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Teacher burnout is sometimes much much more. Burnout and depression can hide inside a teacher who looks like she's doing everything right. Now, I want to be careful with this episode. These are some hard things that a teacher dealt with in the classroom. Content note: this episode talks about depression, a student's suicidal thoughts and child abuse. Nicole Terrizzi taught for four years through Teach For America in Kansas City and then in Oakland, and has spent nearly 15 years in nonprofit work that serves education. She wrote her story in the memoir Learning in Free Fall. In today's episode, Nicole pulls back the curtain on the trauma that happened in her classroom, her own struggle to make it right (with an administrator that she believed didn't back her up), a hospital stay, and the treatment she says saved her life. She also tells the story about the principal whose hard conversation pointed her toward a new path. This is Nicole's story, shared so other te...

So many things have happened in the past week that impact schools: lots of Gemini Notebook updates, ChatGPT for Teens' harsh review from Common Sense Media, suspected freezer hacks at US military bases and confirmed ones in France, a university's chief academic officer resigning over undisclosed AI use in published materials, and a new heart study that our coaches need to hear about. I also recorded some bonus material for "geeks" or more advanced people that you can listen to for the last three minutes if you like. Oh, and much more. I ended up with 17 news stories plus 7 new features from Gemini Notebook and some notes for administrators about the repercussions of these stories. This isn't the first change to hit the world, but it seems to be the fastest. AI is impacting everything but it is more than AI being discussed this week. Every source is linked in the show notes. In this episode, you'll learn: Why the cafeteria freezer belongs on your school...

Can you lead with love and be a successful principal? Jason Johnson, principal of Orange High School in Hillsborough, North Carolina, shows us that you can. I found some of the things he does shocking (but refreshing, actually). Jason is the 2026 US National High School Principal of the Year. So, what does he do that is shocking? He once read all the mistakes he made one year at the last faculty meeting of the year. He tells brand-new teachers to make mistakes (and how he works with them). If kids want to drop an AP course, he wants them to talk to him personally. In his 29 years in public education, most of them in Orange County Schools, he has built a school where the state performance grade climbed from a C to a B, and proficiency rose for every student group. Jason also shares the one thing his principal said to him when he was a teacher that caused him to immediately go get an application for grad school to seek to be a principal. He also shares his ideas for giving effect...

Math anxiety and mental math are two topics math teachers talk about constantly. How do we engage students who are scared of math? And how important are math facts anyway? Our guest, Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash, won the 2020 Mental Calculation World Championship doing math in his head. So what does a champion mental mathlete think about memorizing math facts? As he has worked to help kids get better at math, what has he learned about overcoming math anxiety? And what is wrong with the test scores we use every day that may be keeping kids out of future careers in math? Let's talk about this and more with Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash, known as the world's fastest human calculator. What you'll learn: What the world's fastest human calculator really thinks about memorizing math facts Why he walked away from competing to take on math phobia The teacher he'd choose over an AI that's right every time The placement test that got an eighth grader completely wrong Wha...

Happy National Principals Month! This is the perfect time to talk about having strong relationships between principals, teachers, and students for the good of our schools! Raquel Martinez started her teaching career as a biology teacher, eventually becoming principal of Sageview High School in Pasco, Washington. In 2024 she served as the first Latina president of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, now known as the National Principals Association. We often feature amazing principals from this organization. In this Thought Leader Thursday, we're featuring an episode we recorded on October 8, 2024, about how this trailblazing principal leader charted her course. She shares how a principal encouraged her to lead her science department, what a teenager working in the fields needed from her teachers, and her message to every principal who feels alone. What you'll learn: What a "tap on the shoulder" really felt like for Raquel The day her principa...

Explicit vocabulary instruction beats five words on Monday and a quiz on Friday. Students need to know vocabulary, and that old routine is not the fastest or most efficient way for kids to learn all that vocab. Fifth-grade teacher Sean Morrisey makes vocabulary stick by using explicit vocabulary instruction. Sean spent eight years as a school psychologist who tested struggling readers. Frustrated that kids weren't learning, he moved into the classroom and has taught for eighteen years. He also created the Word Mapping Project, a curriculum that ties vocabulary, spelling, and word parts together. In this episode, Sean shares the routine he uses to teach new words, how he teaches kids to use word parts to figure out words, and an awesome tip to help kids learn more words, faster (and probably easier). What you'll learn: Why a word list and a Friday quiz don't stick The three moves Sean makes the first time students meet a new word What a flock of sheep has to do with s...

Prompt engineering is outdated. Yes, you heard it. That is what Christie Cloud, instructional tech facilitator, and Dave Hinrichs, director of digital platforms and pedagogy, said in their chapter in The Educators' AI Guide 2027. Their favorite tool is ChatGPT. In this episode, they discuss what matters in the world of AI and offer a simple explanation of AI agents. They'll share their thoughts on why AI needs to be in schools and how we need to be wise about choosing our models. Now, I do want to mention this is a highlight reel of our long interview (almost 45 minutes) as aired and published on Cool Cat Teacher Talk so if you want to dive even deeper, check out their episode on my long-form show. What you'll learn: Why Christie thinks banning AI in schools is short-sighted The cell phone and social media lesson Dave says schools can't repeat with AI Why "prompt engineering" scared teachers off, and what to do instead The one-question-at-a-time trick ...

Sometimes when we try to speak words of encouragement for struggling students it can backfire. When a teen is hurting but they won't talk, what do you say? Lawrence C. Harris, a 20-year-old youth speaker and teen author, sat in our classrooms not long ago. He tells us what helped him and what made him pull away. Lawrence shares the well-meaning phrases that shut struggling students down, the words that keep the door open, and one small thing you can do at the start of class this week. What you'll learn: The two phrases teachers mean kindly that make a struggling teen retreat What to say when a student is clearly struggling but won't open up Why the student who seems happiest in class might be hiding the most The "one pebble a day" idea for a student who feels overwhelmed The decision that turned Lawrence's life around A start-of-class routine that gives students something to look forward to Full show notes, transcript, and resources: https://www.coo...

Classroom Engagement is something all teachers can struggle with. Does it ever feel like kids can't pay attention anymore? Do you feel like attention spans are shorter than ever? Whatever you think about attention spans, we still have to engage the students sitting in front of us. Dr. Michael McDowell, an 18-year public school educator who served as a math and science teacher, coach, principal, and superintendent, shares classroom engagement strategies that can help! Michael is the author of The Attention Gap. He walks us through a math lesson built in short intervals, and two routines you can try in any K-12 class tomorrow. What you'll learn: Why splitting a lesson into I do, we do, you do can wear students out What the attention research measured, and what it means for your class period The one question that tells you if students are with you A silent routine that has students watching your every move What one dot on a piece of student work can teach the whole class ...

Should schools ban AI or teach it? In September 2026, New York City banned student AI tools from pre-K through eighth grade, while the UAE, China, India, and Alabama moved to teach AI instead. Vicki Davis talks with two educators who use AI every day and think what we've all been teaching teachers about AI is already out of date. Christie Cloud is an instructional technology facilitator in Harnett County, North Carolina, and a founding member of EduGuardians. Dave Hinrichs is Director of Digital Platforms and Pedagogy for Johnston County Public Schools. Together they wrote a chapter in The Educators' AI Guide 2027. They explain why you should stop worrying about prompt engineering and just talk to AI, why you don't always need the most powerful model, how agentic AI works, what tokens are, how to fact-check AI, why they avoid AI detectors, and how to talk with students about integrity when AI can make higher grades than they can. Vicki closes with three takeaways, a heads...

If an AI site promises it won't "share your data," should you believe it? Well, first of all, there's a reason I put that in quotes! Our guest today, Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth, is an attorney with a law degree from Duquesne University, a classroom teacher with a doctorate in instructional technology, and the author of 10 books. Her answer is no, and she explains why. Today we dig into safety, protecting students by protecting their personally identifiable information (PII), and making smart use of AI. What you'll learn: The one thing Rachelle checks before she trusts any "we don't share your data" promise The surprising details that count as personally identifiable information Whether what you type into AI really stays in your account How far back one school data breach turned out to reach Who could be liable when a teacher accidentally shares student information Why educators are in the best position to teach students what not to type Discla...

Schools are funny. The weirdest things happen. But even in the midst of all of that hurry and scurry, we still have jobs to do, and AI for teachers can help get things done. Maurie Beasley, author of Teachers Have Bigger Fish to Fry, has some great perspectives to share with teachers. Maurie is a former teacher, counselor, and assistant principal who now directs technology for a rural Texas district. She shares how you can still figure out the best uses of AI even when you have bigger fish to fry! What you'll learn: What happened when a snake fell out of the air conditioning vent onto a teacher's desk The difference between efficiency AI and opportunity AI, and which one to start with Why her book skips the AI's bad answers, and what she printed instead The question Maurie says AI is finally making us ask about being human Who should be in control when the laptop lid goes up Show notes and full transcript: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e1013 If this episode help...

I asked Gemini Notebook (formerly known as NotebookLM) a dress-code question, and it gave me the answer and the page number from our handbook. Vickie Echols says the turning point for her was when she was barreling through the hallway and the teacher she was with stopped and asked her, "Ms. Echols, do you always walk this fast?" That moment was a turning point for Vickie, and when she saw AI, she wondered how she could save time on tedious tasks to make more time for human moments, so she wrote AI for School Leaders: 62 Ways to Lighten Your Workload and Focus on What Matters. Vickie has lots of ideas, including how to fix tone in emails, how a superintendent used Gemini Notebook (formerly known as NotebookLM) to summarize meetings for board members, and the usefulness of Gemini Notebook when you're answering handbook questions (this tip is for teachers and administrators!). Show notes, the full transcript, and links: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e1012 In this episod...

If you're like me, you might have seen these nightmare "restorative practices" videos making the rounds on social media. I put restorative practices in quotes because seeing a kid misbehave, get a lollipop, and go back to class with no consequences seems like insanity to me; nothing is restored, and I would argue that, if that's what is happening, it is making the relationship worse. So, when I read Amanda Jamerson's story (she won the 2026 National High School Assistant Principal of the Year), I knew her story would give us some insight. Amanda, or "AJAM the Advocate" as she's called online, tells how her team cut office discipline referrals by 69% over three years and how they built a cell phone policy that is actually working on a five-building campus. I also like that she calls her work "heart work" because it is. Show notes, the full transcript, and links: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e1011 In this episode, you'll learn: Why...

Teachers, IT coaches, and principals can get excited and present at a conference, and then it happens: side jobs for teachers come calling. People start asking them to speak. They get opportunities. But how do you handle this? Today's guest, Dr. Will Deyamport (we call him "Dr. Will"), the author of The Edupreneur, talks about building an education business the right way. From disclosures to avoiding conflicts of interest (there are some things you can't do) to owning your own IP, Dr. Will's advice is solid and timeless. In this episode, you'll learn: The hard moment when Dr. Will realized he needed to have an opportunity on the side Why I don't like calling it a "side hustle" What you need to do before you cash your first check The criticism Dr. Will got for talking about money and how he answered it Why T-shirts and stickers shouldn't be payment for your work When working with an edtech company becomes a conflict of interest The q...

What are the learning myths we need to abandon? What does the neuroscience say? Today's guest, Ross McGill, author of The Teacher Toolkit Guide to the Science of Learning, shares his findings. If your students highlight every page and call it studying, or your school plans lessons around learning styles, you'll want to hear this. What does the science of learning say actually works? In this episode, you'll learn: The simple question about learning that many teachers can't answer What a student is really telling you when they say, "Miss, what did you say?" The myth Ross once had to plan his own lessons around What helped my son learn to read, and why it isn't a learning style The chapter Ross calls the most frightening in his book Why a student who "highlighted everything" may have wasted the evening The one step Ross added to think-pair-share, and why it matters with 30 students Guest: Ross Morrison McGill, founder of TeacherToolkit a...

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...

Dr. Patricia Dickenson, author of Smart Teaching in the Age of AI, shows how teachers can use AI to plan and differentiate without losing the heart of teaching. Relationship is still one of the top factors driving student success. Part of using AI is knowing when to use it and when to put it away. Patricia has a third option for every teacher torn between using AI for everything and banning it altogether: let AI carry some of the planning load, so you have more time for what only you can do, which is connecting with your students. She spent more than 18 years in Los Angeles classrooms and now prepares new teachers, so her advice comes with examples you can use this week. In this episode, you'll learn: What did a fourth-grade teacher going through chemo teach Patricia about showing up? The custom GPT that tells a brand-new teacher what students should already know before the first lesson Never taught a student with auditory processing disorder? How AI can help you plan for the...

Kathy Nimmer is the 2026 Helen Keller Achievement Award winner. Her story is so heartwarming that, to celebrate episode 1001, we're airing an extended episode focused on the heart of teaching. The story of her first year teaching is incredible and one we should all hear. If you've been there, you know how quickly a first-year teacher's confidence can shatter. For Kathy Nimmer, a blind high school English teacher, a classroom window shattered too, and it changed how she taught. Kathy tells how a chaotic first year taught her to bring her authentic self to the classroom, how being blind helped her see her students from the heart, and about the teacher mentorship program she helped create with her district to improve teacher retention. Her positive observations are truly inspiring. In this episode, you'll learn: Why hiding who you are backfires in the classroom How the SEEDS new teacher program supports teachers first and offers PD second Affirmative observations: an...

Thank you so much! It was February 2017 when I took a day off school to "figure out" how to publish this podcast. I started by telling the story of " Sue and Mrs. Scruggs " and I had no idea what I was doing. I only knew that a 5-day-a-week podcast where teachers, administrators, and those who love kids could get a quick idea every day could be a really good service to education. There are so many amazing stories of teachers, and most of them are too busy or just not called to have a podcast. I didn't want another "talking head" show, as I just wanted to interview people! So, this episode is not only a thank you, but it is also my son asking me questions. I let John, my son and editor, take this show where he wanted. He asked some pretty personal questions but that was ok. It is good to get the personal stories behind all of it, and here you go. I'm so glad I get to do this work. I appreciate all of you who listen, share the show with your friend...

Productive struggle is the sweet spot between too easy and too hard. Dr. Barbara Blackburn, author of more than 40 books on rigor and motivation, explains when to help a struggling student and when to hold back, so kids can wrestle with hard work without drowning. On this Thought Leader Thursday, Barbara shares her structured definition of productive struggle, why students read too-easy work as a sign the teacher doesn't respect them, and the simple "count to 20" habit that keeps teachers from rescuing too soon. She walks through an upper elementary science task where students build the strongest bridge they can from classroom items, and she gives a strategy any teacher can use tomorrow: mischievous misconceptions. In this episode, you'll learn: What productive struggle is, and why it still includes scaffolding and support The two things that drive intrinsic motivation: value and success Why to count to 20 before you step in, and the "show me what you tried...

New teacher advice from a three-time Teacher of the Year. Retired fifth-grade teacher Eric Hall spent 27 years in the classroom, and he says it starts with relationships before rigor. Build trust first, and the curriculum comes easier. On this Wonderful Classroom Wednesday, Eric, author of Controlled Chaos: Lessons They Didn't Teach You in Teacher School , shares how he got to know students and families before the first day of school, why his first call home is always a positive one, and how he let students help write the classroom agreements. He also tells how a weekend plane ride brought a chapter of Hatchet to life, and how a French chef with a falling-off mustache finally taught his class adjectives. In this episode, you'll learn: Why relationships come before rigor, and how trust makes the curriculum easier to teach How to connect with students and parents before the first day of school The "first call home is positive" habit, and how to find one good thin...

Frustrated with AI? Make it interview you first. Dr. Jie Tao of Fairfield University explains why "prompt and pray" gives you brilliant answers one day and useless ones the next, and how a few simple habits get you consistent, reliable results. On this Tech Tool Tuesday, Jie shares the interview pattern he calls the most powerful prompting technique he teaches, how a "scratch pad" keeps AI working only from your information, and what agentic AI means for teachers. He also explains how his research team used a language model to help clinicians spot signs of suicidal ideation on social media. In this episode, you'll learn: Why "prompt and pray" frustrates teachers, and why consistent answers beat brilliant ones The interview pattern: tell AI "do not assume anything" and to ask you questions first How to use a scratch pad so AI works only from the information you give it Agentic AI vs. fully autonomous agents like OpenClaw, explained simp...

Teacher expectations shape what students believe they can do. Edward DeShazer was suspended more than 30 times and expelled three times. Today he leads a school that went from one star to four stars in six years. On this Motivational Monday, Edward explains the "believement gap": the distance between what a student believes about himself and what he can actually do. He shares the teacher who changed his path, and what his school does to help teachers and students feel like they belong. In this episode, you'll learn: What the believement gap is and how teacher expectations shape student success Why culture comes first and achievement follows: coffee every morning, a staff workout room, and Walking Wednesdays How relationships trickle down from school leaders to teachers to students "One Has Got to Go," a two-minute turn-and-talk for the end of class Why students (and teachers) need to feel both safe and seen Edward DeShazer is Executive Director of Grea...

When a student puts their head down, the question you ask next matters. Therapist and former high school teacher Charle Peck shares the one question to ask instead of "What's wrong with you?" and simple ways to support student mental health without becoming a therapist. Charle spent years teaching high school before becoming a clinical therapist, and she is the co-author of The Language of Behavior and Improving School Mental Health. On this Fab Idea Friday, she explains why your own well-being is part of the job, not one more thing on your to-do list, and why noticing is the first skill every teacher needs. She demonstrates a rapid reset, a 10- to 30-second activity that resets your energy and the whole room's. She also explains why she runs a reset with the whole class instead of singling out the one student who is struggling. And she shares a point every principal needs to hear: teachers won't refer a student unless they trust the referral system will help. ...

Why kids can't stop moving, and why some students can't sit still in class: an occupational and physical therapist explains the need behind the movement. 🏆 NUMBER 1 IN OUR COUNTDOWN OF THE TOP 10 EPISODES OF THE FIRST 1,000 — 46,509 downloads. Originally aired February 1, 2018 (episode 244). 📌 Full show notes, resources, and transcript: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e994 Suzanne Cresswell, an occupational and physical therapist, explains why the student who is always moving isn't necessarily misbehaving. Often, she says, that movement is a strategy the child has developed to keep their brain engaged. She explains the vestibular sense (feeling gravity) and the proprioceptive sense (feeling your muscles and joints), and why classroom planks, movement breaks, therapy balls, inflatable seat cushions, and flexible seating can help a busy child stay ready to learn. 🎯 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN • What a unique learner is, and why every classroom has one • Why "acting out...

Teaching is hard, and it keeps changing. Vicki Davis opens with the 200-question test she gave the second week of her first year — a disaster that made her ask what she actually wanted students to be able to do, and set off the chain of changes that led to the internationally recognized Flat Classroom Project. Then, a 2012 study of 242 teachers in the UK and the Netherlands: 93% and 96% of them believed the learning-styles myth, and the teachers who knew more general facts about the brain believed more of the myths, not fewer. So what do we do? We keep learning, and we check the evidence. Today is about encouraging us to learn and grow. Three educators show what that looks like. Ross McGill of Teacher Toolkit spent 18 months reading MRI research for his new book on the science of learning, and he used to confiscate fidget spinners — “maybe if I had been more evidence-based, I might have been a bit more compassionate.” He explains cognitive load in plain English, why learning styles do...

NUMBER 2 IN OUR COUNTDOWN OF THE TOP 10 EPISODES OF THE FIRST 1,000. This one goes all the way back to April 2017, when the show was brand new, and it has been downloaded 27,314 times — the second most-listened-to episode in the history of the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. Rob Donatelli, a high school business educator in York, Pennsylvania, brings five brain breaks you can run tomorrow with no prep and almost no supplies. A brain break, as Rob describes it, is a chance for students to step away from high-level processing, have some fun, and refocus so they can get back to learning at their highest potential. The five: a backward race through the room, 60-second pitches, Name Three Things, cell phone ping pong, and the penny arm flip. Each takes a few minutes. Several of them build the soft skills students rarely get to practice — talking, pitching, and thinking on their feet. Rob also answers the question every teacher has: what happens when someone walks in to observe and thinks you...

NUMBER 3 IN OUR COUNTDOWN OF THE TOP 10 EPISODES OF THE FIRST 1,000. This one originally aired January 31, 2022 and has been heard 27,058 times — the third most-listened-to episode in the history of the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. Lisa Hollihan Allen is a K-12 reading specialist and literacy interventionist, and she came on to talk about the thing nobody puts on a lesson plan: reading stamina. Not decoding. Not comprehension. The plain ability to keep reading. Her framing is the one that sticks. Most students have word recognition well before middle school, she says — and a lot of them still cannot sustain attention on a page. So they fake read. They look at the book, the eyes move, and nothing happens, and because it all goes on inside their heads it is almost impossible to catch during independent reading time. She gives five moves, drawn from her own classroom and from the work of Penny Kittle, Laura Robb, and NCTE: give them protected time, give them choice, get them conferencing...

Every AI story in the news right now has a human being at the center of it who looked twice. A reporter read the products on Teachers Pay Teachers. A community college chemistry teacher with a full course load read fourteen meta-analyses and found the research was rotten. MIT's own faculty said policing AI was poisoning their relationships with students. In this episode, Vicki Davis and John Davis open with what those stories have in common, and why "the human in the loop" is not a checkbox. It is a teacher. Then Kathy Nimmer tells her story. She taught high school English for 29 years, totally blind, and it started with a shattered window and a first year she calls "the Rocky Mountains." She is the 2015 Indiana Teacher of the Year, a National Teacher of the Year finalist, and this year the American Foundation for the Blind gave her the Helen Keller Achievement Award. She explains what it means to see students from the heart, how she built SEEDS, a program whos...

NUMBER 4 IN OUR COUNTDOWN OF THE TOP 10 EPISODES OF THE FIRST 1,000. This one originally aired in December 2021 and has been downloaded 26,813 times — the fourth most-listened-to episode in the history of the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. Dr. Douglas Fisher came on to talk about Rebound, the book he wrote with Nancy Frey, Dominique Smith, and John Hattie. The pandemic framing is dated. The research underneath it is not — and it answers a question every teacher still has: when a student is behind, do you go back, or do you go forward? Doug's answer is forward. The acceleration research says so, and it comes from a place most of us never look: gifted education. That literature has one finding that should stop you cold. On average, forty percent of instructional minutes are spent on things students already know. We call it review. Students identified as gifted have been telling us for decades what it actually is — boredom, dressed up as instruction. So you find out where students actu...

You do not have to be an AI expert to teach AI literacy. Laura Gray says nobody is one — and points to free, ready-to-teach lessons that work in any subject. SPONSORED: Experience AI, a co-developed program by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Google DeepMind, sponsored this episode. All opinions are my own and that of the guest. Experience AI is a free AI literacy program with ready-to-teach lessons  for ages 8 to 16 , in any subject. Laura asked some third graders how a smart speaker works. They told her the question gets recorded and sent to a human being who looks up the answer and speaks it back. Her own four-year-old told her a very short lady lives inside her phone. Children are building theories about these systems whether or not a screen ever comes into your classroom, which is the whole case for teaching this even if you never plug anything in. Laura's advice on the expertise problem is the part I keep repeating: nobody is an expert in AI, so sto...

NUMBER 5 IN OUR COUNTDOWN OF THE TOP 10 EPISODES OF THE FIRST 1,000. This one originally aired in 2021 and has been downloaded more than 25,000 times — the fifth most-listened-to episode in the history of the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. Thomas Arnett and the Christensen Institute surveyed nationally representative samples of teachers and administrators about what teaching actually looked like during the pandemic. The headline finding was brutal and clear: seventy-nine percent of hybrid teachers were running concurrent instruction — the room and the Zoom at once — and in the free-response comments they said flatly that it could not be done well. Hardest year of my career, said teachers who had been teaching for thirty years. But a small minority said the opposite. They said it worked. What they did differently is the whole reason this episode still matters five years later: instead of stretching one live lesson across two audiences, they built their lessons as online resources students...

Dr. Sarah Levine taught secondary English in a Chicago public school for ten years, where she founded a youth radio program to make writing feel real to her students. She is now a Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and Executive Director of the Stanford Teacher Education Program. In this episode she gives you the smallest possible version of an authentic audience — an audience of one — and it turns out that's enough. Her students record a memory about someone they love and give it to that person as a gift. Levine's research found that kids revise just as hard for that one listener as they would for public radio. Strong verbs, no cliches, concrete images — every rule of good writing gets more important when there's nothing to look at. This episode originally aired in 2021 and comes in at number six in our countdown of the top 10 episodes of the first 1,000. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why "who's going to read this besides you?" i...

Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath has lectured at Harvard, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Melbourne, and has worked with more than 150 schools around the world. In this episode he gives five findings from brain science that change what you do Monday — starting with the one most of us have backwards. Memory isn't built by how you put information in. It's built by how often your students pull it back out. This episode originally aired in 2019 and comes in at number seven in our countdown of the top 10 episodes of the first 1,000. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why rereading notes doesn't build memory, and what to do instead - Why students can't read your slides and listen to you at the same time - The attention threshold, and how to reset it every 10 to 15 minutes - How to find the story behind a fact so the fact sticks - Why facts have to come before skills, demonstrated with a cricket match you won't understand a word of Full show notes, resource...

Mastery learning is the driver's-test rule applied to school: if a student fails the test, they take it again until they pass. Jon Bergmann teaches that way, full time, in chemistry and physics. This is #8 in the Top 10 of the First 1,000, a two-week countdown of the most-downloaded episodes of the 10 Minute Teacher leading up to episode 1,000 on September 28, 2026. Jon Bergmann is one of the two teachers who started the flipped classroom movement — and he has spent the years since making the case that flipping was never the destination. Mastery was. He came back to the classroom in 2019 specifically to teach this way, and he wrote the how-to manual he wished he'd had. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why mastery learning is a simple idea most schools already accept everywhere except the gradebook - How an exchange student who arrived in January, with no chemistry background, accidentally proved flipped mastery could work - What a mastery unit looks like in physics — f...

Eight ways to engage every learner — recorded in 2021, and every principle still works. This was #9 in our all-time top 10 countdown, and it isn't a ten-minute episode: it's a full session of classroom principles and tools for re-engaging students. I've edited this one lightly to remove a few apps that no longer exist and to fix my numbering. But I left the AI ethics segment in on purpose. Back in 2021 — well before ChatGPT — educators were already teaching students to think about whether we should, not just whether we could. Those students got a head start, and that history is worth hearing. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why slow, steady progress ("innovate like a turtle") beats a total overhaul - How to relate before you educate — and the research behind why it works - Four ways to give students a safe channel to tell you how they're doing - How to bring students into evaluating your own teaching practices - What teaching AI ethics looked like ...

This is #10 in the Top 10 of the First 1,000 — a countdown of the ten most-downloaded episodes in the history of the 10 Minute Teacher, running weekdays through September 18. Ranked on total downloads including re-airs, this conversation with Michelle Blanchet has been heard 23,379 times . It originally aired on September 27, 2021 as episode 764 . I am re-airing it unchanged because the problem it solves did not go away. Michelle Blanchet, co-author of The Startup Teacher Playbook , teaches a method for figuring out the specific thing that is wrong — not the vague heavy feeling, but the actual named problem — so that you can make an improvement and feel forward progress. Social emotional learning is not just for students. This one is about you. Show notes: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/are-you-an-upset-teacher-how-to-understand-what-is-wrong/     Check out this episode!

AI with intention. AI with integrity. Is it possible? Tony Frontier, author of AI with Intention , is talking about how we value learning in the age of AI. He shares the language we can use to evaluate what we're doing, how we're talking about AI, and how we're measuring learning, and ultimately, why education needs to change more than ever. Experience AI, a program co-founded by Raspberry Pi Foundation and Google DeepMind, sponsored this podcast episode. All opinions are my own.  http://experience-ai.org I also open this show with some highlights from the Report of MIT's Ad Hoc Committee on AI Use in Teaching, Learning, and Research Training and what it means for learning, and they use a term I think we should all be discussing: cognitive surrender. We cannot let our kids cognitively surrender and let AI do the work for them. They also talk about helping students understand that their learning, integrity, and judgment are the product of college, not the grades. So m...

Tim Plaehn is a teacher who writes about honor codes. In his writing class last April, he believed he had two students he knew used AI. So, he gave the whole class an opportunity to "come clean," and he said his email began dinging while 22 of the 40 students admitted they had used AI on their papers. Tim has authored the book, The Honor Code: Students, Integrity, and our Path Forward where he talks about integrity and how we need to be discussing integrity with our students. This is not an easy topic but an important one! Show notes: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e982 Experience AI, a program co-founded by Raspberry Pi Foundation and Google DeepMind, sponsored this podcast episode. All opinions are my own. http://experience-ai.org   Check out this episode!