Podcast
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Hosted by Vicki Davis · EN
A teacher podcast for busy educators—about 10 minutes, every week. Stay current on artificial intelligence in education (plain English), edtech, and what matters in the classroom: culture, instruction, assessment, digital health and wellness, and more. Simple ideas you can use right away.
Hosted by AP Computer Science teacher Vicki Davis (Cool Cat Teacher)—author and longtime edtech blogger—this teaching podcast features best-selling teachers, researchers, and in-the-classroom administrators sharing practical strategies that connect with today's students.
Follow the 10 Minute Teacher—the podcast for teachers and school leaders—for weekly, classroom-ready tips.
Show notes & resources: https://coolcatteacher.com/podcast
35episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
How Students Actually Learn: Memory & Attention
2w ago00:15:02Tap to summarizeHow do students actually learn? AP Psychology teacher Blake Harvard — The Effortful Educator — shares the cognitive science of attention and memory that every K-12 teacher can use tomorrow. In this episode of the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast, Vicki Davis talks with Blake Harvard about why attention is a necessary component of learning, the simple pre-test that primes the brain, and the mistake of making hard content even harder. Blake breaks down the two strategies with more than a century of research behind them — retrieval practice and spaced practice — and why rereading notes just doesn't work. In this episode, you'll learn: Why attention is where we lose students the most — and how to win it back The power of a quick pre-test to prime the brain for new content How limited working memory means complex material needs simpler activities Why retrieval practice (not rereading) builds lasting memory How spaced practice beats cramming — in less total study time Listen, then share this with a teacher friend, and leave a review wherever you're listening — it helps more educators find the show. Full show notes: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e943 Sponsored. This episode is sponsored by EF Educational Tours and their Career Readiness Tours. Lead your students on an international EF Career Readiness tour and show them what a career in fields like agriculture, hospitality, or automotive engineering could look like. Imagine your students connecting with entrepreneurs at the London School of Economics, getting a behind-the-scenes look at Toyota's manufacturing in Japan, or touring a French culinary school to see future chefs in action. If you've been trying to break through to your students and show them how to turn their career dreams into reality, browse EF's collection of Career Readiness tours at eftours.com/ready.
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Experiential Learning Through Travel That Sticks
2w ago00:17:45Tap to summarizeExperiential learning through travel changes students for good — and Denver science and CTE teacher Angela Cannava proves any teacher can lead it. In this episode of the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast, Angela shares how curriculum-aligned international trips with EF Explore America transformed her students: a forensics lab in Great Britain where they did real DNA fingerprinting, and a Belize Ridge-to-Reef conservation expedition with a midnight bat workshop. She tells the story of a student who barely spoke in three years coming home changed, and a Belize traveler now headed back to work at the conservation NGO he visited on the trip. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why curriculum-aligned travel makes lessons "stick" long after the trip ends - How travel transforms your relationships with students — and the culture of your whole classroom - The two things to nail before your first trip: a diverse chaperone team and clear student expectations - How to make international travel doable on a teacher's schedule by partnering with a tour company - Why the learning ripples out even to the students who stayed home Read the full show notes and resources at https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e942 Sponsor. Today's show is sponsored by EF Explore America and their STEM Tours. Lead your students on a STEM tour to places on the cutting edge of innovation to show them how STEM thinking often shows up where you least expect it. Imagine your students coding robots with MassRobotics at MIT, exploring marine ecosystems in Florida's coral reefs, or even sitting down to talk with a former spy in Washington DC. If you want to inspire your students and give them a fresh perspective on the power of STEM, visit efexploreamerica.com/STEM. If this show helps you, please rate or review it wherever you're listening, and share it with a teacher friend.
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AI Art in the Classroom with Tim Needles
2w ago00:11:27Tap to summarizeArt teacher Tim Needles brings AI art into the classroom without losing the watercolors, clay, and joy of real art. In this Tech Tool Tuesday, Tim shares how he uses Adobe Express and text-to-image to amplify student imagination, why the kids who use AI well are simply more descriptive, and the daily 10-minute creativity habit that helps teachers fight burnout. Plus: the legacy mural project that reaches a whole community, and the student who broke INTO the art room to keep working — and now works at Industrial Light & Magic. In this episode, you'll learn: How to bring AI art into any subject with Adobe Express (works on a Chromebook) Why specificity makes the difference between weak and strong AI art prompts How to keep students respecting traditional media in the age of AI A simple daily creativity habit that protects against teacher burnout Why "fun is underrated" — and how passion projects change kids' lives Full show notes and resources: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e941 If this show encouraged you, leave a review wherever you're listening and share it with a teacher friend.
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Vibe Coding for Teachers: No Coding Skills Needed
3w ago00:13:47Tap to summarizeVibe coding for teachers means describing what you want in plain English and letting AI write the code — no coding background required. 2021 Kentucky Teacher of the Year Donnie Piercey joins Vicki Davis to show how any teacher can build custom classroom tools that save real time. Donnie shares the small-problem-first method he used to build printable daily student task lists, auto-translate his classroom newsletter into five languages, and create self-checking games — plus the dead-simple troubleshooting trick of screenshotting the error and pasting it back to the AI. Vicki shares how she rebuilt a unit into a game that raised her eighth graders' scores five points with zero retests. In this episode, you'll learn: - What vibe coding actually is (and what it isn't) - How to pick the one small problem worth solving first - How to fix broken code without knowing how to code - Why publishing to HTML lets your tool work anywhere - How AI tools like Gemini, ChatGPT, Canva Code, and Google Apps Script fit in Full show notes, resources, and transcript: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e940 If this episode gave you an idea, share it with a teacher friend and leave a review wherever you're listening. Sponsor: Today's show is sponsored by EF Educational Tours and their Career Readiness Tours. Lead your students on an international EF Career Readiness tour and show them what a career in fields like agriculture, hospitality, or automotive engineering could look like. Imagine your students connecting with entrepreneurs at the London School of Economics, getting a behind-the-scenes look at Toyota's manufacturing in Japan, or touring a French culinary school to see future chefs in action. If you've been trying to break through to your students and show them how to turn their career dreams into reality, browse EF's collection of Career Readiness tours at eftours.com/ready.
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AI in the Classroom — Why There Are No Best Practices Yet
3w ago00:23:47Tap to summarizeMIT's Justin Reich interviewed 120 teachers and students about AI in the classroom — and his honest takeaway is that there are no research-based best practices yet. Here's what to do instead. In this episode of the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast, Justin Reich (MIT Teaching Systems Lab, host of The Homework Machine) joins Vicki Davis to talk about what AI is really doing in K-12 classrooms, why the research is still in its infancy, and how teachers can run their own small "local science" experiments right now. In this episode, you'll learn: Why classroom teachers and students — not thought leaders — give the truest picture of AI in schools Why there are no AI "best practices" yet (and the 25-year research timeline that explains it) How to run a small, honest "local science" experiment in your own classroom this week Why your domain knowledge — not the tool — is what makes AI actually useful Four ways teachers are handling AI cheating (and how to tell when yours isn't working) The power of "subtraction": what schools should stop doing to do their best work Full show notes, resources, and the books mentioned: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e939 If this conversation helped you, please leave a review wherever you're listening and share it with a teacher friend — it genuinely helps more educators find the show. Sponsor. Today's show is sponsored by EF Explore America and their STEM Tours. Lead your students on a STEM tour to places on the cutting edge of innovation to show them how STEM thinking often shows up where you least expect it. Imagine your students coding robots with MassRobotics at MIT, exploring marine ecosystems in Florida's coral reefs, or even sitting down to talk with a former spy in Washington DC. If you want to inspire your students and give them a fresh perspective on the power of STEM, visit efexploreamerica.com/STEM. All opinions are those of the teachers and the host.
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Moviemaking in the Classroom: Where Every Student Has a Story
4w ago00:12:17Tap to summarizeMoviemaking in the classroom isn't the fun thing you do at the end of the year — it's how Jessica Pack gets to know her students on day one. The 2014 California Teacher of the Year and author of "Moviemaking in the Classroom" shares the exact projects she uses in the first two weeks of school to lift student voice, build creative confidence, and weave in generative AI the right way. You can use it now or next school year as you plan ahead this summer! I want to give you lots of ideas for what you can do in your classroom with moviemaking! In this episode, you'll learn: Two day-one projects that turn new students into whole people (using the book "The Best Part of Me" and the "I Am" poem) How to introduce generative AI through Adobe Express and build "AI citizenship" from the start Why growth over grades helped her long-term English learners blossom How to balance high-tech and low-tech so creativity — not the tool — stays the point A simple "me in three" starting point for teachers brand-new to moviemaking Full show notes, resources, and Jessica's book: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e938 If this episode gave you an idea for what you can do in your classroom, share it with a teacher friend and leave a review wherever you're listening — it helps other educators find the show. Today's show is sponsored by EF Educational Tours and their Career Readiness Tours. Lead your students on an international EF Career Readiness tour and show them what a career in fields like agriculture, hospitality, or automotive engineering could look like. Imagine your students connecting with entrepreneurs at the London School of Economics, getting a behind-the-scenes look at Toyota's manufacturing in Japan, or touring a French culinary school to see future chefs in action. If you've been trying to break through to your students and show them how to turn their career dreams into reality, browse EF's collection of Career Readiness tours at eftours.com/ready.
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AI as a Creativity Amplifier with Dr. Sarah Thomas
4w ago00:10:07Tap to summarizeDr. Sarah Thomas says AI is a creativity amplifier — a tool that gives teachers back their time so they can do the work only humans can do. In this episode of the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast, Dr. Sarah Thomas — founder of EduMatch and a Regional Technology Coordinator — reframes artificial intelligence as a creativity amplifier rather than a replacement for human thinking. We talk about what she actually automates, how to use AI ethically with students, and why staying pro-human matters more than ever. In this episode, you'll learn: Why AI works best as a creativity amplifier that frees up your time The "big rocks" to protect first: COPPA, FERPA, and student data (PII) How to move teachers from fear to confidence with AI The 80/20 rule for verifying AI output — and the "find the lie in AI" classroom game Why a robot will never replace the relationship at the heart of teaching Full show notes and links: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e937 If this episode helped you, leave a review wherever you're listening and share it with a teacher friend. Sponsored. This episode is sponsored by EF Educational Tours and their Career Readiness Tours. Lead your students on an international EF Career Readiness tour and show them what a career in fields like agriculture, hospitality, or automotive engineering could look like. Imagine your students connecting with entrepreneurs at the London School of Economics, getting a behind-the-scenes look at Toyota's manufacturing in Japan, or touring a French culinary school to see future chefs in action. If you've been trying to break through to your students and show them how to turn their career dreams into reality, browse EF's collection of Career Readiness tours at eftours.com/ready.
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Student STEM Trips That Made Students Say "I Could Do This"
Jun 100:10:17Tap to summarizeFour STEM teachers. Four trips that changed students forever. From Panama to the UK to MIT to DC. When a student does real science in a real place, STEM stops being abstract. Miranda Grabowski's biology class planted mangroves in Panama. Angela Cannava's biomed students ran a live DNA fingerprinting experiment in London. Karen Spencer's seventh graders toured MIT and Harvard in Boston. Edith Cortez's eighth graders from Laredo, Texas competed at science museums in Washington DC. In every story, something very cool happens: students look up at the scientists and engineers in the room and realize — "I could do this for a living." In this episode, you'll learn: - How to align a STEM trip to what you're already teaching in the classroom - What happens when a student's classroom finally connects to what scientists actually do - Why taking students to see real labs, real campuses, and real professionals changes what they believe is possible - How teachers in different states and different budget situations made these trips happen — and why they'd do it again Show notes and resources at https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e936 Sponsor. Today's show is sponsored by EF Explore America and their STEM Tours. Lead your students on a STEM tour to places on the cutting edge of innovation to show them how STEM thinking often shows up where you least expect it. Imagine your students coding robots with MassRobotics at MIT, exploring marine ecosystems in Florida's coral reefs, or even sitting down to talk with a former spy in Washington DC. If you want to inspire your students and give them a fresh perspective on the power of STEM, visit efexploreamerica.com/STEM. All opinions are those of the teachers and the host. If this episode moved you, leave a review wherever you're listening — it helps other remarkable educators find the show. I read every one.
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AI Won't Fix Education. People will.
May 2100:11:42Tap to summarizeJean-Claude Brizard, President and CEO of Digital Promise, joins Vicki on this Thought Leader Thursday episode of the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. From his beginning teaching incarcerated youth at Rikers Island, where he met a young man his own age who couldn't do basic math, to leading a global nonprofit that's reshaping how teachers and developers co-create AI tools — Jean-Claude shares why he's been in education for 38 years and counting. In this episode, you'll learn: Why teachers must be "crew, not passengers" on AI How Digital Promise is co-creating with teachers to extend a science-of-reading platform for multilingual learners How Gen AI is letting students talk to the "average Americans" history forgot — including a Georgia housewife who captured seven British soldiers Why mitigating AI bias requires educators in the room from the start How to spot certified tech versus "shiny object" fluff Full show notes, transcript, and resources: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e935 If this episode made you think, leave a review wherever you're listening — it helps other teachers find the show. And share it with a teacher friend.
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Brain First, AI Second: Teaching Writing in the AI Era
May 600:16:44Tap to summarizeBrain first AI teaching: a new MIT Media Lab study shows students who think before they use AI have a clear advantage over those who start with AI. Philip Seyfried — Teachers College, Columbia doctoral student and co-author of AI-Enhanced Literacy — shares the brain-first framework, why AI detectors don't work, how to monitor AI use in the classroom transparently, and how to build the kind of trust that lets students tell you the truth about how they actually used the tools. In this episode, you'll learn: • Why MIT's research shows brain-first / AI-second produces stronger writers • Why AI detectors fail — and what to do instead for academic integrity (with danah boyd's em-dash story) • Why you should push AI to your students instead of grading WITH AI yourself — Vicki's classroom approach • The "Beautiful Sentence" moment: why human teacher feedback still beats anything an algorithm can give • Why we shouldn't anthropomorphize AI — and where beginning teachers should actually start (Phil cites Ethan Mollick's "Co-Intelligence" + "three sleepless nights" with AI) Show notes and full transcript: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e934 Today's show is sponsored by EF Explore America and their STEM Tours. Lead your students on a STEM tour to places on the cutting edge of innovation — coding robots with MassRobotics at MIT, exploring marine ecosystems in Florida's coral reefs, or sitting down to talk with a former spy in Washington, D.C. Visit efexploreamerica.com/STEM. If this episode helped you, please leave a rating or review on this site. It helps others find the show! Thank you for your help!
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