10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher

Latest Episodes:

A Real Teacher Sparking Curiosity Makes All the Difference — Episode 946 Jul 15, 2026

Show notes

Why do we have to prove we're human in the age of AI? STEM educator and AI coach Brandie Wright shares the real story behind her ISTE main-stage talk on sparking curiosity — and why the presence of a teacher still matters.

When Vicki first heard Brandie's story on the ISTE main stage, she wasn't sure the student was real — that's how believable AI-generated stories have become. This Wonderful Classroom Wednesday conversation is about curiosity, human connection, and the artisanship of teaching in an age when a kid alone with a screen simply isn't enough.

In this episode, you'll learn:

How "crew" — school-family grouping — builds the relationships that spark curiosity
Why one student calls the whiteboard marker "magical"
What teachers misunderstand about where AI's believable stories actually come from
Why small classes and real human connection matter more than ever
Three quick ways to spark curiosity in your own classroom

Full show notes: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e946

If this episode encouraged you, leave a review wherever you're listening and share it with a teacher friend.

AI Assisted Grading: A Teacher's 30-Second Checklist — Episode 945 Jul 14, 2026

Show notes

Steve Swanson built an AI grading tool — and then deleted the feature that would have returned AI-generated grades straight to students. He's a high school engineering teacher who was staring down 150 assignments after a field-trip week, and he built ClassLens because he needed it for his own gradebook. But when he got to the point where he could push one button and have everything graded and sent back automatically, it felt wrong. So he took the button out.

In this Tech Tip Tuesday conversation, Steve makes the case for "human in the loop" — not as a buzzword, but as the actual job of teaching. He also answers a question he pitched to me by email, and it's the right one: what is the single question every teacher should ask before letting an AI tool grade student work?

In this episode, you'll learn:

The 30-second checklist to run before you let AI grade a stack of student work
The one question to ask any vendor about where student data goes — and what "they hold none of your data" actually means
Why writing a strong rubric changes the quality of what AI hands back to you
Whether it's a violation of student trust to send AI-written feedback without disclosing it
The teaching-assistant analogy that reframes the whole AI grading debate

Show notes, resources, and the full transcript: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e945

Habits of Hope to Help Educators with Dr. Julia Garcia Jul 13, 2026

Show notes

Hope isn't just a feeling — it's a practice you can build. Psychologist and author Dr. Julia Garcia (The 5 Habits of Hope) joins Vicki Davis to redefine hope as something educators can practice, even in the hardest seasons. Recorded shortly after Vicki lost her father, this is an honest, encouraging conversation about hopelessness, grief, and the small habits that help us hold on to hope.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Why we experience hope as a feeling — and how to practice it instead
The habit of reflection: pausing long enough to connect with something real
The habit of receiving: learning to name and accept support
How to reshape the thought patterns that keep us stuck
How to keep teaching and creating through grief

Full show notes and transcript: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e944

If this episode encouraged you, share it with a teacher friend who needs a little hope today.

How Students Actually Learn: Memory & Attention Jun 19, 2026

Show notes

How 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.

Experiential Learning Through Travel That Sticks Jun 17, 2026

Show notes

Experiential 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.

AI Art in the Classroom with Tim Needles Jun 16, 2026

Show notes

Art 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.

Vibe Coding for Teachers: No Coding Skills Needed Jun 10, 2026

Show notes

Vibe 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.

AI in the Classroom — Why There Are No Best Practices Yet Jun 08, 2026

Show notes

MIT'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.

Moviemaking in the Classroom: Where Every Student Has a Story Jun 06, 2026

Show notes

Moviemaking 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.

AI as a Creativity Amplifier with Dr. Sarah Thomas Jun 05, 2026

Show notes

Dr. 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.

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