April 2, 2026
A Ghost Town Mystery And A Robot Tutor
AI is everywhere in students’ lives, but what if we used it to push them outside instead of pulling them deeper into screens? From the floor of NCRA in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, we sit down with author Jo Watson Hackl to talk about a surprisingly grounded approach to AI in education: using technology responsibly to strengthen student engagement, spark curiosity, and support reading and writing through real-world observation of nature.
Website: spotlight4success.com
00:00 - Welcome And Guest Introduction
00:27 - Why NCRA Matters To Joe
01:17 - Using AI To Connect With Nature
02:00 - Curiosity And Post-COVID Engagement
02:47 - SmackDab Story And STEAM Links
03:47 - Grade Levels Awards And Author Visits
04:22 - A Student Impact Story
05:21 - Where To Buy And Website
06:07 - Thanks And Wrap-Up
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Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company.
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I am Devin Pintozi, your host.
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We are here at NCRA in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
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I'm happy to have with us our very special guest, uh Joe Watson Hockle.
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Hockle, nice to meet you today, Joe.
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Thank you.
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Thank you for having me.
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Yes.
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Uh Joe, can you tell us a little bit about um uh what brings you here to NCRA?
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Absolutely, thank you.
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So I am an author of SmackDab in the Middle of Maybe, published by Random House, Year Lean Adventures, and I'm also a first-generation college graduate.
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And so educators literally change my life.
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And so um one of the great joys about being an author, in addition to writing and visiting with uh students, is getting to visit with educators.
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So anytime I have the opportunity to interact with educators and learn what's on their mind and ways that I can better serve them by creating more resources for them, I'm delighted to do so.
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Oh, that's great.
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And uh can you tell me a bit?
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I understand, are you doing a couple sessions here at the conference?
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Yes.
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Okay.
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So what are those?
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So today I um presented on Nature Meets the Wild, um, the wild meets uh AI and the intersection between the power of nature.
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We all know that science supports the the importance for both physical and mental well-being of students engaging with nature.
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We also know that AI is becoming more and more a part of students' lives.
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And so I wanted to examine ways that we could responsibly use AI to help students connect with nature and use nature as a prompt for writing and reading to get the students more engaged.
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Oh, that sounds very interesting.
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Thank you.
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Wow, and uh what was the other presentation on?
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The other one is engaging student curiosity, uh supplemented with AI to really get students engaged.
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We know that after COVID, um, many students have learning gaps, and uh what I'm hearing from my educator friends is that engagement is critical.
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And the science shows that if you can get students engaged and motivated, they're so much ready, more ready to learn.
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And and so uh similarly to the nature topic, it starts with identifying what students are interested in, what they're curious about, and then looks for ways to create individualized assignments uh in writing projects that are really tailored to those students' interests to again build upon their interests, get them engaged.
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Oh, that's wonderful.
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Uh can you tell me, Joe, uh a bit about uh your book and how you came about to write it?
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Sure.
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So SmackDab in the middle of Maybe combines outdoor adventure with a southern art and mystery clue trail, all set in an overgrown ghost town based on a real-life southern ghost town in which I grew up.
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Where did you grow up?
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I grew up in rural, rural Mississippi.
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Okay.
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In a in a real-life ghost town, but I did all the research for the book in the Carolinas.
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I live in the Carolinas.
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Okay.
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Yeah.
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So it combines, um, it has steam tie-ins uh across the curriculum.
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Uh, the main character survives on her own in this deserted ghost town, so you might imagine lots of opportunities for science, mathematics, engineering, and um and other uh steam topics as this character is trying to survive on her own and solve a clue trail left by a very mysterious artist with a logic all his own.
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Oh wow, that's interesting.
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And can you tell us about the grade levels this uh book is directed for?
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Sure.
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So it it does have layers, so it works really well for grades three and up.
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Three and up.
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And um, so a grade three is going to get really hone in for the adventure.
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It uh also has a mental health component, and so middle grades will be more attuned to that, and then high school students, it did win the Southern Book Prize.
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Oh wow.
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So um high school students will read it as a literature study, and I do tons of visits, uh, author visits with you know ranging from third grade up to high school.
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Oh, that's great.
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Can you tell us a story about um how you felt the book uh impacted someone in in your life or someone you heard about or told you, man, I read SmackDab, and wow.
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Um I've had one student read SmackDab 14 times.
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What?
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I know that was amazing.
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But and I've um I love to visit particularly Title I schools.
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Okay.
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And um visited one school where the students, I was the first author visit that they had in um recent memory.
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Wow.
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And um we were able to find um people to donate so that each student could have a copy of their own book.
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And I stayed up till three in the morning.
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The teacher wrote me things that they were interested in, and so I wrote an individualized note to each student.
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Wow.
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And one student who um said that he liked to fix cars after my visit, he wrote me and he said, Miss Hackle, I will fix your car anytime.
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And I was like, okay.
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It's like, all right, I've made an impact.
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Oh, that is so awesome.
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Um, is there anything uh you can share with uh the audience about where they can get SmackDab?
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Sure.
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Well, Gigi's book is uh is here at NCRA.
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Um SmackDab is published by Brandom House Taylor Link Adventures, so it's available wherever books are sold.
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It is a I'd love to support independent bookstores.
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It is also available online, and many independent bookstores have a way that you can also buy it online.
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Um and you can also check out my website uh with links to my local bookstore.
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Oh, wonderful.
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Okay, um, that's great.
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What is the um what is the uh what is the address for your website?
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Sure, it's uh www.johackle.com, and there's no e in either the Joe or the Hackle.
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Perfect.
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All right, well, thank you so much.
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Again, this is Joe Watson Hackle uh joining us, uh author of SmackDown.
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We really appreciated having you on today.
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Thank you so much.
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Enjoy it.
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