What if the best school you've never heard of is sitting inside a former Sears building in Memphis?

In this episode of The TechEd Clubhouse, I talk with Scott Holcomb — Ed Tech Imagineer at Crosstown High, Space Camp Hall of Famer, and yes, an actual character in the 1985 Space Camp movie — about what happens when a group of teachers finally get to build the school they always wanted.

Crosstown High isn't a school that adopted a new program. It's a school that started from scratch — no bells, no traditional silos, no "we've always done it this way." Built inside a 1.5 million square foot vertical village alongside a YMCA, a hospital, restaurants, and a grocery store, it was designed around one question: what if we actually listened to students and teachers?

Scott's journey to get there — from school counselor to instructional technologist covering an entire Memphis school district to Space Camp Hall of Famer — is as unconventional as the school itself.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Why the same trick that got a resistant teacher interested in technology in 1998 still works with AI today
• What Crosstown High actually looks like day to day — and what makes it different beneath the surface
• The AI conversation schools keep getting wrong, and what student surveys revealed about how kids are actually using it
• Why banning AI is the calculator mistake all over again
• Are we at the start of an educational renaissance? Scott and Dan make the case
• Space Camp: what it is, who it's for, and why it's changed more lives than just astronauts

CROSSTOWN HIGH BY DESIGN

• Project-based — real problems, real community connections, real work
• Intentionally diverse — lottery system built around zip codes, not applications
• Relationship-driven — teachers know their students, leadership knows their teachers
• Always iterating — surveys, sabbaticals, and the belief that the school will never be "finished"

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Crosstown High — crosstownhigh.orgUS Space and Rocket Center / Space Camp — rocketcenter.comMagic School AI — magicschool.aiNotebook LM — notebooklm.google.comXQ Institute — xqsuperschool.org

CONNECT WITH SCOTT

Instagram: @hideotakaminiLinkedIn: Scott Holcomb

CONNECT WITH DAN

Website: coachthomastech.comTwitter/X: @coachthomastech

The TechEd Clubhouse Podcast explores STEM education, project-based learning, creativity, and practical ideas teachers can use tomorrow.

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