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July 9, 2025 5 mins

What happens when a teacher transitions from having zero technology to making it their entire curriculum? Nikki Barnickel shares her remarkable 20-year journey through the educational landscape, revealing powerful insights about what truly matters in the classroom.

Website: spotlight4success.com

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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book
Company.
I'm Devin Pintoza, your host.
We are here at the AlabamaEducational Technology
Conference in sunny MobileAlabama.
I'm here with our special guest.
This is Nikki Barnicle with StPaul's Episcopal School.
Hi, how are you today?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm great, wonderful.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Great.
So what brings you today to theAlabama ETC?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
My school sent me here to learn more about some
different programs that I canimplement in my computer lab
class.
My students work on laptops andI'm looking to add more coding
into my curriculum.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
That's wonderful.
So what are you seeing as somethings that are effective in the
classroom as far as coding andthat sort?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
You mean things I've seen here today.
Well, I spoke with Adventuresand they have the same robots
that I have in my classroom,except theirs are updated, and
that was nice to know that theones that I have could be
replaced with a better, updatedversion of the same robot that I

(01:21):
have.
So we use an online tool tocode the robots and so, anyways,
I've spoke with them and thatwas really helpful.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
That's great, nikki, are you getting to incorporate
AI into the coding?

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Not yet.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Not yet.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
That's something I could probably learn today.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Oh, okay.
So yeah, that'll be exciting.
I hear more and morediscussions about that because
I've traveled to some of theother ed tech conferences, so I
hope, I hope they have somesessions on it, at least today.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
I will look into that .

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, so tell me a bit about your journey, your
career.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
You've been an elementary school teacher for 20
years I've taught second, third, fourth and fifth.
I currently teach third, fourthand fifth technology.
I have gone from having zerotechnology in the classroom to
that being my whole curriculum.
So I feel like I have a lot ofexperience doing the best I can

(02:19):
with no technology and then nowhaving plenty of technology.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Wow, so I understand you started your career in the
public schools, is that right?

Speaker 2 (02:27):
I did.
I taught for 10 years.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Oh, okay, public school.
Where did you teach?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I taught in Phoenix City for one year.
I taught fifth grade, and Itaught in the Bayou, which is
outside of Mobile, for nineyears.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Oh, wonderful.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Thank you for watching Spotlight for Success.
I am Devin Pintosi, chiefOperating Officer of American
Book Company.
We are located here in ourheadquarters in Woodstock,
georgia.
All of our materials areprinted in USA.
We have course books, e-booksand online testing in grades

(03:03):
K-12 in mathematics, ela,science and social studies.
These materials are alldesigned to help students
achieve higher scores on theirstate-specific high-stakes
assessments.
We guarantee score improvement.
You can get free samples of ourmaterials either in print or in

(03:25):
electronic formats atabck12.com.
We look forward to hearing fromyou.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
And what can you tell us about?
Do you have any special momentsin the classroom?
You're like this was so great.
This is why I got into teaching.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yes, a lot of my students that I taught in the
first 10 years come from a verylow socioeconomic environment
and when you have a student justreally appreciate that you
truly care about their success,that that means more to me than
any any test score.

(04:01):
You know any accolade justknowing that these students
truly appreciate what you'redoing for them oh, that is
awesome.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
It's a.
It's great.
Uh, you know, that's thebedrock of education is the
teachers believing in theirstudents and that's so awesome
that you did that for all ofthose years.
And I understand, you made ajourney switch.
You moved into private schools,is that right?

Speaker 2 (04:26):
I do.
I currently teach at St Paul's.
This will be my ninth yearalready.
Wow, it's hard to believe, butit's been a nice shift.
Again, I went from having notechnology, not even a laptop,
at my last school to teachinghow to navigate laptops, so it's
been quite a shift.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
But it's been great.
That's great.
Is there anything else youwould like to share with the
Alabama EdTech community?

Speaker 2 (04:56):
You know, just remembering while we're here
Like I said before, I think alot of times these days test
scores get in the way and lackof administration support gets
in the way and just rememberingwhy you're there, remembering
that sometimes these studentsthe only person that they see
that day, that cares about them,is you, and unfortunately, I

(05:18):
have a lot of experience withthat.
Not unfortunately, I feel likethat makes me the teacher I am,
but just remembering why you'rethere is huge.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
That is so awesome.
The power of a teacher whocares and making great impacts
with students.
That's wonderful.
Nikki Barnacle, it was apleasure speaking with you today
.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
And I hope you have a great conference.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Thank you.
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