this podcast to help parents andcaregivers with having the
(00:46):
resources, strategies and toolsneeded to make sure that their
children are on track forlearning and to stay on track
for success.
Thank you so much for joining ustoday. Mr. Curry,
Tarquinn Curry (00:58):
thank you for having me on the podcast.
Appreciate it. So we firstalways ask our guest, what is
that thing that made you fall inlove with learning as a child?
Well, I was always a verycurious child. Always curious,
you know, things around me,something I see on the news, you
(01:18):
know, something my teacher wouldsay would always like spark
curiosity. And I was alwaysnaturally curious. I always felt
like I was more curious than theother kids around me. I was
always wondered, you know, and Ialways felt different because I
was into things that the kids myage weren't into. I was into,
you know, more I guess you cansay more mature concepts. I
(01:41):
guess you could say, but I wasjust always interested in the
world. And so, you know, myparents always had me reading at
an early age. So I was read. Andso I was just always a very
curious child in general. Sothat was the spark for
everything, Alright, so now,when you're saying you had some
more advanced or mature kind ofinterest. Can you tell us more?
(02:05):
I was always into history forone, right? So,
okay, I'll give you so when Iwas a little kid, I used to live
in Louisiana,right? And I have very vivid
memories of being a four yearold kid living in Louisiana.
And, you know, we lived, youknow, was very rural, very small
(02:26):
city called Kaplan, Louisiana,and there was the black side and
there was the white side. And Iremember being aware of that as
a young kid, right? And I alsoremember watching television,
and the other kids, you know,watching the cartoons and right?
And I would focus on thecommercials, and I would, I
(02:48):
would look at the commercials,and I would see that all of the
positive images of, you know,people on the commercials were
Caucasian and the negative wasblack. And I realized I said, as
a four year old, I thought aboutthat, right? And I was like,
Well, why is that, you know, buteveryone around me, like the,
you know, the kids around me,they're not thinking about that,
(03:09):
right?
TD Flenaugh (03:12):
Yeah, they're not adult. That's like critical
media literacy,
Tarquinn Curry (03:17):
so, but I always, but I always, I just
noticed that, and I thoughtabout that, you know, you know,
and all through, you know,middle school,
you know, high school,you know, I just
politics and stuff going on, andI was just curious and wonder,
(03:38):
you know, I wondered about This,and I wondered about that. And
so I just always wasaware of things going on in the
the bigger picture as far asthings that the adults cared
about, right? And I always feltlike the kids my age, cared, you
know, like you guys are into,like, just nonsense. Like, who
(03:58):
cares? Like people would talkabout stuff as a middle I don't
care about that. Who cares,right? And so I, you know, but
you know, you're a middleschooler, of course, you're
gonna care about that. But Ididn't, right, so I don't know.
I was always, I guess, had anold soul in that, in that sense,
so and so that just kind of, youknow, let me, you know, in
college and I became a lifelonglearner, right? I was just just
(04:20):
read and just curious. And onceI, you know, I'm interested in
something, I just go hard withit. I just got to figure it out.
And I go down, I can go down arabbit hole of a topic very
easily, you know. And thenthat'll bring me back to the
whole AI topic, you know. So,I'm I go down the rabbit hole of
(04:40):
things.
TD Flenaugh (04:42):
Well, okay, and so how did the you know what? How
does the those skills, thethings you do now, and you're
saying, AI, you got it. You'reinto AI. And I know you're also
an educator.
Later and getting involved inAI.
Tarquinn Curry (05:01):
So after high school, you know, I went to
college.
Unknown (07:14):
and that's like people that aren't from LA, that's like
60 miles east of Los Angeles.
And then after that, I startteaching middle school life
science. So I saw him from highschool biology to middle school
life science, and then fromthat, I moved to Long Beach.
Well, I met my wife, Tiffany,and then we moved well. We moved
to the valley. It was calledlike San Fernando Valley, and
(07:37):
from there, we moved to LongBeach. Audience members.
TARQUINN is Tiffany Curry'shusband. So they have their
kids. She homeschools the kids,and he's he's the educator
husband that you know, shetalked about on the show. So
we're so glad that you'rejoining us, and we're glad you
know, the power couple hasblessed us our podcast in in
more ways than one. And then Istarted teaching middle school
(07:59):
life science. And then fromthere, I start teaching that
with robotics. So they, youknow, I was asked, Hey, you
know, can you teach robotics?
And like, I've never taughtrobotics. So I started, I went
(08:19):
to a course on how to teachrobotics. So I just got into
teaching robotics. And then Iwas like, You know what? I just
think I would rather teach justrobotics. I don't really want to
teach science anymore, because Iwas tired of that. Was this, you
know, I wanted to teachsomething that was like,
practical. And I started seeinghow the education system, I
started seeing how the educationsystem wasn't preparing these
kids, okay, or preparing thekids. And I just felt like a lot
(08:42):
of the stuff that I was teachingwithin biology
Tarquinn Curry (08:46):
wasn't practical. You know,
TD Flenaugh (08:48):
we go back real quick to the biology. Can you
give me example of somethingthat you're supposed to be
teaching in biology that youdidn't feel that was practical?
The Rock Cycle,
Tarquinn Curry (08:58):
the rock like, Oh, when I say preparing the
kids right. I get it right.
Certain things you teach kidsright, like teaching them facts
of the different types of rocks.
This is an igneous rock, this issedimentary rock. And I just
felt like teaching these randomfacts kids would be like, Mr.
Curry. When are we ever going touse this in the real world? And
(09:18):
I want to say, you're right. Youwon't. I can't tell you that. I
gotta act like this matters. Weall know it doesn't, you know,
TD Flenaugh (09:27):
because, yeah, that's okay, yes, okay.
Tarquinn Curry (09:29):
And so I and so I said, I love robotics,
because, you know, they makesomething, and they get a
tangible product, and kids areall hands on. So I'm sorry. I
just started teaching robotics,and then after teaching robotics
for about four or five years, Istarted getting into film
production. So on the side, Istarted, I started a videography
company, because I was alwaysinto videography and
(09:51):
storytelling. I just felt asthough teaching facts, and I
would try not to do it that way,right? But the curriculum you're
forced to, you know, I just feltlike. We weren't preparing these
kids, right? And so my wholething was, like, I want to
prepare these kids for the realworld, you know, what's, what's
they're going to get graduatehigh school. And so I just felt
(10:13):
like the curriculum was just,you know, I mean, some of the,
you know, I did like biology, weused to do labs. So I used to
try to as many labs as possible,because the kids love the hands
on, yeah, they want to do a labevery day. I can't do that. I
don't have the money or the, youknow, resources. So, but with
robotics, it was like a labevery day, because it was hands
(10:33):
on, right? And so, so I taught.
I started teaching robotics, andthen, since I was doing the
film. I got asked to teachrobotics and film. So my prince
was like, I'll buy all this filmequipment. And so I taught. So
currently, as we speak, I teachrobotics and I teach film. So I
do film outside of the schoolfor, you know, different
(10:55):
nonprofits, I mean, video,videos, I'll, you know, do I've
done weddings, I've doneweddings, I've done a lot of
different things, right? So Ihave a film company called
Silver eye films, and so I teachfilm to the so we, in my school,
we have a whole film production.
We make videos for the school.
And, you know, it's a wholething, right? It's, it's a, it's
(11:16):
a lot, right? So we have a bunchof cameras. I teach the kids how
to, you know, how to edit andhow to do lighting and
storytelling, and we use AI forthat as well. I use AI, use AI
for that. Yeah, I'll get to theAI piece. And so where AI, I
guess, comes in is when, youknow, chatgpt first came out
three years ago. In three yearsago, 2022 I'm like, Oh, I heard
(11:40):
someone talking about I'm like,Oh, this is interesting. Like,
what is this? And then I startedplaying with them, like, Oh, my
goodness, this is going tochange everything.
TD Flenaugh (11:58):
The rewrite method and the rewrite method workbook
are your go to resource forhelping kids to learn to fall in
love with writing. It has thetips, tools, resources,
strategies and skill buildingactivities to help kids fall out
(12:24):
of writing Hoot and into Lovingto write, get your book set
today.
This episode is going to includeTiffany's tips. She is a
(12:46):
homeschooling mom. She's gonnagive us some tips about what she
does. She's a mom of three, andwe're gonna get some tips from
her on how to get our childrenthe competitive advantage.
Tiffany Curry (12:59):
The book is called 30 million words building
a child's brain, by Dr Danasuskin, yeah. And then the point
is about taking turns. Let's saythe example of getting ready to
go, right? We could go, Oh, I'mgonna put my shoes on. I'm gonna
put my right shoe on, then I'mgonna put my left shoe on. Can
(13:20):
you put your shoes on and thenengaging with them in that way,
taking turns, doing things. Oh,now I'm gonna put on my jacket.
Can you put on your jacket? Allright, we're ready to go. Are
you ready to go? I'm ready togo, you know, going back and
forth and engaging in that way,doing things together and taking
turns, or even, like, with theexample of building blocks. Oh,
(13:42):
wow, this is really tall. Iwonder what will happen if you
add three more, you know, andcounting 123, more. I'm gonna
add 212. Can you add two? Youknow? Yeah, coming down to their
level and participating in whatthey're doing is also really
helpful with the building theirtheir awareness of engagement
(14:11):
with other people and the worldaround them. Yeah? Because
children, naturally are just intheir own little world. Yeah,
they just see what's right infront of them. So helping them
realize that, you know, thatengagement is really helpful. So
those are some of the thingsthat I've done with my own kids.
(14:35):
Yeah, just even going on naturewalks. And I used to love to do
that with my kids. We would goon AJ Watson and just describe
everything that we see andeverything that we're doing, and
all the animals and the treesand the leaves and everything
that we observe in ourenvironment, just describing it
and talking about it. Yeah, thatcan be really, really powerful.
(15:00):
For them in building thatvocabulary,
TD Flenaugh (15:03):
I think it also just makes things fun, right?
Because, rather than put yourshoes on, let's keep walking,
let's go. We're just finding joyin exploring and doing things
together, like it'scollaboration rather than
domination, though,
Tarquinn Curry (15:29):
I knew at like, the week it came out, that it
was going to change everything.
Yeah, right. And so I just wentdown the rabbit hole. And I just
looked at, I started looking atother AI tools, and then I
started following differentpeople on Instagram and Twitter
and YouTube, and my algorithmjust, you know how the hat
works, right? Yes. And it justgets filled with right now, if
(15:50):
you all I get is AI, everything,yeah. You know, YouTube,
Facebook, it's all AI, so I justconsume it. And then I started
realizing, then I started usingit in my actual school, right? I
started looking at AI tools forteachers, and I'm like, This is
amazing. It's cutting down on mygrading, on my lesson planning.
(16:11):
And I'm like, why is everyonenot using this? So I started
telling other teachers. I'mlike, you know, you should, you
could use this, right? They'relike, what? They were amazed.
I'm like, You don't know this.
And, you know, other teachers, Inoticed they weren't using any
AI tools, and I would share itwith them, and they would be in
awe. And I'm like, Oh, thiscould really help teachers. And
(16:34):
then, you know, I started aYouTube channel, nice, okay,
it's called, I have a YouTubechannel called AI classroom 2.0
where I just highlight
TD Flenaugh (16:44):
AI tools for teachers, so definitely be in
the show notes. You know what Ihave to say as an English
teacher, that English teachers,some of them, were very
suspicious of it, even with whenI said, Oh, I'm going to use it
for parallel prompts, like, if Iwant them to write about an
(17:07):
argument about something right,I want the students to choose
what they care about arguingabout right, what they want to
persuade people about, but then,but I also like to give them
some type of model or something.
So I'm like, Okay, I use somemodels for them to and they're
like, they kind of look at me ina weird way. So that that is, I
mean, I don't know that waslike, when it first came out.
(17:29):
They're very, like, suspicious.
And I'm like, Oh, well, yeah, Iused to hand write my my things,
but I already know how to writeessays. So it's not like, like,
it's helpful for the kids, butthey were really, they were so,
not everybody,
Tarquinn Curry (17:44):
so I've given so. So that leads into the fact
that I started doing PDS, right,yeah, at my school for teachers,
because I became known as the AIguy, right at my school. Then,
you know, then I, I became, Iwas named an ASU GSV AI
innovator, which is they pick ahandful of teachers from around
(18:06):
the country. And so I was, I gotthat honor, and I spoke in San
Diego. I was, I got to speak inCleveland a couple weeks ago
about AI to the CSTA at the CSTAconference, I just got named as
being a part of the CaliforniaState AI group to create the
framework for AI for the schoolsacross state. Oh, you know, I'm
(18:28):
getting on different you know.
So I'm known as, like, the AIguy, I guess you could say right
in my district, in my school,and I get a lot of teachers who
give me a lot of pushback.
Number one thing is plagiarism,on English teachers like this is
gonna Yes. You know, yes. Butthe way I look at it is, this is
(18:49):
where the world is headed. Itis. And a lot of teachers, I'm
kind of honestly shockedsometimes that what some
teachers aren't aware of thatyou can do, or what kids are
doing and where the world isheaded. And I tell them, I say,
if you don't prepare these kidsfor what's about to happen,
(19:11):
you're setting them up forfailure. Because yeah, a I take,
I tell people this, like, rightnow college this is a perfect
example. College graduates rightnow have a worse unemployment
than people that don't have acollege degree. For the first
time ever there, theunemployment for new college
grads is higher than people thatdon't have a degree, and the
(19:31):
reason is because new collegegrads typically get entry level
jobs, and AI is the best atentry level, right? And all
these companies are using AI todo all the entry level right.
And so a lot of kids are goingto college there. They don't
realize that what they're goingto college for an AI can do it
(19:52):
right, yeah, or and they are.
They don't have any skill sets,right. And so my biggest thing
is just preparing schools. TD.
Teachers, parents like, andwe'll talk about this later,
like skill sets that kids needto learn in order to prepare for
this AI world. Because I feelthis is me. I feel like AI.
(20:12):
People like, oh. People say, Oh,you're into the AI stuff. And
what I look at it as, no, AI isthe biggest innovation ever.
Yeah, not one of the biggestpeople like I'm talking about,
it's bigger than the cell phone,it's bigger than the internet,
it's bigger than the GutenbergPress. It's as big as the wheel
in the 1000s of like. It'sliterally, because if, when
(20:33):
people understand the scope ofthe the ripple effect that AI is
going to change every aspect oflife, right? You know, people
are like, I'm not into AI. Whereyou're going to be, you're going
to be forced to be into it,because it's going to affect
your life. It's going to affectyour job, it's going to, it's
going to be in every app, it'sgoing to, it's going to
(20:55):
literally affect yourlivelihood, right? Um, every
sector of society. I don't careif you're a doctor, I don't care
if you're a doctor, I don't careif you're a lawyer, I don't care
if you're in real estatemarketing. I tell people that AI
is affecting every sector, andso the schools tend to be last.
Schools tend to be slow on thewagon, right? Very, very, very
(21:18):
slow.
TD Flenaugh (21:19):
And the other thing about it is, you know, while
we're trying to keep them fromAi, is like they have access to
it already, so it's notsomething that you can really
keep them from. The best thingthat we can do is show them how
to use it responsibly so they'renot getting in trouble. They're
not getting, you know, failingout of their college class
(21:39):
because they think that they canuse AI just to replace their
work, right? Like, if they askme for an essay on on, you know,
the industrial revolution, thatI can just ask AI to do it and
then turn it in. Now, oh, yeah,some people still may be able to
do that and make it undetectedor whatever. But obviously, if
(22:00):
my professor knows that I justturned it in and I didn't do any
work on it, I'm going to be introuble for that or whatever. So
helping them to use it in a waythat's more effective, or like
responsible, is the best thingthat we can do, rather than act
like it doesn't exist. You know
Tarquinn Curry (22:22):
exactly. And you know, a lot of teachers try to
or the ai, ai detectors don'twork, right? There's lots of
different ones. I tell peoplethis all the time, and there's a
million ways to get around that.
And these kids are smart, yeah,I can get around that easily.
Most in most kids that aresavvy, they know how to get
around that. So teachers,because of AI. I tell teachers,
first of all, if you're if youteach English, never just give a
(22:43):
kid an English assignment andsay, Go do that home and come
like that. That's not that wholeframework that's gone. You can't
do that anymore. Yes, right now,if you want them to learn, if
you want them to writesomething, you must do it in
class. But you must, I tellteachers, especially like high
school, you must assume they'reusing AI, right? So have them so
(23:03):
because they're using AI, tellthem, Okay, go create this AI.
Come back to the class. Let'scritique what the AI gave us.
Let's look at the bias in it,right? Let's look at ways we can
critique the AI, but you canstill create a lesson from that,
right? But assume they're usingit because, and it's another
(23:25):
thing too. Yeah, this is why Iget upset at teachers, because
I'm like, do you I tell them? Doyou realize that everybody in
the real world is using thiseveryone? So we're telling our
kids not to use it when jobs aregoing to expect them to know how
to use it. It makes no sense,right? And you, because you,
TD Flenaugh (23:44):
you know, yeah, we just have to change up. Yeah,
yes. I've been doing some someteacher research on that and and
using it with differentpopulations of students, like
how to integrate into thewriting process, yeah? So you,
obviously, you know, have a lotof expertise. What are those
(24:04):
skills? You mentioned it earlierthat they we need to really be
helping them develop so.
Tarquinn Curry (24:13):
So one skill is, all kids should learn. Know how
to prompt. Kids need tounderstand prompting skills.
It's, that's, it's a skill set.
You know, a lot of did I tellpeople I can ask chat GPT to
create me something, but thensomeone who knows how to prompt
and how to craft a prompt knowsthat I need to, like if, for
example, if I want chat GPT togive me a lesson from my fifth
(24:39):
grade science class. The firstthing I'm going to say is, I'm
going to give it a roll. I'mgoing to say, act as a 25 year
veteran fifth grade scienceteacher. Okay, AI will take on
that role. You always gotta givethe AI a role. You always gotta.
You always so it'll, it'll takeon that. Role, you always have
(24:59):
to give the AI like, how do youwant it produced? You want it in
bullet points. You want as aparagraph. You want because
it'll just assume. You alwaysgotta give the AI context. Okay,
you're a teacher. It knowsyou're a teacher, but you're
teaching inner city schools in arural school. You got kids that
can that are grade level. Yougive it the context, you give it
a role, you give so these areskills that kids need to
(25:21):
understand. Because, yes, youknow, everybody can ask the
chat, you know, chat, TD or clodor Google, AI, studio, whatever.
People who get the best resultsare those who know how to
prompt. I taught a class thissummer. It's the kids two week
course, and that's the first.
(25:42):
That's the first. Whenever Iteach the courses on AI, the
first day, all we do isprompting. Because everything is
prompting, whether you'reprompting for large language
models like a chat TD or artgenerators, or you're
TD Flenaugh (25:53):
doing okay, you got to prompt it correctly. Okay,
Tarquinn Curry (25:57):
so there's video generators, it's all prompts.
Everything is prompts. Coding.
You got a prompt, right? We Iteach, I teach kids how to code
with AI. It's all prompting,okay? And so that's a skill,
though, right? And you have tolearn how to do that. So that I
think I feel as though anotherskill that that because of AI,
because the AI is going tobecome smarter than any human it
(26:21):
are in about four years. It'sprojected that the AI will be
smarter than the collective ofall humans on Earth. Alright,
guys, AI, then there's AGI,which is the next step, then
there's asi.
TD Flenaugh (26:37):
All right, wait, what's a What's you said? The
second one is age, artificial
Tarquinn Curry (26:40):
super intelligence, right when you get
to the artificial general soit's eight artificial general
intelligence when the AI issmarter than any human on Earth,
okay, it's not quite there yet,because there's it's almost
there. It'll be there by nextyear. And then there's a si,
okay, that's when it's not justsmarter than any one human.
(27:02):
Earth is smarter than thecollective of all humans on
Earth, right? And that's goingto happen in the next four to
five years. So when thathappens, like I our whole
concept of learning has tochange, because the skills that
are going to be needed I and Itell parents what they're going
to need to teach their kids.
Kids are gonna need to know howto be critical thinkers and to
(27:23):
be creative. And the creativitypart is extremely important.
Because if anyone like, rightnow, I can teach a seven year
old, literally, to make a Pixarlevel cartoon quality. So if
anyone can do that, I tellpeople this little if anyone
could create an app, or ifanyone can create a movie or a
(27:44):
poem, or if any random personcan create the best quality,
what's going to separatecreativity, right? So
TD Flenaugh (27:53):
they can't always read it, though, and that's,
that's how I could see some ofthis stuff.
Tarquinn Curry (27:59):
Read it. What do you mean? Like,
TD Flenaugh (28:01):
you know? And because, well, no, like, you
know, I'm still talking, youknow, like, I'm still talking
from an English lens, right? Butso, like, for a long time, kids
have been plagiarizing, youknow, they'll just copy stuff
off of the internet before AI,right? But it's like, that's
but, but they can't reproduceit, obviously, like, a lot of
(28:21):
times, if they're not developingtheir actual skills, then
they're just having the AI do itor whatever. They can't
reproduce it if I ask them to doit in class or whatever. And
then also they can't even readthat assignment sometimes,
right? Like, so I'm like, Oh,you wrote, read this. You wrote
this report. Go ahead and readit. And it's like, they're not
able to a lot of a lot of times,you know, well, like they're
(28:43):
skipping over words, yeah,
Tarquinn Curry (28:45):
that's why the type of assignments we give,
okay, go create a podcast now.
Go create a book with with artthat reflects the text. Go, you
know, one simple thing you cando with your Excel, with with
kids, is you can have aI giveyou two sides of a debate and
have the kids, the kids inclass, or your or your kids,
(29:07):
dissect both opinions, bothsides of that debate, right? You
can have you can have the AI,whatever the it produces. You
can have the kids, okay, where'sthe bias in this? Because that's
(29:28):
another thing that I teach, isthat AI is bias. And can a kid
detect the bias? Because AI istrained on certain data, right?
If I tell an Art Generator tocreate a person, the default is
someone who's Caucasian. Byfault you have to as the
default, or the default withanything is, you know, whatever
the data sets you gave it. SoCan kids see the that's an
(29:51):
assignment of itself, okay? Canthe kids see the bias and what
the AI is producing? Right here?
You tell it to write a reportabout whatever, and the
assignment can be detective, youknow, no, you know, detect the
the bias in this.
TD Flenaugh (30:10):
Thank you so much.
Thanks so much again for joiningus on the following for learning
podcast. And Mr. TARQUIN currygave you all kinds of resources,
your website, all of it's in theshow notes. And make sure,
again, you're doing something togive your kids the competitive
advantage. Have a great week.
Thanks again for supporting thefalling for learning podcast.
(30:32):
New Episodes go live everySaturday at 5pm you can watch us
on youtube.com at falling forlearning, or listen on all major
podcast platforms such as Apple,Google, Audible, Spotify and
much more for more resources,visit falling in love with
(30:55):
learning.com. We reallyappreciate you. Have a wonderful
week.
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