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Chronic absenteeism doesn't get fixed by counting absences. It gets fixed by asking why. Dr. Leah Marsh is Assistant Principal at Niles Middle School in Ohio and one of three finalists in the country for the National Association of Secondary School Principals Middle Level Assistant Principal of the Year. Under her leadership, Niles Middle School reduced suspensions by 32% while attendance and engagement went up. She did not relax a single standard to get there. SPONSORED: Ellis, a program of Children's Health Council, sponsored this episode. All opinions are my own and that of the guest. In this episode she walks through what her team actually did: pulling the absence data apart until it named real causes — a bus-driver shortage was one — building a Check & Connect mentoring program that pairs struggling students with one adult in the building who is glad to see them, and opening a room called the Dragon Den where a student can re-regulate and go back to class instead of...

How do we help this next generation with their relationship to screens, to each other, and to the adults in their lives? That's the question we're digging into today. Betty Ray talks about rites of passage — those moments that help children move from one stage to the next. She also has a genius way to work with children so they gradually earn more responsibility with technology. Lawrence C. Harris is a 20-year-old who looks back on his time in high school just a couple of years ago. He rose out of a traumatic childhood to become successful instead of a statistic, and now he helps other kids move forward. He has tips for reaching kids like him — the ones who don't act out, but need our attention all the same. Finally, Luddite clubs and screen-free activities are growing fast, and — gasp — here's one for you: bridge! Yes, bridge clubs are growing, and Patty Tucker shares how the ACBL Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, will help you get the cards, the supplies, and the ...

Only 18% of principals say they feel very confident about leading AI this school year — but 7 in 10 schools are already immersed in figuring it out. SPONSORED: Ellis, a program of Children's Health Council, sponsored this week's shows on the 10 Minute Teacher. All opinions are my own and that of the guest. Ronn Nozoe, CEO of the National Principals Association, joins me to unpack a survey we ran together across his members and my Classroom Matters subscribers. What we found is more encouraging than the headline number suggests: the schools making progress with AI aren't the ones with all the answers. They're the ones where principals and teachers are figuring it out side by side. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why only 18% of principals feel "very confident" leading AI — and why overconfidence would be the real warning sign - What 7 in 10 schools are already doing, and what the other 3 in 10 say they're waiting on - The number one thing principa...

Your student has an IEP all the way through high school. Then they graduate — and it doesn't go with them. Dr. Toby Tomlinson Baker was diagnosed with a learning disability in 1987, attended six different schools between kindergarten and twelfth grade, and was told by her guidance counselors not to bother applying to college. She has a PhD. In this episode she explains what actually changes the day a student walks off a high school campus, why the accommodations you fought for don't automatically transfer, and how to teach a student to ask for what they need before anyone makes them. In this episode, you'll learn: - What legally changes when a student moves from high school to college — and why a university can say no - Why self-advocacy is a skill you teach, not a personality trait a student either has or doesn't - What Dr. Baker found when she interviewed college professors about disability law for her dissertation - Why the accommodation that helps one student u...

Most teachers reaching for AI to help with a struggling student are reaching for the wrong kind of AI. General-purpose chat tools pull from the open internet, they were never trained on whether the information is accurate, and they should be nowhere near a student's personally identifiable information. Natalie Tamburello, a learning disability and education equity advocate at Children's Health Council, walks through what a teacher-facing AI built on vetted research actually looks like — and why she thinks that is where the real classroom wins are right now. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why "just ask ChatGPT" falls short when a student is struggling with behavior, learning, or the emotional side of school - What RAG (retrieval augmented generation) is, and how pulling from a curated library of vetted nonprofit resources changes the answer you get - Why the first question a good tool asks you is "what are this student's strengths?" - How to de...

Boundaries are not a heavy conversation you need a degree to have. They are small, repeated moments — and the right words handed to a child before they need them. Ashley Bendiksen, author of A Kids Book About Boundaries, shows teachers what to say. Ashley Bendiksen is a national speaker and abuse prevention advocate who spent years talking to teens about dating violence. Then she moved earlier. Her book for children ages five to nine teaches the skill underneath all of it: knowing you have a choice, and having the words to say so. In this conversation she shows what that looks like in an elementary classroom — the two-option choice, the "I don't like that" script, the pause to ask "did we ask first?" — none of which requires adding anything to your lesson plan. We also talk about your boundaries, because teaching is high-burnout work and we are modeling something for kids either way. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why boundaries are emotional and socia...

Two women were named a 2026 National Principal of the Year — and when you ask them how they did it, they both use the same word: love. In part two of this leadership series, Vicki Davis talks with Amanda Jamerson, associate principal at Shorewood High School in Wisconsin and the 2026 National High School Assistant Principal of the Year, about the restorative discipline framework that cut office referrals by 69 percent, a cell phone policy that actually worked, and why she calls all of it heartwork. Then Sonia E. Ruiz, principal of Jane Addams Middle School in Bolingbrook, Illinois and the 2026 National Middle Level Principal of the Year, explains how she built a middle school where English learners and students with IEPs make real, measurable gains — and why she leads con corazón, with heart. Show notes and full transcript: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/becoming Cool Cat Teacher Talk episode:

Jerry Kolber built Nat Geo's Brain Games and Netflix's Brainchild — then moved his team off screens entirely. In this episode he explains why, and what teachers are doing with kids' podcasts that he never planned for. The practical piece: transition time. Coming back from lunch or recess, a short episode gets students seated, listening, and settled without a single reminder — and they don't notice they're learning. Jerry also shares how mini quizzes every three or four minutes train attention, and why "co-listening" — making a show adults genuinely enjoy — is a deliberate design choice. Then the conversation turns. Vicki and Jerry talk through what happens when AI-generated audio floods the feed, and land on the question that actually matters: if a show gets something wrong, is there a human on the other end who can fix it? In this episode, you'll learn: - Why transition time is the highest-value slot for a short podcast in your day - How question...

For twenty-five years we sent the struggling kid to the back of the room with headphones on. Todd Brekhus of Renaissance explains why that model broke personalized learning, and how teacher-facing AI hands the room back to you. Todd Brekhus is Chief Product Officer at Renaissance, General Manager of Nearpod, a former English teacher and technology director, and the creator of the myON literacy platform. We recorded this conversation at ISTE 2026. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why "personalized learning" quietly pushed teachers out of the loop, and what changes when you say "personalized teaching and learning" instead - How to pull last year's skill-level data and plan two paths before tomorrow's lesson - Why back-of-the-room intervention stigmatizes kids, and how to differentiate inside the core lesson - The case for a formative check every six to eight minutes without leaving your slides - Why Renaissance deliberately chose not to build studen...

Quantum computing is roughly where AI was nine years ago. Dr. Nneka McGee has already taught it to five-year-olds — with a penny. Nneka is the founder of Muon Global, project lead and principal co-author of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning white paper "AI + Learning Differences," and the author of an ISTE Jump Start Guide on introducing AI to young learners. Her FETC session on quantum for educators is what convinced me this belonged on the show. Her argument is simple and hard to dodge: the technologies that will shape our students' careers are being built right now, states are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in them, and we are sending kids to college without the grounding to take those seats. As she puts it — there will be a breakthrough technology like ChatGPT in quantum at some point, and where will we be as educators if we didn't do what was necessary? Then she gets practical. You'll hear how she teaches superposition, entanglement, and coh...

Alice Keeler built the Educator AI Assistant — a Google Sheets add-on that collects no data — in two days. In this episode she talks about how she vibe codes with Gemini to create extensions and tools for teachers and the classroom. Vibe coding is all the rage and everyone is talking about it. But how do you actually do it? This conversation goes specifically to Gemini, surfaces the privacy issues we should be concerned about, and casts a vision for what school IT departments are becoming — or might need to become. Alice makes the case that if a district can describe the tool it needs, someone inside that district can build it — and know it is safe, because they made it themselves. She also talks about what it costs to own the thing you built, and the question worth asking about any tool you rely on: is anyone still maintaining it? This was recorded in the middle of last year. The tools have changed and they will keep changing. The principles underneath — how we protect student priv...

A struggling Title I school built its culture around the 7 Habits — and the academics followed. Principal Muriel Summers tells how. In 1999, Muriel Summers became principal of A.B. Combs Elementary in Raleigh, North Carolina — the fifth person interviewed for a job four others had walked away from. She had just heard Dr. Stephen Covey speak, and she went back to her staff with one question: do you think we can teach these habits to children? There was no framework. There was no money. What they built turned A.B. Combs into the original Leader in Me school and one of the most visited schools in the world. Muriel is now Global Ambassador for the Leader in Me, co-author of the updated The Leader in Me, and co-author with David K. Hatch of the new book Teacher Believed in Me. This is a Motivational Monday conversation for every educator heading back to school. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why Muriel fixed the school's culture first and let the academics follow — "you d...

Leadership is not a personality you're born with. It can be learned — and if it can be learned, it can be taught. In part one of a two-part series, Vicki Davis talks with Ronn Nozoe, CEO of the National Principals Association (formerly NASSP), about what principals across the country actually told us about AI in their schools — and why the number one thing they need isn't a tool, it's time. Then Muriel Summers describes taking a struggling Title I elementary school and rebuilding it around a single conviction: every person in that building is a leader, including the five-year-olds who interview teacher candidates. The thread running through both conversations is the idea Vicki's mother gave her — make your to-be list before you make your to-do list. Character before tactics. Identity before activity. In this episode, you'll learn: • Why "time" — not training, not tools, not money — is what principals say they need most right now, and what a leader can ac...

Free, ad-free BBC videos with ready-to-teach lesson plans — Bluey, leveled reading articles, dinosaur field trips, and a daily newsroom, all free for K-12. Kimmie Fink spent 13 years in the classroom and was named Puget Sound Teacher of the Year before becoming Senior Editor of the BBC Learning Hub. At her ISTE 2026 booth, teachers kept asking what the premium version costs. The answer: there isn't one. Everything is free. In this Fab Idea Friday episode, Kimmie walks through what a teacher can download and use tomorrow — and how a former teacher decides what belongs in a resource library she once wished she had. In this episode, you'll learn: Why the BBC Learning Hub holds the only licensed Bluey learning materials — 15 free lessons on friendship, feelings, and reading body language Where to find leveled reading articles pulled from BBC magazines, written at grades 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12 so every reader in the room can access the same content How the Walking with Dinosaurs v...

The moment you put a grade on something, it stops being formative. Starr Sackstein returns for her fourth 10 Minute Teacher appearance to make assessment practical — what formative really means, what to do with the data you're already collecting, and the strategies that work at the start, middle, and end of a lesson. Starr has spent more than two decades helping teachers move from traditional grading toward feedback that actually drives learning. Her newest book, Actionable Assessment, is co-authored with Michael McDowell. In this episode, you'll learn: - The one-word difference between assessment OF learning and assessment FOR learning — and why it changes everything - Why putting a grade on a formative task cancels the formative part - How the four corners strategy works, plus the Post-it note round that gives quiet students the floor - The most common assessment mistake teachers make: assessments that don't match what we're actually trying to assess - Why obse...

Timed tests don't make kids faster! These experts say timed tests make kids anxious and don't tell you what a child actually knows. Dr. Jennifer Bay-Williams and Dr. Gina Kling, co-authors of Math Fact Fluency: 60+ Games and Assessment Tools to Support Learning and Retention, explain what to do instead: low-stress card and dice games where nobody races anybody, and where watching kids play gives you better assessment data than any speed drill. Vicki shares why math facts in first grade were harder for her than calculus at Georgia Tech. (She also shares why her mom, who sat at the kitchen table with her, changed everything. Not everyone has that, so we need to do better!) In this episode, you'll learn: Why playing a game to learn basic facts isn't a reward day, it's best practice The three reasons Bay-Williams says timed tests need to be abandoned What students do when they're under time pressure (they drop back to counting) How to play Salute — the card ga...

The wow has to be secondary to the why. Meghan Freeman spent a year letting her staff play in VR before a single student put on a headset — and what they found changed how she designs immersive learning. Meghan Freeman, M.Ed., is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of IlluminateXR. Before that she founded and led Elite Academic Academy, where she bought 46 headsets for her staff and gave them an entire school year to explore, argue, and write the policy themselves. In this conversation she gets specific about what actually works: how to manage a room full of students who can't see the room, how long a first session should run, and the one question a teacher has to answer before booking the equipment. In this episode, you'll learn: What XR means and how VR, AR, and AI fit together in a classroom Why the "wow" of an immersive moment has to be secondary to the "why" The classroom-management controls that make group VR workable — spatial audio, seating, mute, and lockin...

Most principals say “data-driven” and mean test scores. Dr. Deborah Dennie means attendance, discipline, and climate too — and it changed her school. Dr. Deborah Dennie has led Leonardtown Middle School in St. Mary’s County, Maryland for ten years. She’s Maryland’s Middle School Principal of the Year and one of three middle-school finalists for the 2026 NASSP National Principal of the Year. In this episode she walks Vicki through the data routine she runs every two weeks, why she spent her entire first year looking and listening instead of changing things, and how a classic car show and a 94% attendance goal did more for her building than another round of test-score analysis. In this episode, you’ll learn: • Why her first year as principal was spent looking and listening, not changing anything • The every-two-weeks data review she runs with her assistant principals and resource teacher • How she identifies teachers above the building failure average — and the questions she sends t...

AI is already in your school—the real question is how to use it on purpose. In Part 3 of the ISTE 2026 AI & EdTech Super Series, recorded live in Orlando, Vicki Davis talks with three education leaders about implementing AI across a whole school while keeping the teacher at the center. Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Owoh makes the case that reaching kids still starts with relationship. Author Tony Frontier (AI with Intention) reframes the conversation from AI detection to learning detection. And Renaissance product chief Todd Brekhus explains why his team pulled student-facing AI back and built a tool that keeps the teacher in the middle. In this episode, you'll learn: Why a strong school technology policy runs toward AI, not away from it How to shift from catching cheaters to detecting real learning—through integrity, transparency, and explainability What students actually say about how much they use AI (and how little guidance they get) Why one edtech company pulled its stud...

Travel with students changes what a school leader sees. Karen Spencer, principal of Parkview Baptist School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, treats travel as part of her school’s mission rather than an add-on — a sixth grade overnight, a seventh grade STEM and history trip to Boston, Washington D.C. in eighth grade, and international travel in high school. In this conversation she walks through how the Boston trip started, what it costs a principal in effort, and what she gets back that nothing inside the building can give her. In this episode, you’ll learn: How a single teacher’s push to “bring more STEM to the school” became an annual seventh grade trip to Boston Why the trip grew from STEM-only into STEM, history and fun — MIT, Harvard, robotics, the Freedom Trail, Lexington and Concord What a grade-by-grade travel ladder looks like when each grade builds on the last What hands-on learning looks like abroad — cooking classes, flamenco lessons, hiking and biking Karen’s honest answe...

Host Vicki Davis takes her microphone onto the floor at ISTE 2026 in Orlando for Part 2 of the ISTE AI and EdTech Supershow. Karim Meghji, President and CEO of CodeAI — the nonprofit formerly known as Code.org — argues that AI literacy belongs in every classroom, and that the goal is students who can question an answer, not just generate one. Kimmie Fink, a thirteen-year classroom veteran now senior editor at the BBC Learning Hub, walks through free resources teachers can use tomorrow. And Brandie Wright tells the story of the student from her ISTE keynote — a real child that audience members assumed was invented by AI. Cool Cat Teacher Talk episode:

ISTE 2026  Buzz + AI assessment + space education: the conversations every teacher is having this summer, with Dr. Carmalita Seitz, Steve Swanson, and Dr. Mark Wagner. This summer’s biggest ed-tech conversations in one show. Dr. Carmalita Seitz of ISTE+ASCD previews what everyone will be talking about at ISTE 2026 — AI, instructional leadership, the tech backlash, “brain rot,” and the return of project-based learning. High school engineering teacher Steve Swanson built his own AI grading tool, ClassLens — then deleted the one-button auto-grade feature because every grade should pass through a teacher’s eyes. And Dr. Mark Wagner, author of Space Education, shows why the growing space economy needs every kind of learner. In this episode, you’ll learn: - What teachers actually take home from ISTE 2026 — and why to lead with good teaching, not the tool - Why “human in the loop” matters for AI grading, and the privacy questions to ask first - How to vet an AI tool’s data handling (...

Gold standard PBL isn’t a fun project with a poster at the end. Lisa Mireles of PBLWorks explains what a real project based learning classroom looks and sounds like — and how to teach it without falling behind on standards. Lisa Mireles, Ed.D., is Managing Director of Digital Curriculum at PBLWorks (formerly the Buck Institute for Education). She’s taught bilingual students in California, led schools in Indonesia and India, served as an IB coordinator, principal, and assistant superintendent, and was named HIDOE Kaua’i Complex Educational Officer of the Year in 2018. In this episode, you’ll learn: • What the Gold Standard framework actually contains — seven essential project design elements plus seven project based teaching practices — and why a great project still fails without the teaching moves • What you see and hear in a gold standard PBL classroom: a productive buzz, a project wall with the driving question and milestones, students returning to their need-to-knows, teachers c...

AI in the classroom isn't a tool problem — it's an assignment problem. Dr. Nancy Frey on designing work students can't fake. Dr. Nancy Frey — professor of educational leadership at San Diego State and teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College — joins Vicki Davis for a practical conversation about what actually changes in a classroom when every student has AI. Not which app to use. What to assign, what to collect, and what to teach kids to verify. Nancy's newest book, Teaching Students to Use AI Ethically & Responsibly, is co-authored with Salman Khan, Douglas Fisher, James Marshall, and Meghan Hargrave. In this episode, you'll learn: - How to build verbal assessment into a classroom that has 180 students — including a Google Docs workaround when face-to-face isn't practical - Why you should collect the student's dialogue with the chatbot, not just the finished product - How lateral reading — Sam Wineburg's method — transfers dire...

Most teachers know AI belongs in their classroom — almost nobody tells them where to start if they don't teach computer science. Karim Meghji, President and CEO of CodeAI (the nonprofit formerly known as Code.org), gives the answer at ISTE 2026. Vicki took one of Karim's classes on the ISTE show floor before this conversation — including a lesson that asks AI to generate a "healthy meal" and then hands students the cultural bias in the result to talk about. That design choice is the whole episode: students don't learn what AI gets wrong by being told, they learn it by watching it happen and then discussing it. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why CodeAI rebranded from Code.org — and what "glass box instead of black box" means for how you teach - Why Karim's teams deliberately build lessons where the AI answers incorrectly - The question he wants every student asking: who is in control — you or the AI? - What sits behind free student AI tool...

You gave the directions. You were clear. You wrote them on the board. Half the class still did it wrong — here's the reason why. Dr. Jeff Bogaczyk, head of school at Christian Life School in Kenosha, Wisconsin, holds a Ph.D. in rhetoric and studies media ecology — how our communication technologies shape the way we think, relate, and learn. In this Motivational Monday conversation, he explains the cognitive bias that quietly sabotages teacher-to-student communication, and what one school does about it on purpose. In this episode, you'll learn: The curse of knowledge: a 1990 Stanford study asked people to tap out a familiar song's rhythm — and revealed why what's obvious to you is noise to everyone else The illusion of transparency: why we assume other people know what we're thinking and feeling, and what that assumption costs in a classroom The repetition rule one head of school gives his teachers: the moment you're sick of saying it is the moment they...

How do you teach about space in any classroom—not just science? Dr. Mark Wagner says space is the ultimate hook for engagement, and the growing space economy means every student needs to understand it. In this conversation, the CEO of Aries Learning and author of Space Education shares why space belongs in every subject, the mindsets students need, and simple ways to bring exploration into your room this week. In this episode, you'll learn: Why the space economy (projected to reach $1 trillion by 2030) touches nearly every career How satellites and Starlink already shape agriculture, GPS, and global internet access The four mindsets Mark teaches: explorer's mindset, moonshot thinking, design thinking, and operational mindset Low-cost, hands-on ways to let students explore—from a simple map to student-built payloads What the "overview effect" teaches students about caring for our planet Full show notes, links, and resources: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e954...

Choosing a dissertation topic? Dr. Maggie Broderick shares "servant scholarship" — how to pick research that helps real teachers and students instead of just checking a box. In this conversation, Dr. Maggie Broderick — associate professor at National University, dissertation chair, and editor of the International Journal of Online Graduate Education — joins Vicki Davis to explore how doctoral students and classroom teachers alike can choose research with a servant's heart. In this episode, you'll learn: What "servant scholarship" is and why your motivation ("your why") shapes better research How to support teachers of less commonly taught subjects who often feel isolated Why connecting research to practice — and policy — matters more than just "learning the ropes" How researchers can keep a servant's heart even when funding is involved Encouragement for anyone weighing a PhD or EdD Full show notes and resources: https://www....

Project-based social studies ideas students never forget — from 2026 New Hampshire Teacher of the Year Megan Philbrook, whose students secretly nominated her for the award. Megan Philbrook teaches social studies to grades 5 through 8 in rural New Hampshire, where her students wrote, directed, and filmed their own play on Ancient Rome, podcast about the American Revolution, and research WWII veterans buried fifteen miles from their school. In this conversation she shares how project-based learning and civic engagement make history unforgettable — and the classroom moves that made her students love her enough to nominate her for Teacher of the Year without telling her. In this episode, you'll learn: How to reuse last year's student projects to inspire this year's students A 30-second door-greeting ritual that starts every class with connection The "look through the window" rule for teaching controversial history without taking sides Where to find free state-l...

Can elementary students build their own apps? Two elementary teachers — Erin Keith and Edward Courtney — show how they use MAD-learn for gold-standard project-based learning, and how app-building teaches the soft skills that last long after the code. In this episode, you'll learn: How teachers with no coding background get started with app development Real student apps — from advocacy projects to digital portfolios to "Meet the Teacher" apps The soft skills students build: persistence, teamwork, and design thinking How to introduce AI to elementary students safely and thoughtfully Why moving students from app users to app creators changes engagement Full show notes and resources: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e951 This is a sponsored episode featuring MAD-learn. If this one helps you, share it with a teacher friend who's curious about coding with kids. Check out this episode!

What students achieve is tied to whether they feel valued — and the same is true for the teachers who serve them. In this Motivational Monday conversation, coach and author Debbie Simões (founder of Best Questers, co-author of High Five to Thrive ) shows teachers how valuing students transforms a classroom, even on the hardest days. Drawing on years in inner-city classrooms, Debbie shares how to see past a child's behavior to the person of value underneath, how to communicate to connect instead of to correct, and how to be a "hope agent" for yourself and your colleagues in a season of burnout and teacher shortages. In this episode, you'll learn: Why "communicate to connect" changes how kids respond to correction The difference between behavior-based praise and identity-based praise How to respond when a student is at their worst What it means to be a "hope agent" when your own tank is low The mantra that can transform a school: people of va...

Summer reading for teachers — 11 books I've highlighted over 6,800 times and keep coming back to. This Significant Saturday special is my personal summer list for educators and lifelong learners, spanning AI ethics, productivity, faith, and the classroom-management classics I hand every first-year teacher. In this episode, you'll learn: Why The Age of AI by Jason Thacker belongs at the top of a Christian educator's list The one big-picture idea from The Future Is Faster Than You Think that brings hope about technology Which books to reach for when you're feeling burned out or overwhelmed The productivity and knowledge-management book that changed how Vicki organizes ideas The two classroom-management classics worth giving every new teacher Pick just one or two — you don't have to read them all. Choose what speaks to where you are right now. Full list with links to every book: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e949 If this list pointed you to your next read, ...

Adobe Express and Canva are packed with AI tools that save teachers hours — Amy Storer shares the features her teachers love most. Innovative learning specialist Amy Storer (Montgomery ISD, TX) walks through the AI-powered tools inside Adobe Express and Canva that teachers and students are getting most excited about — from studio-style student podcasts to interactive games you can build without writing a line of code. She also shares a favorite bonus tool for creating step-by-step how-to guides, and closes with a word of encouragement for any teacher feeling buried by "all the things." In this episode, you'll learn: How Adobe Express's Create a Podcast and one-click Enhance make student podcasting simple Why Animate a Character is an easy win for your youngest learners and GT projects How Canva Code lets you build interactive, self-grading activities with no coding A hidden Canva presentation timer and how Scribe turns clicks into a how-to guide Amy's ...

Teacher burnout isn't weakness — it's disconnection. Michelle Singh shares how teachers can reconnect, set boundaries, and feel fulfilled again. Michelle Singh — National Board Certified Teacher, founder of The Restful Teacher, and CEO of LCT-E Learning Solutions — spent more than 20 years in the classroom and district leadership before her own burnout forced a change. In this honest conversation with Vicki Davis, she offers teachers a path back to the work they love. In this episode, you'll learn: Why teacher disengagement is an "iceberg" with far more below the surface How to serve from fulfillment instead of sacrifice The power of starting with acknowledgement How to build a support team so you're not doing it alone The "clarity audit" — a simple self-reflection tool you can try this week Why writing down small wins carries you through the hard days Full show notes and resources: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e947 Share this episode w...

Why do we have to prove we're human in the age of AI? STEM educator and AI coach Brandie Wright shares the real story behind her ISTE main-stage talk on sparking curiosity — and why the presence of a teacher still matters. When Vicki first heard Brandie's story on the ISTE main stage, she wasn't sure the student was real — that's how believable AI-generated stories have become. This Wonderful Classroom Wednesday conversation is about curiosity, human connection, and the artisanship of teaching in an age when a kid alone with a screen simply isn't enough. In this episode, you'll learn: How "crew" — school-family grouping — builds the relationships that spark curiosity Why one student calls the whiteboard marker "magical" What teachers misunderstand about where AI's believable stories actually come from Why small classes and real human connection matter more than ever Three quick ways to spark curiosity in your own classroom Full ...

Steve Swanson built an AI grading tool — and then deleted the feature that would have returned AI-generated grades straight to students. He's a high school engineering teacher who was staring down 150 assignments after a field-trip week, and he built ClassLens because he needed it for his own gradebook. But when he got to the point where he could push one button and have everything graded and sent back automatically, it felt wrong. So he took the button out. In this Tech Tip Tuesday conversation, Steve makes the case for "human in the loop" — not as a buzzword, but as the actual job of teaching. He also answers a question he pitched to me by email, and it's the right one: what is the single question every teacher should ask before letting an AI tool grade student work? In this episode, you'll learn: The 30-second checklist to run before you let AI grade a stack of student work The one question to ask any vendor about where student data goes — and what "t...

Hope isn't just a feeling — it's a practice you can build. Psychologist and author Dr. Julia Garcia ( The 5 Habits of Hope ) joins Vicki Davis to redefine hope as something educators can practice, even in the hardest seasons. Recorded shortly after Vicki lost her father, this is an honest, encouraging conversation about hopelessness, grief, and the small habits that help us hold on to hope. In this episode, you'll learn: Why we experience hope as a feeling — and how to practice it instead The habit of reflection: pausing long enough to connect with something real The habit of receiving: learning to name and accept support How to reshape the thought patterns that keep us stuck How to keep teaching and creating through grief Full show notes and transcript: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e944 If this episode encouraged you, share it with a teacher friend who needs a little hope today. Check out this episode!