article Published September 10, 2026 By Miguel Guhlin

LACDH 26 - Encore Presentation - Instructional Rasquachismo

A short outline from the audio notes of my presentation, along with an encore presentation of my session at the recent LACDH 26 event in San Antonio.

The short version

A short outline from the audio notes of my presentation, along with an encore presentation of my session at the recent LACDH 26 event in San Antonio.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to present at the LACDH 2026 event in San Antonio, Tx. In this blog entry, you’ll find an outline generated from audio of my session, as well as an encore recording I made for sharing on Instagram. I have written two blog entries, and had numerous Instagram posts with the hashtag #lacdh26

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Outline - Instructional Rasquachismo: Building Gen AI-Powered Teaching Tools

I. Opening: Framing the Conversation

00:00–01:26

Introduce the session around instructional practice and building Gen AI-powered tools
Use the bingo activity to invite active listening
Preview the major areas:
- The conceptual frame
- Rasquachismo and Anzaldúa
- Available tools
- Examples and resources
Establish the question that motivated the work

“How can I use generative AI to vibe code practical tools?” — 00:01:12

This spoken question anchors the presentation in practice rather than theory. The paper later situates those practical tools in the space between enterprise technology and under-resourced classrooms. (Miguel Guhlin)

II. The Question Comes From the Classroom

01:26–02:11

Ground the question in experience as:
- Third-grade bilingual/ESL teacher
- Fifth-grade language arts teacher
- Sixth-grade bilingual/ESL teacher
Experience across several Texas school settings
Longstanding interest in using technology to support classroom learning
Later work in technology operations and TCEA changes the professional context, but not the underlying question

“The question in my head was, how can I bring technology and use technology to empower learning in my classroom?” — 00:01:42

This establishes the educator as the starting point. The tools emerge from instructional problems experienced by teachers rather than from a technology platform looking for a classroom use.

III. Rasquachismo: Resourcefulness as a Way of Making

02:11–03:24

Introduce vibe coding as a new means of acting on an old teacher instinct
Gen AI makes it possible to create solutions without conventional software-development resources
Those solutions may be rough or incomplete
Practical usefulness matters more than polish

“Using generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude to create solutions that might be a little crummy, a little rasquach, so to speak, but that I can use in the classroom with students.” — 00:02:11

Connect this directly to rasquachismo:
- Underdog sensibility
- Resourcefulness
- Making something useful from what is available

“Rasquachismo is that idea of that underdog sensibility that’s rooted in resourcefulness.” — 00:02:59

The paper sharpens this distinction by describing rasquachismo as making the most from the least, with function prized over polish. (Miguel Guhlin)

“What could I make, or what can I do in my classroom to support teaching and learning?” — 00:03:13

That may be one of the strongest quotes in the presentation because it translates rasquachismo directly into teacher practice.

IV. “No Me Hallo”: Personal Experience of the In-Between

03:24–04:42

Move from making tools to the experience of existing between spaces
Personal context:
- Born in Panama
- Moved to the United States
- Bilingual
- Bicultural
Recall no me hallo as language for feeling displaced

“I remember thinking, ‘No me hallo. I don’t find myself here in this place.’” — 00:04:26

Turn the personal experience toward students:

“And I wonder how many of our students experience that.” — 00:04:31

Connect the experience of being between worlds to building bridges:

“The idea of being able to build tools to bridge the gap between those is, I think, pretty powerful.” — 00:04:34

The written paper makes this connection explicit through nepantla, the unstable “in-between” or tierra entre medio. It also preserves no me hallo as part of the personal grounding for that idea. (Miguel Guhlin)

V. Nepantla: Naming the In-Between Space

The presentation reaches nepantla through lived experience before fully theorizing it.

The paper gives that experience a clearer conceptual vocabulary:

Nepantla means “in-between”
It is a threshold between worlds
It is unstable and continually changing
Existing systems do not completely hold there
New ways of working can emerge there
People working within that space act as bridge-builders, or nepantleras (Miguel Guhlin)

The connection to the spoken presentation is already present in the language of being “stuck” between systems:

“What are the tools that I could make that might not be perfect, that might be sort of stuck in that in-between space?” — 00:02:30

VI. The Gap Between Enterprise Technology and Classroom Use

04:42–05:35

The presentation identifies two existing paths.

Enterprise technology

Commercial platforms
District contracts
Licensing
Big technology companies
Institutional systems

“We face a pretty big gap in our schools today.” — 00:04:42

“We see how big tech is pushing these tools into our classrooms every day.” — 00:04:49

Unstructured teacher use

At the other end is the individual educator experimenting with whatever is available:

“I know I could use this. I know I could make it useful in my classroom.” — 00:05:02

The paper develops this into two dominant paths: enterprise adoption and unstructured individual use. It argues that under-resourced classrooms can be poorly served by both. (Miguel Guhlin)

VII. Instructional Rasquachismo Occupies the Middle

05:11–06:29

The interesting work happens where:
- Policy may still be unsettled
- Guardrails may be developing
- Teachers see immediate instructional needs
- Existing systems may not provide a suitable tool

“Instructional rasquachismo, this place in the middle where the policy isn’t set, we’re still working with possible guardrails, or we might not even have those guardrails.” — 00:05:11

Gen AI changes what the educator can do from that position:

“The ability to use and build our own tools with generative AI is incredibly attractive and powerful for me.” — 00:05:24

The paper describes the same gap as a borderland where “two systems meet and neither holds,” then asks what happens when educators deliberately build for that space. (Miguel Guhlin)

VIII. Vibe Coding Turns Resourcefulness Into Production

05:35–06:29

The experimentation becomes habitual
Other educators begin creating solutions as well

“I started in May, vibe coding. And I have to tell you that I vibe coded every day.” — 00:05:35

Focus shifts from consuming available products to making needed tools

“She thinks she’s addicted to vibe coding because she’s building solutions that teachers can use.” — 00:05:49

The important characteristic of those solutions is low friction:

“Imagine being able to build solutions that don’t require a student login. There’s no license required, and there’s no login.” — 00:06:03

This closely matches the written design philosophy: browser-based applications requiring no institutional license, login, or specialized hardware. (Miguel Guhlin)

IX. Privacy Shapes the Kind of Tools We Build

06:38–08:38

Free consumer Gen AI makes experimentation possible
Accessibility does not remove privacy concerns
Warn against entering personally identifiable information into consumer tools

“They start putting in personally identifiable information. And I just want to point out that you probably don’t want to do that on any of those kinds of tools.” — 00:06:46

Distinguish consumer accounts from enterprise arrangements

“If it’s a personal account, ad supported or free, be careful.” — 00:06:54

Enterprise agreements offer additional contractual protections, while caution remains appropriate

“If you have an enterprise license or that’s an agreement or contract with your university, then you’re in a safe space with that, or a safer space. Still be careful.” — 00:07:37

The blog likewise presents privacy and accessibility as deliberate design choices rather than afterthoughts. (Miguel Guhlin)

X. DrawSplat: What Instructional Rasquachismo Looks Like

08:38–11:00

DrawSplat becomes the major concrete example of what can emerge from this approach.

“DrawSplat did not exist in April of this year. And the reason why is that I had not vibe-coded it.” — 00:09:11

The suite grows around functions the presenter wants or needs:

Create
Graph
Organize
Media
Browser video recording
Audio editing
Interactive whiteboards
PDF tools
Other small utilities

“All of these tools… are freely available for K–12 education.” — 00:09:55

The motivation is also explicit:

“I’m not selling anything. I don’t care. Not interested in money. I’m thrilled about creating these tools and making them available.” — 00:10:07

And these are not merely demonstration projects:

“I use these tools all the time.” — 00:10:20

The paper later identifies DrawSplat as one of the tools intentionally occupying the lugar de en medio: more deliberate than unstructured DIY, while remaining more accessible than enterprise systems. (Miguel Guhlin)

XI. GitHub as Alternative Infrastructure

11:00–11:29

GitHub provides a place to host websites and creations
Acknowledge the technical barrier rather than pretending it does not exist
Tutorials can reduce that barrier

“GitHub is a place where you can host your websites, your creations. It’s a little technical.” — 00:11:12

The paper develops this practical detail into part of the infrastructure argument: static deployment reduces dependence on servers, databases, institutional licenses, and vendor-controlled systems. (Miguel Guhlin)

XII. The Educator as Bridge-Builder

11:29–12:05

The presentation returns explicitly to the borderlands.

“To survive the borderlands you must live, see from the depths, and be at crossroads.” — 00:11:29, quotation presented during the talk

The speaker then interprets that position in practical terms:

“I really like this idea of being at the center of bringing people together and using generative AI tools to create solutions that people can use.” — 00:11:41

The paper gives this bridge work a name: nepantlera. Educators and tool-builders move between emerging technology, institutional constraints, and classroom realities. The tools reduce some of the cost of making that crossing without pretending the divide has disappeared. (Miguel Guhlin)

XIII. Multilingual Design and Translanguaging

12:05–13:11

The tools also bridge languages.

Suffrage Sojourn provides one example
Resources include a language selector
Seven languages are available across the tools

“Every one of these solutions that I’ve put together with DrawSplat or the others, you can read them in seven different languages.” — 00:12:22

Gen AI makes that possible even when the creator cannot personally translate every language:

“I can’t translate those. But AI can help with that. Of course, they’re not perfect.” — 00:12:50

The paper links this more explicitly to translanguaging and to the linguistic reality of Texas classrooms, arguing against treating English as the only normal instructional language. (Miguel Guhlin)

XIV. Critical Thinking Instead of Cognitive Offloading

13:11–13:34

Introduce Critical Thinking Online Breakouts
Respond to concerns that Gen AI may reduce student struggle and thinking

“People always say, you know, generative AI, cognitive offloading, kids aren’t engaging in a productive struggle.” — 00:13:11

CTOBs offer a possible response:

“Well, critical thinking online breakouts may be able to help with that.” — 00:13:23

The blog describes the goal succinctly: students read clues, reason through locks, and learn to think rather than merely click. (Miguel Guhlin)

XV. Rasquachismo and Nepantla Come Together

The completed talk contains both ideas, although the paper articulates their relationship more explicitly.

Rasquachismo describes the making:

Work with what is available
Build around actual needs
Accept some roughness
Favor usefulness
Share what works

Nepantla describes the position:

Between enterprise and individual use
Between polished and practical
Between languages
Between institutional expectations and classroom realities

The paper summarizes the distinction directly: rasquachismo describes how the tools were made; nepantla describes where they live and what they do. (Miguel Guhlin)

The spoken version gets there through more personal language: