Curriculum design
Start from the thinking a unit is meant to build. Then decide where tools can scaffold, where they can take on routine work, and where students need to work unassisted.
Instructional philosophy
Protect the thinking the assignment exists to produce.
Most of my career has been spent close to instruction. I taught high school social studies in Chicago Public Schools, mentored new teachers as a lead teacher, chaired a department in an alternative school, coached teachers, supported a K–5 building as assistant principal, and led curriculum and instructional technology across a district. That work keeps returning me to one practical question. What is this lesson, task, or tool actually asking students to think and do?
Generative AI has made that question urgent. A student can now turn in polished work without doing the reading, reasoning, or revising the assignment was designed to build. My research calls this unproductive success. The response I work toward is instructional design that keeps productive friction, the effort that builds understanding and judgment, while removing exclusionary friction, the barriers that punish students without teaching them anything.
For school and district leaders, this means curriculum, assessment, professional learning, and policy have to be decided together. Phone rules, device choices, and AI procurement shape what students practice as much as any curriculum guide does.
How the approach shows up
Six places the work becomes practice.
Assessment
Look for evidence of learning in the process as well as the product, so that assessment rewards the reasoning a generated output cannot supply.
Professional learning
Build educator learning around teachers' own classroom decisions and disciplines rather than tool tutorials, and design it with the same care expected of student learning.
Social studies and civic learning
Balanced, inquiry-driven history and civics instruction, supported by the C.O.R.E. and H.E.A.R.T. frameworks I developed for critical thinking and civic-minded reasoning.
Technology balance
Treat screens, devices, and AI features as instructional decisions. The useful question is what a screen asks students to practice, not only how long they use it.
Equity
Separate productive struggle from barriers tied to access, language, disability, or compliance burdens, so that rigor does not become exclusion.
Instructional leadership in practice
From the classroom to district curriculum.
The instructional side of each role. The full resume covers technology operations, consulting, and policy work.
Director of Innovation & Technology
- Directs instructional technology strategy with emphasis on STEAM/STEM integration, AI literacy, and innovative teaching practices.
- Collaborates with district leadership on strategic planning and school improvement.
- Implements AI governance and student data privacy practices that determine which tools reach classrooms and how they are used.
District Instructional Technology & Social Studies Coordinator
- Led district-level instructional technology and K-8 social studies work across all schools, including curriculum, professional learning, coaching, and instructional systems.
- Managed and developed K-8 social studies curriculum, with professional learning focused on literacy in social studies and civics.
- Redesigned K-8 social studies instruction through curriculum development and data-informed evaluation.
- Developed and implemented a comprehensive K-12 technology curriculum.
- Designed professional development on instructional technology and culturally responsive practices for 320 educators.
- Oversaw instructional technology coaches supporting digital citizenship and digital literacies, and led strategic planning for district-wide initiatives.
Assistant Principal
- Partnered with the principal at a K-5 school of about 870 students, 53% of them English learners.
- Evaluated teacher performance as an Illinois-qualified evaluator, and led professional learning on district and state initiatives.
- Collaborated with district leaders to align curricular and assessment objectives across grade levels.
- Co-led PBIS and supported school climate, student behavior, and family engagement.
Instructional Technology Coach
- Coached, co-taught, and modeled instruction with grades 6-8 teachers, aligning technology use with curricular goals.
- Led professional development on instructional technology tools and pedagogical practices.
Department Chair & Social Studies Teacher
- Led the social studies department and taught U.S. and world history to incarcerated youth in an alternative education setting.
- Designed trauma-informed curriculum and differentiated instruction for diverse student populations.
- Designed online courses and instructional wikis to support credit recovery, and led professional development on instructional technology and pedagogy.
Teaching Policy Fellow
- Led a working-group policy project on peer review in CPS teacher evaluation, published as REACH 2.0: Incorporating Peer Feedback and Evaluation for Teachers (2015), including a survey of 376 teachers.
- Served on a congressional briefing panel on ESEA reauthorization and published four op-eds on assessment and teacher perspectives.
Adjunct Professor
- Taught technology integration and social studies methods courses for undergraduate and graduate students.
Lead Teacher & Social Studies Teacher
- Taught grades 9-12 social studies, from World Studies to Economics, in a program for students building credits toward graduation and postsecondary education.
- Mentored new teachers and facilitated professional development, including technology integration.
- Coordinated the Saturday School enrichment and credit recovery program and led the summer bridge program.
Doctoral work
Curriculum, advocacy, and policy.
I am completing an Ed.D. in Curriculum, Advocacy, and Policy at National Louis University. My dissertation studies pedagogical friction in the age of generative AI. The proposal was defended in August 2026, the study received IRB approval in October 2026, and data collection is underway. Completion is expected in 2027.
The study uses a qualitative-dominant convergent mixed methods design grounded in constructivist qualitative inquiry. It asks how classroom-facing educators, building-level administrators, district/system-level leaders, and adult university students make sense of the ways generative AI changes effort, dialogue, authorship, judgment, and participation. It also asks what language, assessment expectations, instructional practices, professional supports, and leadership approaches help preserve learning-supportive friction while reducing unnecessary barriers. The study is in progress, and no findings are reported here.
Pedagogical friction
Noetic, rhetorical, existential, and infrastructural dimensions of educationally productive resistance, with a working distinction between productive and exclusionary friction.
Tertiary algorithmicity
An extension of Walter Ong's media ecology to generative AI, used to examine unproductive success, when polished output arrives without the learning it was meant to show.
C.O.R.E. and H.E.A.R.T.
Social studies frameworks for balanced history and civic reasoning. C.O.R.E.: critical thinking, openness, respect, and engagement. H.E.A.R.T.: honesty, empathy, accountability, responsibility, and thoughtfulness.
Pedagogical writing
Writing for teachers and leaders about what students are asked to practice.
The Friction Worth Protecting: Preserving Productive Struggle in the Age of AI
Educational Leadership, ISTE+ASCD
Submitted October 2026 for the March 2027 issue
When the Output Looks Like Learning: Tertiary Algorithmicity, Unproductive Success, and the Case for Pedagogical Friction in K–12 Schools
i.e.: inquiry in education, 18(1), Article 4
Open sourceScreen Time Is the Wrong Question: What Is the Screen Asking Students to Practice?
CoSN, Consortium for School Networking
Open sourceCompliant Is Not the Same as Changed
micahminer.com, October 10, 2026
Open sourceThe Pouch and the Bypass: What This Fall's Screen Debate Is Actually About, and What It Leaves Untouched
micahminer.com, August 31, 2026
Open sourceGovernance Is a Design Decision: Why AI Procurement Is Already Shaping Curriculum
micahminer.com, July 25, 2026
Open sourceWhy AI Needs a Little Friction for Deep Learning
LTC Illinois Blog
Teaching Balanced History in a Polarized World: Empowering Educators with C.O.R.E., H.E.A.R.T., and AI
Social Studies School Service Blog, November 7, 2024
Open sourceUsing your C.O.R.E. and H.E.A.R.T. to Teach Balanced Social Studies and Civics with Generative AI to Promote Critical Thinking and Diverse Perspectives
The Leader, National Social Studies Leaders Association, Spring 2024
Unlocking AI's Potential, Upholding Our Principles: An Equitable Approach for Social Studies
The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies
Assessments, Equity & AI Tools: Embracing the AI Era in Writing Instruction
Equity & Access Journal
Reclaiming Authentic Social Studies for the Next Generation: Take the Power Back
Equity & Access Journal
Navigating the Ethical Frontier: AI in Education and the Path to Responsible Innovation
IL ASCD Journal
REACH 2.0: Incorporating Peer Feedback and Evaluation for Teachers
Teach Plus
AI Goes to School: How to Harness Artificial Intelligence in Education to Prepare Students for the Future
Times 10 Publications
Open sourceEdTech Gets Schooled
Second book, on technoskepticism and the limits of AI in education.
Professional learning and speaking
Sessions and tools built for educators.
The Pedagogical Importance of Friction in the Age of Generative AI
ISTE+ASCD expert webinar
Open sessionWhat AI Makes Easy Might Be What Students Need to Struggle With
DuPage ROE
Open sessionTeaching Social Studies in the Age of AI
Disciplinary adaptation for social studies educators
Open sessionHistorical Inquiry and Friction
Preserving historical inquiry through pedagogical friction, C.O.R.E., and H.E.A.R.T.
Open sessionPedagogical Friction as Subversive Praxis
AAACS interactive scholarly session
Open sessionFriction Lab
A simulation for calibrating productive challenge without raising exclusionary barriers.
Open toolLicensure and preparation
Illinois licensure, supervision, and degrees.
Illinois licensure
- Professional Educator License (PEL), valid through 2030
- General Administrative endorsement, K–12
- Technology Specialist endorsement, grades 6–12
- Social Science, grades 6–12
- U.S. History and World History, grades 9–12
- Secondary Education, grades 6–12
Instructional supervision
- Illinois teacher evaluator, qualified 2016
- Retraining completed 2017, 2021, and 2026
- Gathering evidence during observations and conferencing with the Danielson model (2026)
- Using student growth data from diverse populations in teacher evaluation (2026)
Degrees and certification
- Ed.D., Curriculum, Advocacy & Policy, National Louis University, expected 2027
- Ed.S., Instructional Technology, Walden University, 2012
- M.Ed., Educational Leadership, American College of Education, 2009
- M.A.T., Secondary Social Studies, National Louis University, 2007
- CETL, Certified Education Technology Leader, CoSN, 2025