Randy Unscripted

In this deeply personal episode, I honor my dear friend, colleague, co-host, and mentor, Coach Jim Clayton, who passed away on September 18, 2025. I share how Jim first impacted me as a teenager, how our friendship grew through years of teaching together, and what I learned from his everyday example—his integrity, humility, encouragement, and relentless commitment to helping others win at life. From lunches at Huntington High to collaborating at Cabell Midland, to praying with him at center court at Sports City U, and finally launching this podcast together on July 1, our conversations became some of the most meaningful of my decade in podcasting. Jim was a devoted teacher, inspiring coach, faithful friend, loving husband to Anne, father to Elizabeth and Wes (and Kayla), and proud “Pop Pop” to Vera and Heidi—with his loyal buddy Alfie by his side. Rooted in faith, he lived the values he taught: service, compassion, perseverance, and belief. Anchored by Psalm 34:18, 2 Timothy 4:7–8, and Matthew 5:4, this episode is a tribute to Jim’s life and legacy—and an invitation to honor him by believing bigger, achieving louder, and motivating stronger, every day.

Teachers across the world are required each year to complete a specific number of hours of “professional” or “staff development.” Many times they are all funneled into a single room where they everyone is presented with the same topic, strategy, or technology tool. This is a very over generalized way to help educators to grow […]

West Virginia has made a change in the state law in relation to school instructional days and inclement weather. The changes in the law provide for school districts to provide Non-Traditional Instructional (NTI) days. These days provide for students to complete assignments as part of a “Snow Packet” from home in lieu of attending school […]

Microsoft’s Office 365 Education is an amazing platform that provides a lot of useful features and tools to educators and students. Great tools like Teams, OneNote, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Learning Tools, Forms, Skype for Business, Sway, Outlook, and OneDrive provide a robust suite that can have an immediate impact in the classroom for both educators […]

It’s the time of the year for a short break, but I also have a few announcements in regards to both the Randall Black Show and EdTech Shorts.

#EdCampNSV On September 22, 2018 #EdCampNSV was hosted at Johnson-Williams Middle School in Berryville, VA. Following up the event, I was able to sit down with four other educators at the event and reflect a bit on the things we experienced during the day. The four educators joining me for this discussion are Patrick Hausammann […]

32 Down & A Lot More To Go Steve Freeman is a veteran educator with 32 years of classroom experience in West Virginia. He currently teaches AP Government and AP Psychology at Huntington High School (HHS) in Huntington, WV. He previously taught at Elkview Junior High/Middle and Capital High Schools in Kanawha County. Outside of […]

MADPD – Making Tech Disappear On May 6, 2018 I was fortunate to take part in a session as a part of MADPD hosted by Shane Lawrence (Twitter) of The Ed Podcast (Ed – Conversations About the Teaching Life). Joining us in the session were Kasey Bell (Twitter, Website, Google Teacher Tribe) and Brad Shreffler […]

Believe! Achieve! Motivate! Today’s episode features Part 2 of my discussion with Jimmy Clayton (Twitter, LinkedIn), a retired educator and coach who spent 35 years working for Cabell County Schools in WV. He is the founder of Sports City U, a previous shooting consultant with the NBA’s New Jersey (now Brooklyn) Nets and Portland Trail Blazers and […]

Believe! Achieve! Motivate! Jimmy Clayton (Twitter, LinkedIn) is a retired educator and coach. He spent 35 years working for Cabell County Schools in WV at Huntington East, Huntington, and Cabell Midland High Schools. In October 1992 he founded Sports City U, the United States’ first year-round basketball player development academy that he still runs and operates […]

New Leadership for Wayne County Schools Todd Alexander (Twitter, LinkedIn) is the current superintendent of Wayne County Schools in West Virginia. He was a classroom teacher and administrator with Cabell County Schools for twenty plus years before making the move to Wayne County. Todd was instrumental in the introduction of the Handle With Care program in […]

What’s in Store for Cabell County Schools Today’s episode features part two of my conversation with Cabell County Schools Superintendent Ryan Saxe (Twitter). We talk about the biggest challenge he has faced during his first year, future initiatives planned for Cabell County Schools, other educators and administrators that inspired him in his career, and what […]

What’s in Store for Cabell County Schools Today’s episode features part one of my conversation with Cabell County Schools Superintendent Ryan Saxe (Twitter). We talk about his return to West Virginia after a few years in Florida working for Manatee County Schools, the great things he has seen so far in Cabell County as he […]

4th Grade is Over I’m joined on this episode by my son, Mikey. Mikey is 9, soon to be 10, and is just finishing up 4th grade. We discuss what it was like for him in 4th grade this year. He shares what he liked the most, what he disliked, and what he is looking […]

Freshman Academies: Today’s episode is a look at freshman academies and the impact they can have in a high school for the betterment of, not just the students, but the school as a whole. My guests are Bekka Atkins (email, Twitter) and Will Totten (email, Twitter, LinkedIn). Bekka Atkins is currently serving as the Academy […]

Today’s episode features Dr. Randall Sampson returning to the show to share some of the great things he is doing to help educators personalize their professional development. He talks about using Flipgrid and Wakelet to curate reflections and content and how educators can earn graduate credit towards salary advancement and re-certification. Question of the Show […]

Today’s episode features Phil Strunk (@MrPStrunk). Phil is a 7th grade social studies teacher at Johnson-Williams Middle School in Berryville, VA. He is also the host of the Wins and Losses podcast (https://winsandlosses.podbean.com) and founder of the #waledchat on Twitter. Phil, despite being early in his career, has a tremendous grasp on reflection as a […]

Today’s episode is the final in a three part series on Coding and Computer Science Education. Today’s guest is Tamara Westfall. She is a Physics and Forensics teacher at Huntington High School in Huntington, WV. She has been working to directly implement aspects of coding and computer science into her classroom while also sponsoring the […]

Today’s episode is part two in the series focused on coding and computer science education. The guest today is Teena Hine (@STEAMPoweredWV). Teena is a third grade teacher and technology integration specialist at Tomahawk Intermediate School in Berkeley County, WV. She joins the show today to talk about some of the great things she is […]