Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

His class didn't have the chemistry tools they needed. So, Ky'lin Spears built them. He's a student and has built a free molecule builder, periodic table, and chemistry simulations. His tool is free in any browser and collects no student information. So today's Wonderful Classroom Wednesday is featuring a student. Every school has them. The quiet students who figure things out. As you listen to Ky'lin, ask yourself - how can we nourish and encourage students to solve problems in classroom subjects that interest them? Ky'lin taught himself to code from YouTube videos. If you teach chemistry, Atomency may be a free resource your students can use this week. In this episode, you'll learn: Why he built it without AI, and what he tells other students about AI now The feature that broke more than 50 times before it finally worked Why he made it free, with no login and no student data A molecule challenge a chemistry teacher can try this week What he wants...

Reflective teaching matters. As teachers and professionals, we need to ask ourselves: how are we reflecting and improving? The times I've videoed myself teaching have been hard to watch, but I've learned so much. As you listen to the innovations happening in the teacher education program at Valdosta State University, think about how reflection can improve your teaching. Dr. Karen Terry has spent more than 30 years in education as a teacher, administrator, district leader, and now a professor preparing future teachers. Her goal is for the teachers from her program to still be happy in the classroom ten years later. A big part of her program is the connection with mentor teachers. In today's show, Karen shares how her student teachers record their lessons and use both AI coaching AND mentor feedback to reflect and grow. I find it fascinating that each one adds value. Some student teachers who are eager to grow record themselves, reflect with AI, and try strategies they migh...

When a principal and her school achieve amazing results, I find one thing stands out: the focus on helping students belong and grow. Student belonging is the first thing Sonia Ruiz builds. She is the 2026 National Middle Level Principal of the Year in the US. Incredibly but not surprisingly, her school's English learners and students with IEPs are making gains. Sonia says she didn't feel like school was built for her, but now she leads Jane Addams Middle School in Bolingbrook, Illinois. The school has earned the state's Exemplary status three years in a row. For her, love and high expectations go together. In this episode, you'll learn: The two survey questions that get middle schoolers to tell adults what they really need What a school dance looks like when not every student likes noise The three questions Sonia's staff asks before any decision How a chronically absent sixth grader finished eighth grade mentoring younger students Why Sonia uses a rubric to ...

Going screen-free is an emphasis right now, as is building emotional intelligence. Perhaps that is why bridge is really attractive to some kids. You can also teach math, focus, and teamwork, and you don't have to know how to play. Hall of Famer Patty Tucker created JumpStart Bridge, a free curriculum that has reached more than 12,000 students. It comes with scripts, videos, supplies, and a stipend for teachers who have never dealt a hand. In this episode, you'll learn: The one rule of bridge that teaches kids not to quit The grade levels Patty calls the sweet spot for starting What a teacher who doesn't play bridge gets for free, and how one teacher stays two weeks ahead of her class Why one school saw fewer tardies on bridge day How a Montana middle school outgrew its own bridge tournament and had to expand from one to three days What gifted-education teachers noticed about kids' social skills after the COVID years The line from an eighth grader's essay th...

ISTE+ASCD 2026 Board President Dr. Jeremy Owoh explains how his district runs toward AI instead of away from it. He also shares why AI can never replace a good teacher and his approach to encouraging innovation in the classroom. So many teachers are tired of playing "AI whack-a-mole," but it is so helpful to hear how Jeremy helps his district make decisions that bring everyone on board. He says that schools should learn together and set clear expectations. He started as an English teacher in Little Rock, served as an assistant commissioner at the Arkansas Department of Education, and now leads the Jacksonville North Pulaski School District while serving as board president of ISTE+ASCD. In this episode, you'll learn: What did ISTE+ASCD CEO Richard Culatta say when he read Jeremy's technology policy? Why his district asked students to help rewrite the rules The AI tutoring pilot he calls "a game changer," and how he decided whether it worked What a form...

Sometimes we need to talk about hard things, like grief in the classroom. Because real life is hard, and real life is in our classroom every day. Our students and we as teachers — we all deal with death. I had to this past school year, and it was hard. It still is. And not everyone experiences it the same way. There's no one-size-fits-all. On this show, first-grade teacher Haleigh Bresnan and school psychologist Rebecca Brigner share how to help grieving kids and yourself. Their precious children's book about grief, If You're Lucky Enough to Know a Unicorn, honors Kennedy, a baby girl who lived just four months. I knew this show would be about grief, but it took such an honest turn that it became one of the most authentic conversations about grief in the classroom that I've ever heard. I'm glad we had this conversation and I hope it helps people better understand both what teachers have to help kids with and what we deal with ourselves. A gentle note: this episod...