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Toby Karten on episode 210 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter We can include every child in our classroom with these five important reminders from inclusion expert, Toby Karten. Children are precious and important. These reminders can help us all be better teachers. PowerSchool is my SIS and LMS and is the sponsor of today’s show. On January 31, they have a free webinar “ Preparing Students for Success: Measuring What Matters ” . Jake Cotton, a superintendent from Virginia, will be sharing. Listen Now Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Stream by clicking here . Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading pleasure. All comments in the shaded green box are my own. For guests and hyperlinks to resources, scroll down. *** Enhanced Transcript 5 Ideas to Include Every Child Link to show: http://ift.tt/2rJXftX Date: January 26, 2018 Vicki: Hello! Today we’re talkin...

Day 22 of 80 Days of Excellence From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter If you had a nasty rat in your house — would you feed it? Would you make a comfortable place for it to nest? Would you welcome it? Or would you TRAP IT and kill it and get it out? I hope you’d trap that Rat. Well, we all have RATs — “really awful thoughts” according to Tommy Newberry in his book The 4:8 Principle: The Secret to a Joy-Filled Life . Today let’s talk about dealing with those thoughts, those RATs that steal our joy. While most of us understand why we don’t want rats in our house, many of us let RATs run around in our minds. We feed these Really Awful Thoughts by thinking about them. We talk about them. We wake up in the night and relive them. Small things become so big! Big things become behemoths. 9 Sources of Really Awful Thoughts These are broken thought patterns, but don’t need to break us. The first step to catching a rat is to find out where it is!...

Jennifer Ann Aquino on episode 239 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter Every student is different. Finding the “perfect” college is different for every student. Don’t fall into the common traps of college admissions. Jennifer Ann Aquino talks about helping every college-bound student find their personal fit. PowerSchool is my SIS and LMS and is the sponsor of today’s show. On January 31, they have a free webinar “ Preparing Students for Success: Measuring What Matters ” . Jake Cotton, a superintendent from Virginia, will be sharing. Listen Now Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Stream by clicking here . *** Enhanced Transcript College Admissions Tips and How To’s for Parents and Teachers Link to show: www.coolcatteacher.com/e239 Date: January 25, 2018 Vicki: Today we’re talking with Jennifer Aquino, the author of The International Family Guide to US University Admissions . J...

A Next Generation Science Standards Aligned Lab Activity (FREE) From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter UL Xplorlabs is making the world a safer place through science. For example, their Fire Forensics: Claims and Evidence unit is a safe way to educate middle school students about fire. This unit teaches about fire while meeting Next Generation Science Standards. Generally speaking, this free interactive STEM lab takes 2-4 days to complete and includes extension science experiments that you could add to the unit. This blog post is sponsored by UL Xplorlabs. Fire Forensics: A Free STEM Module for Middle School Science The Fire Forensics: Claims and Evidence module is designed to “provide students with the understanding of fire, fire dynamics, and fire behavior so that they can read a fire scene and build a claim for the fire’s location of origin and cause.” As it has been noted, UL (Underwriters Laboratories), the creator of Xplorlab...

Josh Eby on episode 238 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter Josh Eby shares how he uses inquiry-based learning in his history classroom. He also discusses how he’s become a better teacher after returning to the classroom after 12 years in administration and why it was one of the best decisions he’s ever made. Happy Wonderful Classroom Wednesday — teachers of all subjects will learn some ideas from this one. (Including how long we need to wait when asking a question! PowerSchool is my SIS and LMS and is the sponsor of today’s show. On January 31, they have a free webinar “ Preparing Students for Success: Measuring What Matters ” about preparing students for success and measuring what matters. Jake Cotton, a superintendent from Virginia, will be sharing. Listen Now Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher Stream by clicking here . Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading ple...

Day 20 of 80 Days of Excellence From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter The trees grew long and tall in the protected biodome. Scientists marveled at their beauty, rapid growth, and height. There was only one problem. The trees were weak. They were weak because there was no wind in the biodome. The biodome was protective, so no storm ever battered these trees. No Storm, No Strength Scientists discovered that trees without wind or weather had no strength. For in the wind and storm, trees develop deeper roots. As they are battered, the wood grows thicker. Much like us. While it would be nice to have no wind or storms in our lives, that is not life. Life is full of storms. Some of the strongest people I know have been blasted by the worst storms. Death. Illness. Betrayal. Hurt. Loneliness. Bullying. Unkindness. These things do not need to ruin us. They can drive us deep. In our family, when we are battered, we ask if we’re driving our li...

Day 21 of 80 Days of Excellence From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter As I learned in one business in particular when I was just out of college, squeaky wheel syndrome can infect an organization. So, we’ve all heard the saying, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” This means that the person who fusses or argues or pitches a fit is often the one that gets what they’re asking to receive. And certainly, there’s something to be said for asking for what you need and being persistent. Agreed. But there’s a difference between persistence and bad behavior, rudeness, or tantrums. Pay Attention When we are leaders (or parents or teachers), we must be very careful. There are people, by nature, who ask for what they need but they do not yell. They do not scream. They do not stomp their feet. They do not behave badly. They don’t squeak. However, if these people who ask persistently without bad behavior exist in an environment that has “squeaky wheel...