Michael Milton

I made a vocabulary warm up game for my students earlier this year as a Google Sheet.

Over the break, I adapted it to a website.

And now...Vocab Crusher is ALIVE!!

Paste terms. Choose a mode. Hit Smash. Take a look! I’d love feedback!

vocabcrusher.com

Nice threads.

Vocab Connect: A Review Game, Made Easier Vocab Connect is a vocabulary review game built around table talk, explanation, and connection. I’ve used it in my classroom for nearly a decade – and recently made the one change that finall…

Ten years ago I made a vocabulary review game I’ve been using ever since: Vocab Connect. It worked great but setup was clunky, so I never shared it.

A snow day gave me a few unexpected hours, & I finally fixed that part.

Wrote about the game (& the update) here:
michaelkmilton.com/2026/02/03/v...

If you are considering introducing a new acronym, please use the WHY Protocol:

• What purpose will this acronym serve?
• How does this translate to the folks in the outside?
• You really think this is a good idea?

HOMES is a good one too. It reminds me that there are 5 Great lakes and the rest of them are just mediocre.

Please consider joining SEA - Stop Education Acronyms.

Acronyms peaked with scuba & while PEMDAS came close to that in education we should wave the white flag. The ones you learned this year pale in comparison. It will be ok. The post acronym education world might be wordier but it will be clearer.

Leveling Up with the DBQ:  A Skill-Based Approach to Teaching the AP DBQ I wanted a different way to introduce the AP DBQ – one that made skills visible, feedback immediate, and revision part of the process. This post shares how the DBQ Guild came together, why a …

This is a write-up of a project where I turned the AP DBQ into a skill-based quest structure, complete with levels and XP, and built around the rubric, revision, and real-time feedback. I even brought my old blog back to life to share it.

michaelkmilton.com/2026/01/06/l... #sschat

Thanks! The quest framing really helped students buy into the process. It was a fun vibe!

One of the neatest projects I worked on this year was for my AP World students: breaking up and gamifying the DBQ into what I call DBQ Guild: Questline I. Using the AP rubric, I turned each skill into a separate quest students could practice and level up through. It was a lot of fun. #sschat

I have a student teacher this semester. I have asked that he try to observe as many teachers as he can - in social studies and outside of it. I personally don’t spent as much time seeing how other classrooms run. #sschat

@swanversations.bsky.social what’s happening now? How are things?

The Phantom really have music teachers a bad rap for a bit there.

This is probably very stupid - but I’m trying to make a game-y learning the DBQ thing for my AP World kids. I also learned some very annoyingly awesome Google sheets tricks along the way.

This is still a bud of an idea-it could be fun. I might have cut back some levels to make it more manageable.

I thought it was fun & I could potentially test them out w/ students. I figured by giving it a silly personality it would be hard to just cut & paste w/out reading.

Oh. Making on a ghost who is self conscious about being a ghost but drops obvious hints about it’s lack of corporeal form would be fun

It peppered these in between summarizing, asking, & answering questions about the nullification & bank crises.

It liked please’s & thank you’s & praised when they were used (and mentioned when they were not).

These bots limitations it seems are they cannot easily be shared. It made me laugh.

For a course on AI in the classroom we had to make a Gem -a little chatbot that you give it text as parameters to talk to you about (Gemini)

Then I found out you could give it rules - which I interpreted for my amusement. It loved only sequels, punctuation hated owls & had nightmares about Calhoun.

“Turn it up to 6-7”

This is Spinal Tap Today

To all of my teacher friends who have been good little boys and girls summer (and are starting tomorrow)-

Remember to put out your shoes on this New Year Years Eve and you might find a handful of Expo markers & a mid morning coffee refill in them!

Paying homage to the cat hanging on a rope and Ben Franklin’s attributed line after signing the Declaration on Independence (We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately) - I made this motivational poster (yes, there is some Goonies in there as well.)

Episode 214: Teaching How to Evaluate Online Information with Elizabeth Reynolds

In episode 214, Dan and Michael chat with Elizabeth Reynolds about her article published in Theory & Research in Social Education, “Teaching students to evaluate online information in social studies: A comparative…

I came across another cheat code for AP World - if just prior to the test you type in “up up down down left right left right b a start” that your test becomes the NES classic Contra.

Thank you!

• Al Overview The idiom "you can't lick a badger twice" means you can't trick or deceive someone a second time after they've been tricked once. It's a warning that if someone has already been deceived, they are unlikely to fall for the same trick again. Here's a more detailed explanation: • Licking: "Licking" in this context means to trick or deceive someone. • Badger: The badger is a wild animal, and the phrase likely originates from the historical sport of badger baiting where dogs were used to harass

Someone on Threads noticed you can type any random sentence into Google, then add “meaning” afterwards, and you’ll get an AI explanation of a famous idiom or phrase you just made up. Here is mine

Amid anti-DEI push, National Park Service rewrites history of Underground Railroad Since Trump took office, the park service, an agency charged with preserving American history, has changed how its website describes key moments from slavery to Jim Crow

Since President Donald Trump took office, the Park Service, an agency charged with preserving American history, has changed how its website describes key moments from slavery to Jim Crow.

"Can't repeat the past?! Why of course you can, old sport.
The past.
The past.
The past.
The past.
The pa-"

*smack*

"Shut up, Gatsby!"

The book "1984" by George Orwell was written in 1949. the equivalent book today would be titled "2025."

I mean, Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ could have been inspired by Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery.

I’ll say this about teaching - the work is mysterious and important.

Ya know how OER has those neat one page biography graphic novel for historical folks in history for AP World - does anyone make things like this for US? I would like to bring more individuals within US history to my class with short and exciting readings. #sschat

Erasable pens. They do neither well.