Control Alt Achieve: My 2026 MACE Sessions

Monday, February 16, 2026

My 2026 MACE Sessions

I am excited and honored to be presenting at the 2026 MACE Conference in Manhattan, Kansas on March 5th and 6th.

I always look forward to an opportunity to see old friends, make new friends, share some ideas, and learn so many new things from others.

You can access more MACE information and register for the conference at:

https://mace-ks.org/

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at MACE, along with any associated resources. Please feel free to join me for any of these sessions. I look forward to sharing, learning, and chatting with you!

🧔 My Sessions

📅 Thursday, March 5, 2026

🚀 Keynote - Level Up Every Learning with AI

Time: 10:00am - 11:30am CST
Location: Union Forum Hall
Description: AI is a powerful resource for educators, but if we stop there we miss the full potential of this game changing tool... helping our students. With AI we can provide personalized support for every learner with tutoring, enrichment, feedback, review, conversations, reflection, accessibility and more. This individualized instruction meets every student where they are and helps them grow and achieve. In this keynote we will learn about the tools and techniques to help level up every learner and adapt to our changing roles as educators.

🎲 AI Games, Interviews and Activities for Student Learning

Time: 12:45pm - 1:30pm CST
Location: Union Forum Hall
Session Agenda: http://bit.ly/curts-aigames
Description: AI access for students is often limited because of the students' age or because of school policies. However there are lots of engaging ways for a teacher to use AI in class for interactive learning activities where the students are participating but the teacher is still managing the AI. In this session we will see how you can "invite AI into your classroom" for interactive projects including AI debates on any topic, live interviews where the AI takes on a role, educational games, AI-generated "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories, co-writing activities, and more.

💎 Your AI Treasure Chest: Creating & Sharing Gemini Gems

Time: 1:45pm - 2:30pm CST
Location: Union Forum Hall
Session Agenda: http://bit.ly/curts-gems
Description: Gems are reusable, custom prompts that save your best AI workflows for instant access, and they are a game-changer for educators! In this deep-dive session we'll start by using Google's pre-made Gems (like Brainstormer and Storybook Creator), then learn to create your own, with tips for effective prompting and uploading reference files. We'll also cover how to share your Gems with colleagues and how schools can build a shared, high-quality Gem repository for staff and students. To see their full potential, we will tour my "EduGems" website and demonstrate powerful, ready-to-use prompts for lesson hooks, rubric generation, DOK analysis, and even creating AI-powered classroom games.