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
60episodes
Episodes
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Travel With Students: A Principal's Grade-by-Grade Plan — Episode 959
2w ago00:10:31Tap to summarizeTravel 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 answer to administrators who ask why she'd take on the headache, and the mindset she says you have to bring Full show notes, resources and the complete transcript: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e959 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 episode gave you something useful, share it with a teacher or administrator who's been thinking about taking students somewhere.
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Gold Standard PBL vs. Just Doing a Fun Project
3w ago00:14:01Tap to summarizeGold 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 coaching instead of lecturing • Concrete projects outside business and computer science: designing a community microgrid in high school science, designing a custom diamond in middle school geometry, and a second grade community heroes gallery • How PBL turns literacy into an all-day practice — reading, writing, speaking, and listening — rather than something that only happens during the literacy block • Lisa's answer to the time squeeze: coverage isn't enough, and going deeper on power standards teaches more than racing through everything • The principal move worth stealing — have teachers mark what they planned to teach, then revisit after the project to mark what they actually taught deeply. It's always about twice as much. • Where to find more than 100 free project ideas, searchable by grade and subject, that scale up or down for your students Full show notes, resources, and the complete transcript: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e958 If this episode gave you something you can use, take a second to leave a rating or review wherever you're listening. It helps other teachers find the show. And if a colleague is on the fence about project based learning, send this one their way.
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AI in the Classroom: Assignments Students Can't Fake
3w ago00:13:06Tap to summarizeAI 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 directly to interrogating AI-generated content - What appropriate AI use looks like by grade band: "truth detectives" in K–2, "information investigators" in grades 3–5 - How to redesign a task so it's AI-resistant, plus Carol Jago's reflective questions a chatbot can't answer for a student Show notes, the full transcript, and every resource: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e957 ★ REVIEW ASK: If this show helps you teach, please rate and review it wherever you're listening. It's the single best way to help another teacher find us — and I read every one.
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How to Teach AI in Any Classroom, Not Just CS Class — Episode 956
3w ago00:17:01Tap to summarizeMost 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 tools — pre-filters, post-filters, and hundreds of jailbreak tests - The exact first step for a teacher who has never taught a line of code Karim's answer to "where do I start" is shorter than you'd expect, and it puts the teacher and the students in the same boat on purpose. Full show notes, every resource, and the transcript: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e956 If this show helps you teach better, leave a review wherever you're listening — it's how other teachers find us.
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How to Teach Confident Communicators with Dr. Jeff Bogaczyk
3w ago00:12:35Tap to summarizeYou 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're finally starting to hear it Why the brain-as-computer metaphor is wrong, and why emotional intelligence is the skill AI can't replace How "confident communicators" becomes a real, teachable outcome in a portrait of a graduate Jeff's line that will stick with you: "There is no relationship without communication. Communication is — you might even say it is the relationship." Show notes, resources, and the full transcript: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e955 If this one gave you language for something you've felt in your classroom, share it with a teacher friend who needs it this week.
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How to Teach About Space in the Classroom with Mark Wagner
3w ago00:15:14Tap to summarizeHow 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 If this episode helped you, share it with a teacher friend who'd love to bring more wonder into their classroom.
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Servant Scholarship: Choosing a Dissertation Topic That Helps
4w ago00:13:59Tap to summarizeChoosing 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.coolcatteacher.com/e953 If this episode helped you, please rate the show and leave a review wherever you're listening — it helps more educators find these conversations. And share it with a teacher friend who's thinking about grad school.
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Project-Based Social Studies Ideas Students Never Forget — Episode 952
4w ago00:16:33Tap to summarizeProject-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-level resources for America's 250th birthday Why "close your mouth but open your ears" is her best advice for new social studies teachers Full show notes and every resource mentioned: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e952 Share this one with a teacher friend who makes learning magical.
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Building Apps with Students Using MAD-learn — Episode 951
4w ago00:16:57Tap to summarizeCan 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.
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950 - Valuing Students and Teachers: Become a Hope Agent
4w ago00:17:55Tap to summarizeWhat 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 value who value people and add value to them Full show notes and resources: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e950 If this episode encouraged you, share it with a teacher friend and rate the show wherever you're listening.
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