10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher

Latest Episodes:

Opportunities for Genuine Student Leadership Aug 15, 2019

Show notes

Students need real leadership opportunities - not just running a note to the office or other tasks that may be called "leadership" but really aren't. Adam Welcome, co-author of Empower our Girls: Opening the Door for Girls to Achieve More

www.coolcatteacher.com/e544

After listening to today's show, I think you will take one of two challenges:

1 - Give students a genuine way to lead in your classroom.

2 - Have a conversation with a colleague about student leadership and how your school is nurturing it and what you can do to improve student leadership opportunities.

Adam Welcome - Bio As Submitted

Adam has been a teacher, Principal, Director of Innovation for a district with 35,000 students and enjoys pushing the envelope to always do what's best for kids! Adam was Principal of the Year for his region, a 20 To Watch for the National School Board Association, guest blogger for EdWeek, NAESP magazine, and many other publications. Adam also consults and works with many education companies as a way to improve their product for others! Adam is passionate about technology integration with all educators and a huge advocate of social media and connecting with other educators from across the country. Adam makes it clear that kids come first and has preached the message of Team Kid for many years. He is also the co-founder of Kids Deserve It with Todd Nesloney and the author of Run Like a Pirate. He is co-author of Empower our Girls: Opening the Door for Girls to Achieve More. Adam has an amazing wife (Stacy) and two young children (Greta and Tilden) that keep life at home exciting and active. Adam also loves to run and has completed 22 marathons.

Speed Presentations: Help Students Improve Presentation Skills Rapidly Aug 14, 2019

Show notes

Presentation skills are an essential skill for students to master. How do you help students improve when there are many students in the class. Robert Donatelli has a solution: speed presentations. Learn how to use this technique to help students improve their presentation skills.

www.coolcatteacher.com/e543

Professional PD Challenge

Today's challenge is to try speed presentations in your classroom or in your teacher professional development.

Rob Donatelli - Bio As Submitted

RRob Donatelli is a business & computer science teacher at Dallastown Area High School. He is also the founder of the Donatelli EdZone. His passions include school leadership, education technology, presenting, entrepreneurship, and coaching. Follow him on YouTube at the Donatelli EdZone or on Twitter @DTown_MrD.

How Turning on Location Services Could Save Your Life Aug 13, 2019

Show notes

Pam Shoemaker is getting ready to retire from teaching. As she and her husband were returning home from looking for places to retire, a storm arose. While location services can be used to perhaps compromise our privacy, in this case, it may have saved Pam's life. Hear her story and learn how to examine your own location settings for safety.

www.coolcatteacher.com/e542

Podcast PD Challenge

Your challenge today is a safety challenge for you – and one other person of your choosing. Pick a weather app. Go into settings and educate yourself on how to turn it on for "always allow" if that is your choice.

Understand that location-based services can be used to track where you are, so if you choose not to allow any location-based services, then, make sure you know how to turn it on while traveling or when weather is bad.

As always, consult with your wireless carrier about your data plan and educate yourself on the apps you use. Set your privacy settings with intentionality and be safe!

Pam Shoemaker - Bio As submitted

Pam Shoemaker is the Instructional Technology Coach for Walled Lake Consolidated Schools in Michigan. She is a Google for Education Certified Trainer and the outgoing President of the ISTE EdTech Coaches PLN. She is retiring from her position in Walled Lake later this week (while recording the show - as of this airing, she is retired!)

Blog: https://yesedtech.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @shoemap

Closing the Attitude Gap – Building a Bond from Day One Aug 12, 2019

Show notes

He didn't like school. But now he's been a principal and written ten books and travels the world helping principals and educators learn how to engage today's students -- especially inner-city youth. Baruti Kafele has inspiring words for us on today's Motivational Monday episode. He has authored ten books, recently the Principal 50: Critical Questions for New and Aspiring School Leaders and Closing the Attitude Gap: How to Fire Up Your Students for Success.

www.coolcatteacher.com/e541

Today's Podcast PD Challenge

Here's your challenge for today:

How will you start Day One building relationships? Don't just read your syllabus – you've got to start building those relationships. Start connecting.
Check your attitude – have you decided you want to be an excellent, compelling engaging teacher who improves your craft every day? Make a decision about who you want to be.

Baruti Kafele

Milken National Educator, internationally-renowned speaker and best-selling author, Principal Baruti Kafele led the turnaround of four different New Jersey urban public schools including Newark Tech, which was three times recognized by U.S. News and World Report Magazine as one of America's best high schools.

Blog: https://principalkafele.com/

Twitter: @PrincipalKafele

5 Strategies for Coaching Instructional Excellence Aug 09, 2019

Show notes

Sherry St. Clair gives us principles for effective instructional coaching. Targeted to both administrators, instructional coaches, and technology coaches - Sherry has five practical ideas to get us started. Sherry is the author of Coaching Redefined: A Guide to Leading Meaningful Instructional Growth.

www.coolcatteacher.com/e540

Today's Challenge

Today I challenge you follow Sherry's advice and build relationships. If you want some ideas, many people have shared their ideas on this tweet I asked about what schools do for fun. (You don't need Twitter to read it.)

How do you bring laughter and fun to your school - specifically with your colleagues? Looking and listening for ideas!

— Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) August 6, 2019

Sherry St. Clair - Bio As Submitted

Sherry St. Clair is the founder of Reflective Learning LLC, an educational consulting agency based in Kentucky. Her organization works with schools around the world, creating specialized training and coaching services for school administrators and educators. Additionally, Sherry serves as a Senior Consultant for the International Center for Leadership in Education and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. She holds a master's degree in Instructional Leadership, as well as a Rank I in Instructional Supervision. As an international consultant, Sherry draws from her rich experience at various levels of public education–teaching elementary school, being an administrator in a high school of 1,300 students, working as a state consultant, and creating and facilitating virtual courses. Sherry is a highly regarded national speaker and consultant, providing educational agencies with expertise in the areas of instructional leadership, effective classroom practices, classroom walkthroughs, effective use of data and guidance on how to create structures for successful classroom coaching. Coaching schools to best meet the needs of all students is Sherry's passion. Sherry is a contributing author to Effective Instructional Strategies Volume 2 published by the International Center for Leadership in Education. She has published numerous professional learning activity guides and facilitated webinar series focused on leadership and effective instructional practices. Additionally, Sherry developed virtual instructional workshops for the CTE Technical Assistance Center of New York. In partnership with the Successful Practices Network, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and AASA—The School Superintendent Association, Sherry has recently been a part of bringing innovative practices to scale. Her latest publication, Coaching Redefined: A Guide to Leading Meaningful Instructional Growth., was released in June of 2019.

Disclosure of Material Connection: This episode includes some affiliate links. This means that if you choose to buy I will be paid a commission on the affiliate program. However, this is at no additional cost to you. 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.

Effective Grouping Strategies in the Classroom Aug 08, 2019

Show notes

Today, you'll get advice for creating grouping strategies for your classroom from an expert teacher and author on the subject. Barry Hoonan, author of What Are You Grouping For? (Grades 3-8 - how to Guide Small Groups Based on Readers, Not the Book)helps us understand how to start our school year with a plan for grouping students in reading groups that works.

www.coolcatteacher.com/e539

Your challenge today is to plan several ways you can make groups 1 – Try thought partners 2 – If you have a student survey for reading, call them over to your desk and discuss but use Barry's technique of "and what else"

For your bonus material today, I've shared my quick way of making groups using cardstock, a marker, and laminator. Check out "A Quick Way to Make Groups" at coolcatteacher.com/groups.

Barry Hoonan - Bio As Submitted

Barry Hoonan has received NCTE's Middle School Teacher of Excellence award and he is a three-time Fulbright scholar. He teaches 5th & 6th grade at Odyssey, a multi-age program with the Bainbridge Island School District.

Breakout EDU in Adult PD and College Education Aug 07, 2019

Show notes

BreakoutEDU is a box with locks that also can be a great educational experience. In today's show, Lucy Manley shares how breakout boxes are becoming an exciting part of her college's educational experiences including Freshmen orientation.

www.coolcatteacher.com/e538

Today, your Podcast PD challenge is to create a breakout EDU experience with your students. I've written a post to give you 5 ideas for bringing breakout EDU into your classroom along with free links to free Breakout edu digital games and more. Today's challenge is to create one breakout edu experience for your students and to share what you did with at least one colleague. Go to coolcatteacher.com/breakout for 5 Ideas to bring Breakout EDU to your classroom. And as always, tweet or message me on social media to let me know what you did!

Lucy Manley - Bio As Submitted

Lucy Manley serves as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Garrett College. In addition to her administrative responsibilities, Lucy teaches first-year writing.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Tyler - a 7th Grade App Builder Spurred on By Genius Hour Aug 06, 2019

Show notes

Today, you'll listen to a young man who became an entrepreneur as a result of his school's genius hour. Listen with a purpose and prepare to get your daily challenge at the end and a link to the blog post I've written inspired by this show "7 Ideas for Student Genius Hour and Passion Projects"

www.coolcatteacher.com/e537

Bonus Material: I've linked to Tyler's app at coolcatteacher.com/dna - Your challenge today is to plan one genius hour experience for your students this year. Put it on your calendar today. I've given you ideas in a blog post I've written called 7 Ideas for Student Genius Hour and Passion Projects – go to coolcatteacher.com/genius to access this post.

Tyler Haggerty - Bio As Submitted

Tyler Haggerty is a 7th-grade student in Connecticut, the founder of Squirrel Army Games, and loves rock climbing. He's on a mission to bring actual fun gameplay to previously boring educational games.

Motivation to Thrive Your First Few Years of Teaching Aug 05, 2019

Show notes

Today, let's make our profession better by focusing on how we can encourage new teachers and each other. Edwin Thomas Minguela reflects upon his first two years of teaching. As you listen to what he has learned and his encouragement for teachers, reflect upon your early years of teaching and how you can help new teachers in the profession.

www.coolcatteacher.com/e536

Along with this episode I've released a new blog post "8 Ways to Help New Teachers Thrive" – check the show notes and stay tuned at the end of the show for these research-based ideas. I've also included a PDF of this post as bonus material for this episode.

Today's challenge – adopt a colleague. But it has to be someone who is not already in your inner circle. If you've been teaching longer than three years, I challenge you to adopt someone who is a new teacher either at your school or to teaching altogether. If you're new to teaching, reach out to someone who has been teaching longer.

Edwin Thomas Minguela - Bio As Submitted

I am an upcoming third-year teacher in Philadelphia. All my 3 of years have been in 3rd grade. I love to bring joy for learning to all of my students. Being an urban student once myself and had spent the majority of my Prek-12 school years in Philadelphia, I know many of the hardships my students may come to my classroom. I want to them to know that our classroom is a safe place and that I will always care for them. During my educational career, I have had multiple rewarding opportunities to conduct research and present at a conference on different topics. A goal of mine is to not become an educator, but a researcher as well. One particular opportunity was conducting research on a Native American reservation for about 12 days. The research I conducted was an autoethnography dealing with my experiences as a Latino going into another minority's culture. I was able to present my research a year later at an undergraduate research conference held at Millersville University. I have also had a lesson publication and professional development session related to STEM education.

The Human Side of Change in Education Aug 02, 2019

Show notes

Change has a human component. In fact, without helping people change - there isn't any change. Today, Julie Wilson, author of The Human Side of Changing Education shares how we can supercharge change by helping people become part of it.

www.coolcatteacher.com/e535

Prepare for your classroom for the fall with one of two free webinars from Linda Kardamis, select a free class on classroom management or one on Respectful, Responsible and Engaged Students in this series targeted to Christian educators who teach in any school setting.

Julie Wilson - Bio as Submitted

Julie is a coach and advisor to school leaders, educational institutions, and foundations whose mission is to shape the future of K-12 education. She has over fifteen years' experience building effective learning environments that unlock human potential and enable organizational culture to adapt and grow during times of change. She graduated from Harvard's Graduate School of Education with a master's degree in technology, innovation, and education, and a bachelor's of arts in business administration and French from Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She's the author of The Human Side of Changing Education: How to Lead Change with Clarity, Conviction, and Courage. Julie loves to learn and is also a mom to Theodore (aka Teddy Bear) - her biggest teacher yet.

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