Tara Menghini

Tara Menghini teaches K-6 Educational Technology at Knox Gifted Academy in Chandler, Arizona, named number one school in Arizona in 2023 by U.S. News and World Report. She has over 20 years of teaching experience in elementary classrooms in both general and gifted education in both the United States and abroad. Tara is dedicated to bringing the latest educational technologies to her school and classroom, and often paves the way for new instructional resources and programs to be added to her district's toolbox. In her classroom, students engage in meaningful, innovative learning experiences through design thinking. She weaves open-ended exploration, collaborative problem-solving, and the development of critical thinking skills into lessons using Virtual Reality, Coding, Robotics, Engineering and Physical Computing. At her site and beyond, Tara seeks to bring her knowledge and experience to teachers and students. She is currently building curriculum to add an IDEA (Innovate, Design, Engineer, Inspire) Lab to her school to expand KGA's Technology program. In the past year, she has been a speaker at the AZTea fall conference, and has done webinars for the Arizona Department of Education and within her district across multiple sites on topics related to Design Thinking and AI in Education. She is looking forward to continuing to share her passion and experience with participants of the AIR Show, as well as at ISTE Live 2024 in Denver this summer. You can find Tara on Instagram @techteachertara