SEL Games: Learning Life Skills through Games
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Release Date: 03/16/2022
Bridge in the Classroom: A Screen-Free Math Game
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Going screen-free is an emphasis right now, as is building emotional intelligence. Perhaps that is why bridge is really attractive to some kids. You can also teach math, focus, and teamwork, and you don't have to know how to play. Hall of Famer Patty Tucker created JumpStart Bridge, a free curriculum that has reached more than 12,000 students. It comes with scripts, videos, supplies, and a stipend for teachers who have never dealt a hand. In this episode, you'll learn: The one rule of bridge that teaches kids not to quit The grade levels Patty calls the sweet spot for starting What a teacher...
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Screen Value, Not Screen Time: Leading Schools in the AI Age
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
ISTE+ASCD 2026 Board President Dr. Jeremy Owoh explains how his district runs toward AI instead of away from it. He also shares why AI can never replace a good teacher and his approach to encouraging innovation in the classroom. So many teachers are tired of playing "AI whack-a-mole," but it is so helpful to hear how Jeremy helps his district make decisions that bring everyone on board. He says that schools should learn together and set clear expectations. He started as an English teacher in Little Rock, served as an assistant commissioner at the Arkansas Department of Education, and now leads...
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Grief in the Classroom When Teachers Are Grieving Too
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Sometimes we need to talk about hard things, like grief in the classroom. Because real life is hard, and real life is in our classroom every day. Our students and we as teachers — we all deal with death. I had to this past school year, and it was hard. It still is. And not everyone experiences it the same way. There's no one-size-fits-all. On this show, first-grade teacher Haleigh Bresnan and school psychologist Rebecca Brigner share how to help grieving kids and yourself. Their precious children's book about grief, If You're Lucky Enough to Know a Unicorn, honors Kennedy, a baby girl who...
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Using AI? Keep Teachers in the Driver's Seat
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Dr. Patricia Dickenson, author of Smart Teaching in the Age of AI, shows how teachers can use AI to plan and differentiate without losing the heart of teaching. Relationship is still one of the top factors driving student success. Part of using AI is knowing when to use it and when to put it away. Patricia has a third option for every teacher torn between using AI for everything and banning it altogether: let AI carry some of the planning load, so you have more time for what only you can do, which is connecting with your students. She spent more than 18 years in Los Angeles classrooms and now...
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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...
info_outlineThe harsh reality of classroom life is that students and teachers both report lower motivation and morale right now. We must reengage students! Games can help us! SEL games can help you teach social-emotional learning skills and life skills. Today’s expert, Dr. Matthew Farber, gives us an interesting twist on games by integrating them with SEL. He has practical ideas for understanding and using game-based learning in the classroom.
Games make a great addition to every teacher's toolkit. From board games, in-class games, or video games, students love them! So, let me encourage you to take some time to learn about SEL games today in this podcast.
8 Actions Teachers Can Take After Reading this Post and Listening to This Podcast
- Understand that parents do not typically like the term social-emotional learning and prefer the term “life skills” but as you teach life skills, they want to partner with teachers in the process.
- Understand games can be a powerful way to teach life skills
- Find some games to try with students in class
- Understand the concept of asymmetrical game design and how it can teach teamwork. Educators should look for games with asymmetrical design as they test games for the classroom.
- Understand the concept of situational game design and how it can open up conversation in the classroom.
- Understand that the Nintendo switch can be hooked to a projector and passed around the room to create conversations about situational games.
- Check out 16 links for game-based learning resources.
- Look at practical classroom resources to dig deeper into game-based learning and SEL
Resources Transcript and Show notes: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e771
Thank You Advancement Courses:
Thank you Advancement Courses for sponsoring today’s show. This month, Advancement Courses is kicking off their annual Tournament of Teachers bracket challenge where educators can win up to $2,000 in prizes. This year’s “Mischief-Makers Edition'' features some of the most incorrigible students from literature and film, including Draco Malfoy, Veruca Salt, Bart Simpson, and Ferris Bueller. From now until March 20, choose which mischief-maker you’d rather teach and submit your bracket in order to play. Then from March 21-30, you’ll have a chance to come back and vote for your favorites to advance. Enter now and you could win prizes like a $1,000 Amazon gift card and more. Visit www.coolcatteacher.com/tournament/ to learn more and submit your brackets!