10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher

Classroom culture defines your classroom. You can feel a classroom culture, but what is a classroom culture? How do you build a positive classroom culture? In this show, Andrew Sharos, author of Finding Lifelifes: A Practical Tale about Teacher and Mentors, shares how to create a thriving classroom culture. He also talks about creating positive classroom habits. Furthermore, you'll learn how he measures the success of his classroom culture. See transcript and additional resources in the show notes at https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e773 Sponsor: Advancement Courses Voting is now open in the Advancement Courses’ Tournament of Teachers bracket challenge. Would you rather teach Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter or Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Ferris Bueller or Bart Simpson? From now until March 30, you’ll have a chance to vote for which character you want to see advance through each round and see the winners announced on March 31. So, go to https://www.coolcatteacher.com/tournament to get your votes in and start playing. Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

You can have the first day back to school activities any day of the year. We all need classroom management tips and first-day back stations are one of those you can use any time of the year. Right now, this is more important than ever as classrooms return from quarantine, teachers handoff substitute teachers, students come back to school from spring break, or a classroom may get off track and need a fresh start. First-day back stations are a teaching tactic to add to your tool belt so you can help reestablish the procedures that give the order that students need and crave. See the full blog post, podcast, and transcript: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e772 Sponsor: Voting is now open in Advancement Courses’ Tournament of Teachers bracket challenge. Would you rather teach Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter or Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Ferris Bueller or Bart Simpson? From now until March 30, you’ll have a chance to vote for which character you want to see advance through each round and see the winners announced on March 31. Go to www.coolcatteacher.com/tournament to get your votes in and start playing. Angelina Murphy is a secondary English language arts teacher based in Los Angeles. She is a National Board Certified Teacher and has a master’s degree in education from UCLA, where her focus was on trauma-informed teaching, ethnic studies, and community-grounded praxis.  Twitter: @magicalmsmurphy Instagram @magicalmsmurphy Edutopia: https://www.edutopia.org/profile/angelina-murphy Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The harsh reality of classroom life is that students and teachers both report lower motivation and morale right now. We must reengage students! Games can help us! SEL games can help you teach social-emotional learning skills and life skills. Today’s expert, Dr. Matthew Farber, gives us an interesting twist on games by integrating them with SEL. He has practical ideas for understanding and using game-based learning in the classroom.  Games make a great addition to every teacher's toolkit. From board games, in-class games, or video games, students love them! So, let me encourage you to take some time to learn about SEL games today in this podcast.   8 Actions Teachers Can Take After Reading this Post and Listening to This Podcast Understand that parents do not typically like the term social-emotional learning and prefer the term “life skills” but as you teach life skills, they want to partner with teachers in the process. Understand games can be a powerful way to teach life skills Find some games to try with students in class Understand the concept of asymmetrical game design and how it can teach teamwork. Educators should look for games with asymmetrical design as they test games for the classroom. Understand the concept of situational game design and how it can open up conversation in the classroom. Understand that the Nintendo switch can be hooked to a projector and passed around the room to create conversations about situational games. Check out 16 links for game-based learning resources. Look at practical classroom resources to dig deeper into game-based learning and SEL Resources Transcript and Show notes: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e771 Thank You Advancement Courses: Thank you Advancement Courses for sponsoring today’s show. This month, Advancement Courses is kicking off their annual Tournament of Teachers bracket challenge where educators can win up to $2,000 in prizes. This year’s “Mischief-Makers Edition'' features some of the most incorrigible students from literature and film, including Draco Malfoy, Veruca Salt, Bart Simpson, and Ferris Bueller. From now until March 20, choose which mischief-maker you’d rather teach and submit your bracket in order to play. Then from March 21-30, you’ll have a chance to come back and vote for your favorites to advance. Enter now and you could win prizes like a $1,000 Amazon gift card and more. Visit www.coolcatteacher.com/tournament/  to learn more and submit your brackets!  

How do we accelerate learning? The US Department of Education Roadmap for Reopening Safely says that "accelerated learning provides opportunities for students to learn at grade level rather than through tracking or remediation….”  Simply put, acceleration “builds on what students know as a way to access new learning.” (Roadmap p 18) Sponsor: Advancement Courses Thank you Advancement Courses for sponsoring today’s show. This month, Advancement Courses is kicking off their annual Tournament of Teachers bracket challenge where educators can win up to $2,000 in prizes. This year’s “Mischief-Makers Edition'' features some of the most incorrigible students from literature and film, including Draco Malfoy, Veruca Salt, Bart Simpson, and Ferris Bueller. From now until March 20, choose which mischief-maker you’d rather teach and submit your bracket in order to play. Then from March 21-30, you’ll have a chance to come back and vote for your favorites to advance. Enter now and you could win prizes like a $1,000 Amazon gift card and more. Visit www.coolcatteacher.com/tournament/  to learn more and submit your brackets! This report also says that the pandemic negatively impacted math and widened achievement gaps. There is little doubt that many amazing kids are struggling to reengage with their learning progress. We cannot be content to let a generation of kids fall by the wayside. This is our watch and our duty and we have to work to do what is best. So, while some advocate acceleration for gifted kids, we need acceleration for all kids. It isn’t about “catching up” right now education is about reaching every child's potential. We would love to see this generation transcend and rise above the many challenges of our world. To get there, we must reengage. Acceleration research says it is a way to do that. Dr. Nancy Frey has researched Acceleration Research along with Douglas Fisher and shared their results in Rebound: A Playbook for Rebuilding Agency, Accelerating Learning Recovery, and Rethinking Schools. This episode is a companion to podcast episode 768 with Douglas Fisher about schools that rebound. This episode focuses specifically on acceleration research. See the transcript and full show notes at https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e770 

Reading stamina matters. Prior to the pandemic, nearly two-thirds of students in the US were not at or above grade reading level for grade 4,8, and 12 (NAEP). If that isn't bad enough, UNESCO found that more than half of children and adolescents were not even learning worldwide. Furthermore, in September 2020, UNICEF reported that 1 billion children worldwide aren't learning at all. With these big picture stats and stories coming from the classroom, teachers need advice on helping students develop reading stamina. In episode 769 and this blog post, we're going to dig into reading stamina, why it is important, and practical ways we can help our students progress with reading stamina. My goal is to create a useful resource that teachers everywhere can use to get started with building reading stamina. Today's guest is Lisa Hollihan Allen. Sponsor: Today’s sponsor, Literal is an app to help students in grades 6-12 engage with reading. The books literally are broken into text message-sized chunks making reading easier, plus Literal has classroom management features for teachers. Go to https://www.literalapp.com and use the promo code “coolcat” to get a free Educator account to try Literal in your classroom.  Show notes: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e769  

Acceleration research can teach us how to accelerate learning. Dr. Douglas Fisher, co-author of the best-selling book Rebound, Grades K-12: A Playbook for Rebuilding Agency, Accelerating Learning Recovery, and Rethinking Schools. Instead of learning loss, Dr. Fisher is advocating how we can accelerate learning. He reflects on what we have learned and how we can move forward together as we work to emerge (hopefully) from the pandemic. Show Notes: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e768 Today’s episode is sponsored by Tract. Tract will empower your students to develop 21st-Century Ready skills through project-based peer-to-peer learning. For a limited time, you can pilot Tract’s on-demand project-based classes and clubs free in your classroom. I am a project-based learning classroom and have joined the pilot. Request free access today at teach.tract.app with the access code COOLCATTEACHER. If you have students aged 8 or older, you’ll want to bring students into this self-directed project-based platform that will rock your classroom and their world.  See my review, 10 Ways to Personalize Project Based Learning with Tract. Try out Tract today! Related Episodes A 4 Part Distance Learning Framework that Works with Dr. Douglas Fisher Successful Distance Learning for Young Kids with Nancy Frey Dr. Douglas Fisher - Bio as Submitted Doug Fisher is professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High in San Diego, CA. He is the co-author of The Distance Learning Playbook, along with several other books. Blog: www.fisherandfrey.com Twitter: @DFISHERSDSU Youtube Channel: Fisher and Frey - YouTube     Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.  

"Really, we have to write?" say some students. No more! If you're working to engage your student in writing that is engaging and exciting, Dr. Sarah Levine from Stanford University has some practical ideas for you and your students. In this episode, you'll learn ways to engage students in writing using digital media. You'll also learn about an incredible idea "audio gifts" which you could use to support writing and gift giving for the upcoming holiday season. She also gives us the language for how to help students strengthen their writing with strong verbs and concrete language as they create their audio gifts. Sponsor: Defined Learning has engaging project-based lessons for your students., Take a look at the PBL tools & resources on Defined Learning with an online library of engaging hands-on projects, inspiring career-focused videos, research resources & more to help you create deeper learning opportunities for your students. Listeners of this podcast can get free 60-day access to all of Defined Learning's PBL resources by going to definedlearning.com/coolcat. Show Notes: www.coolcatteacher.com/e767 About Dr. Sarah Levine - Bio As Submitted Sarah Levine is an Assistant Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Dr. Levine's primary goal as an academic is to help shape the teaching and learning of secondary English teachers and contribute to research that will help students — especially those in urban and under-resourced schools — become independent readers and writers. Twitter: @s_r_levine Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Digital portfolios are an essential part of the modern student's creation process. In this show Tisha Poncio shares her tips on digital portfolios and classroom teaching. Learn how to plan ahead to allow for project based learning and digital portfolios and best practices for implementing them in the classroom. Transcript posted on the show page: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e766 Today’s episode is sponsored by Tract. Tract will empower your students to develop 21st-Century Ready skills through project-based peer-to peer learning. For a limited time you can pilot Tract’s on-demand project-based classes and clubs free in your classroom. I am a project based learning classroom and have joined the pilot. Request free access today at teach.tract.app with the access code COOLCATTEACHER. If you have students aged 8 or older, you’ll want to bring students into this self-directed project based platform that will rock your classroom and their world.  Try out Tract today! Tisha Poncio - Bio As Submitted Tisha Poncio, M.S. Learning Technologies/Instructional Design, has served in education for the last 21 years. She has led students in the classroom teaching English, Web Design, Graphic Design, Business Computers, Programming, and Broadcast Journalism. She has also coached educators, students, and administrators as a digital learning specialist for 12 years. She is a Google Certified Trainer, and a Flipgrid, Wakelet, and Buncee Ambassador. Her biggest accomplishment to date has been the creation of a student-led technology leadership group that helps her present globally on student voice, digital citizenship, and the #studentsCANlead movement.

Thomas Arnett from the Christensen Institute Shares What the Insitute has learned from administrators and teachers about best practices for teaching during the pandemic. https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e765 Sponsor: Screencastify. This year, I introduced the free screencasting tool, Screencastify, the first week of school to all of my students so they could record screencasts.   Screencastify isn’t just a screen recorder. You can record, edit, and submit to students quickly as they can to you. The new version of Screencastify has analytics so you can know who is watching and when and more. Head over to screencastify.com today. Thomas Arnett - Bio as Submitted Thomas Arnett is a senior research fellow for the Clayton Christensen Institute. His work focuses on using the Theory of Disruptive Innovation to study innovative instructional models and their potential to scale student-centered learning in K–12 education. Thomas began his work in education as a middle school math teacher in Kansas City Public Schools through Teach For America and as an Education Pioneers fellow with the Achievement First Public Charter Schools. He has also served as an elected trustee and board president for the Morgan Hill Unified School District in Morgan Hill, California, and currently serves as the chair of the board of Compass Charter Schools in California. https://www.christenseninstitute.org/results/?authors=toma  Potential unfulfilled: COVID-19, the rapid adoption of online learning, and what could be unlocked this year (https://www.christenseninstitute.org/publications/online-learning-potential/?authors=toma) Carpe Diem: Convert pandemic struggles into student-centered learning - https://www.christenseninstitute.org/publications/blended-learning-2021/?authors=toma  Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

These are challenging times, but what if you're trying to find some normalcy amidst the challenges? Today's guest, Michelle Blanchet, co-author of the Startup Teacher Playbook talks about a method she teaches teachers to help determine the specific issues of concern so that improvements can be made and the teacher can have a sense of forward progress. Social Emotional Learning isn't just for students, this episode focuses on teachers. https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e764 Today’s sponsor is NaliniKIDS, creator of wordworkouts.org, a fantastic free SEL resource that will bring reflection and movement to your classroom. At wordworkouts.org you can select a word as the focus to help students get in the right mindset for a day of learning while making connections between academics and daily life. Wordworkouts.org is great for morning meetings, brain breaks, class transitions or advisory and is a wonderful relationship-building tool for your classroom community. Michelle Blanchet - Bio as Submitted Michelle is an educator striving to improve how we treat, train, and value our teachers. After ten years of experience working with young people, she founded the Educators’ Lab, which supports teacher-driven solutions to educational challenges. Michelle earned a master’s in international relations from Instituto de Empresa in Madrid. She has taught social studies in Switzerland and the U.S. and has presented at numerous events, including SXSWedu and TEDxLausanne. Michelle is a part of the Global Shaper Community of the World Economic Forum. She has worked with organizations like PBS Education, the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, Ashoka, and the Center for Curriculum Redesign. The Startup Teacher Playbook through Times 10 Publications is her first book. She occasionally blogs for Edutopia.