Motivation to Thrive Your First Few Years of Teaching
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Release Date: 08/05/2019
A Blind Teacher on Truly Seeing Your Students
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Kathy Nimmer is the 2026 Helen Keller Achievement Award winner. Her story is so heartwarming that, to celebrate episode 1001, we're airing an extended episode focused on the heart of teaching. The story of her first year teaching is incredible and one we should all hear. If you've been there, you know how quickly a first-year teacher's confidence can shatter. For Kathy Nimmer, a blind high school English teacher, a classroom window shattered too, and it changed how she taught. Kathy tells how a chaotic first year taught her to bring her authentic self to the classroom, how being blind helped...
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Celebrating 1,000 Episodes: My Son Turns the Tables on Me!
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Thank you so much! It was February 2017 when I took a day off school to "figure out" how to publish this podcast. I started by telling the story of "" and I had no idea what I was doing. I only knew that a 5-day-a-week podcast where teachers, administrators, and those who love kids could get a quick idea every day could be a really good service to education. There are so many amazing stories of teachers, and most of them are too busy or just not called to have a podcast. I didn't want another "talking head" show, as I just wanted to interview people! So, this episode is not only a thank you,...
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Productive Struggle: When to Help and When to Hold Back
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Productive struggle is the sweet spot between too easy and too hard. Dr. Barbara Blackburn, author of more than 40 books on rigor and motivation, explains when to help a struggling student and when to hold back, so kids can wrestle with hard work without drowning. On this Thought Leader Thursday, Barbara shares her structured definition of productive struggle, why students read too-easy work as a sign the teacher doesn't respect them, and the simple "count to 20" habit that keeps teachers from rescuing too soon. She walks through an upper elementary science task where students build the...
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New Teacher Advice From a 3-Time Teacher of the Year
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
New teacher advice from a three-time Teacher of the Year. Retired fifth-grade teacher Eric Hall spent 27 years in the classroom, and he says it starts with relationships before rigor. Build trust first, and the curriculum comes easier. On this Wonderful Classroom Wednesday, Eric, author of Controlled Chaos: Lessons They Didn't Teach You in Teacher School, shares how he got to know students and families before the first day of school, why his first call home is always a positive one, and how he let students help write the classroom agreements. He also tells how a weekend plane ride brought a...
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Frustrated With AI? Make It Interview You First
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Frustrated with AI? Make it interview you first. Dr. Jie Tao of Fairfield University explains why "prompt and pray" gives you brilliant answers one day and useless ones the next, and how a few simple habits get you consistent, reliable results. On this Tech Tool Tuesday, Jie shares the interview pattern he calls the most powerful prompting technique he teaches, how a "scratch pad" keeps AI working only from your information, and what agentic AI means for teachers. He also explains how his research team used a language model to help clinicians spot signs of suicidal ideation on social media. In...
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Expelled 3 Times, Now a School Leader: The Believement Gap
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Teacher expectations shape what students believe they can do. Edward DeShazer was suspended more than 30 times and expelled three times. Today he leads a school that went from one star to four stars in six years. On this Motivational Monday, Edward explains the "believement gap": the distance between what a student believes about himself and what he can actually do. He shares the teacher who changed his path, and what his school does to help teachers and students feel like they belong. In this episode, you'll learn: What the believement gap is and how teacher expectations shape student...
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Student Mental Health Questions for Teachers: What Am I Missing?
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
When a student puts their head down, the question you ask next matters. Therapist and former high school teacher Charle Peck shares the one question to ask instead of "What's wrong with you?" and simple ways to support student mental health without becoming a therapist. Charle spent years teaching high school before becoming a clinical therapist, and she is the co-author of The Language of Behavior and Improving School Mental Health. On this Fab Idea Friday, she explains why your own well-being is part of the job, not one more thing on your to-do list, and why noticing is the first skill every...
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Why Kids Can't Stop Moving: The Neuroscience Behind a Student's Need to Move
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Why kids can't stop moving, and why some students can't sit still in class: an occupational and physical therapist explains the need behind the movement. 🏆 NUMBER 1 IN OUR COUNTDOWN OF THE TOP 10 EPISODES OF THE FIRST 1,000 — 46,509 downloads. Originally aired February 1, 2018 (episode 244). 📌 Full show notes, resources, and transcript: Suzanne Cresswell, an occupational and physical therapist, explains why the student who is always moving isn't necessarily misbehaving. Often, she says, that movement is a strategy the child has developed to keep their brain engaged. She explains the...
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5 Easy Brain Breaks for Your Classroom
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
NUMBER 2 IN OUR COUNTDOWN OF THE TOP 10 EPISODES OF THE FIRST 1,000. This one goes all the way back to April 2017, when the show was brand new, and it has been downloaded 27,314 times — the second most-listened-to episode in the history of the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. Rob Donatelli, a high school business educator in York, Pennsylvania, brings five brain breaks you can run tomorrow with no prep and almost no supplies. A brain break, as Rob describes it, is a chance for students to step away from high-level processing, have some fun, and refocus so they can get back to learning at their...
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5 Ways to Build Reading Stamina in Grades 6-12
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
NUMBER 3 IN OUR COUNTDOWN OF THE TOP 10 EPISODES OF THE FIRST 1,000. This one originally aired January 31, 2022 and has been heard 27,058 times — the third most-listened-to episode in the history of the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. Lisa Hollihan Allen is a K-12 reading specialist and literacy interventionist, and she came on to talk about the thing nobody puts on a lesson plan: reading stamina. Not decoding. Not comprehension. The plain ability to keep reading. Her framing is the one that sticks. Most students have word recognition well before middle school, she says — and a lot of them...
info_outlineToday, 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.
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.