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Day 51 of 80 Days of Excellence From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter Although when Theodore Roosevelt made his famous speech talking about “cold and timid souls” at the Sorbonne, I don’t think zombies were much discussed in pop culture. We have too many zombies nowadays- In schools, some are students but others are undead teachers. Teachers who aren’t retired but their practice isn’t alive either. They’re not working on making things better and improving. Undead students who play video games all night and sleep in class all day. Undead parents who would rather look at Facebook than pay attention to their child who needs help with their homework. In businesses, some are employees who see a mess and wait for someone else to clean it up. But sometimes they are zombie managers who complain about the work ethic of their employees while golfing every afternoon at two. The undead are everywhere. “I’m ready to retire” Or “I’m too old to ...

Crystal Marshall-Krauss on episode 263 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter Crystal Marshall-Krauss and her colleagues at the district office in Howard County, Maryland have created a fun way to excite teachers about professional development. They’ve created “Happy Apples” subscription boxes for their teachers around a variety of subjects. Learn about this innovative PD idea and how your district can craft these boxes for your teachers. This week I’ll be sharing the 7 Pedagogical Shifts That Make Interactive Displays a Key to a Student-Centered Classroom on the Cool Cat Teacher blog sponsored by SMART Technologies . Shift #1 is that Students are collaborators. My interactive display is the common workspace for the whole class. I use it as a digital workspace, to display any screen for the whole class to see, as a large multi-touch drawing and brainstorming space and so much more. My interactive display is...

Day 50 of 80 Days of Excellence From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter While we see George Washington as a success, while he was alive, he had his critics.  On the day that Washington’s successor, John Adams’ was inaugurated, a newspaper critic wrote about the departing President Washington: “For the man who is now the source of all the misfortunes of our country is this day reduced to a level with his fellow-citizens, and is no longer possessed of power to multiple evils upon the United States. If there was ever a period of rejoicing, this is the moment.” There were people in the United States who not only hated George Washington but rejoiced when he was out of office! Usually, the only time any leader is beloved is when they are dead. If you’re a living, breathing leader, I promise that you’re ticking somebody off. Aristotle says: “To avoid criticism: say nothing, do nothing be nothing.” As Theodore Roosevelt spoke of in the...

Episode 262 with Aditya Batura From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter Teaching kids to code starts with helping them understand the concepts behind coding before you get into syntax. Aditya Batura, Programmer and Entrepreneur, talks today about the concept behind helping every student understand computational thinking. This week I’ll be sharing the 7 Pedagogical Shifts That Make Interactive Displays a Key to a Student-Centered Classroom on the Cool Cat Teacher blog sponsored by SMART Technologies . Shift #1 is that Students are collaborators. My interactive display is the common workspace for the whole class. I use it as a digital workspace, to display any screen for the whole class to see, as a large multi-touch drawing and brainstorming space and so much more. My interactive display is a must-have device. I wouldn’t want to teach without one. Recent research shows that large interactive displays are vital to the classroom ecosystem. ...

Day 48 of 80 Days of Excellence From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter Kip and I were talking about the best bosses we’ve ever had. Kip shared something that one of his, Mr. Joe Morris Palmer, president and founder of an engineering company, did that really brought out the best in him. Kip said that every day he was in town, Mr. Joe Morris would come by his desk and ask the following five questions: (Note to grammarians, these are the questions, forgive the prepositions at the end of sentences and go with it!) 1. How are you? Kip said that this amazing man always started with him as a person. Every day, Kip knew that Mr. Joe Morris cared. And because he asked it every day, it would be shorter and shorter every day unless there was something big. Kip knew that as a person, he was important to the president of the company. 2. What are you working on? Then, they discussed Kip’s current projects. Kip would share what he was doing and could...

Day 47 of 80 Days of Excellence From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter Sometimes we write things as teenagers that we need to remember as adults. This double form poem I wrote at Governor’s Honors when I was 17 is one such poem. Here’s the thing, I didn’t keep this because I liked it, I remember keeping this because of the note a 40-something-year-old teacher at GHP wrote on the poem. Childhood dreaming Transforms into adulthood goals Those dreams are the things you must never lose track of When everything flees and nothing remains, these dreams are always your Precious Treasure. And thus, sometimes we have to help children and teens understand what is important. And likewise, sometimes, we get a smack from the past to remind us who we want to be.  We can remember that our dreams are a precious treasure. I have goals written at age twelve. One of them? To be an author and to write poetry. Little did I know. This post is day 47...

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter I will never carry a gun into my classroom. However, I believe I have something far more helpful: compassion, caring, and a determination to change the world by reaching the hearts and minds of this generation. People are scared and rightly so. In one moment, a madman can destroy the lives of so many. And few people notice what is prevented by a great teacher, but I aim to be one who helps people become safer by reaching kids in the classroom. This is a Cathy Rubin Global Search for Education Blog Pos t. Every month, I tackle her question along with other Top Global Teacher Bloggers. This month’s question is: “How are you promoting well being, health, and happiness in your classroom?” 1.Look for the Lonely In the recent Reader’s Digest  article, One Teacher’s Brilliant Strategy to Stop Future School Shootings — And It’s Not About Guns  advocates a strategy where the teacher looks for kids wh...

Aaron Pribble on episode 260 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter Teachers are not all saints, nor are they all slackers. — These are just two of the myths that social studies teacher Aaron Pribble tackles in this motivating, uplifting talk about what it is really like to be a teacher in America today. Aaron Pribble is the author of Teacherland: Inside the Myth of the American Educator . Check out Jennifer Gonzalez’ 2018 Teacher’s Guide to Technology for more than 200 tools with special tips, videos, and screenshots to get you started. Listen Now Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Stream by clicking here . *** Enhanced Transcript 5 Teacher Myths and How to Dispel them Link to show: www.coolcatteacher.com/e260 Date: February 23, 2018 Vicki: Today we’re talking with Aaron Pribble @aaronpribble , author of Teacherland: Inside the Myth of the American Educator . He is a high sc...