Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

Teachers want to help students improve. But this is a time of year when many teachers struggle. Over on coolcatteacher.com there are ten posts that blew the doors off in popularity. Here are the top 10 Blog posts of October 2015 on the Cool Cat Teacher Blog. Teaching the Growth Mindsets with 10 Growth Mindset Statements 4 Writing Tips to Help the Writing Process Why Teachers Need to Keep Going Even When It's Hard How to Use Padlet: A Fantastic Tool for Teaching 15 Things Every Teacher Should Try this Year by Sylvia Duckworth Top 10 Education Tweets of the School Year So Far - Fall 2015 15 Best Google Drive add-ons for Education What to Do When Someone Hates You Notetaking Skills for 21st Century Students How to Make Google Chrome Faster, Better and Prettier

  "It's like I'm living someone else's life..." A Little Reflection before Getting Down to Business This just came on my Pandora radio station as I'm doing my monthly "file maintenance" and moving pages around. (See my Facebook posts on technology productivity for more on this.)  When I came to my presentations folder, I saw a journey. A journey of people and faces and places.  Those who gave me chances early on and things applied for - not knowing any better, I guess. So, here's a mini trip that shows you how people network and connect and improve their lives. Here's my screenshot journey of presentations. Bringing us to 2010.  So, I have some people to thank. My husband says in many ways I'm like an elephant... (Oh dear, he's not talking about weight!)   I remember.  And I think it is important for all of us to remember those who have helped us on our life journey. Who believed in us when no one else did? Who gave us cha...

In case some of you don't really know anything about me or think that somehow I've been doing this forever - this interview I did on Certification Map gives you some background (if you really wanted to know.) Shortened Version Reprinted from Certification Map  for the Long Version, please see their website : Vicki Davis teaches business and technology courses at Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia , which includes eighth grade Keyboarding, ninth grade Computer Fundamentals, tenth grade Introduction to Computer Science and a rotating series of electives including Current Events, Accounting, Digital Graphic Design, and Digital Filmmaking. Vicki is also the IT director for the school. Vicki has been teaching at Westwood for 7 years. Previously, she taught teachers and businesses how to effectively use technology in their careers and also taught adult technology courses for a local college. Below is our interview with Vicki: What inspired you to teach? My mother founded ...

It was exciting to see my friend Darren's post today about the announcing of the 2007 Edublog Awards . He had the honor of telling me that Cool Cat Teacher is a finalist for best teacher blog this year and that the Horizon Project is a finalist for best wiki ! (I'm not sure why I didn't get an e-mail from Josie, but I sent a quick message thanking her and included a description of my blog.) It is also exciting that TechLearning has been nominated for best group blog . Congratulations to all of the finalists! It is great company that I'm allowed to keep! I hope you'll review the nominations and vote! You'll also find some great reading in there for your RSS reader! Why it means so much to me! This nomination means a lot because it means that there are some of you out there who like my blog! (I have a personal policy to NEVER nominate myself for an award.) Blogging in the Trenches of Life As I'm sitting here watching a JV basketball game (we're ...