Revolutionizing Classrooms: How Microsoft's AI is Changing Education
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Release Date: 07/28/2023
From Ego to Excellence: Leadership Growth with Dr. Samuel Nix
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
🌟 Leadership is not about ego; it’s about transformation. 🌟 In this inspiring episode, Dr. Samuel Nix, award-winning educator and Chief Academic Officer of Duncanville Independent School District, shares actionable strategies for transforming school culture, rebuilding trust, and leading with humility. Whether you're striving to improve assessments, foster thriving school environments, or grow as a leader, this episode is packed with insights you can use immediately. 🔑 What You'll Learn: How to shift from being a results-only leader to one who inspires trust and connection....
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How to Help Kids Use Devices Responsibly
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
In this episode of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast, I sit down with Jordan Shapiro, author of The New Childhood: Raising Kids to Thrive in a Connected World. We tackle one of the most pressing challenges for parents and teachers today: how to help kids develop healthy relationships with their devices. From cell phone bans to managing screen time, we dive into the heart of the frustrations many adults face when navigating technology with children. What You’ll Learn in This Episode: Why kids struggle with device self-regulation and how adults can help them develop this critical skill. The...
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4 Essentials for Every Teacher: How to Design Lessons, Engage Kids and Manage Your Classroom
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
As a teacher, we must build our classrooms from the ground up. Today, veteran teacher and teacher coach and author of Always a Lesson: Teaching Essentials for Classroom and Career Success, Gretchen Bridgers, shares the four ways we build our classroom. From designing lessons that engage students powerfully to classroom management and student engagement, learn the fundamentals in this quick listen. And hear about the top level where all of us veteran teachers want to hang out "student ownership." Let's listen to what we can learn about building the best classroom ever! This episode is a...
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91% Proficiency: How One Teacher Transformed Reading Outcomes In Just One Year
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
What if you could achieve a 40% increase in ELA proficiency in just one school year? Teacher Ezera Washington from Paterson, New Jersey, did exactly that—reaching an astounding 91% proficiency rate with her students. In this episode, Ezera shares her proven methods for improving reading test scores while building meaningful relationships with students. You’ll learn how to: Adapt teaching using real-time data and formative assessments. Scaffold complex content to ensure all students meet grade-level goals. Build strong parent-teacher partnerships to reinforce learning at home. Inspire...
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12 Easy Ways to Teach Kids to Code: Hour of Code & CS4Ed Week 2024
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Get ready for CS4Ed Week 2024 and the Hour of Code with this special episode of the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast! 🎉 We’re sharing 12 practical and fun coding activities that will inspire creativity and teach kids computational thinking. From gamified platforms like CodeCombat to app development with Mad Learn, hands-on robotics, and unplugged challenges, there’s something here for every educator and student. 💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode: How to use CodeCombat and Code.org to engage students in coding. Creative ideas like Dance Party, Minecraft, and coding with Anna and Elsa....
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Teaching and Having Gratitude and Thankfulness
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
This special extended episode is for family and friends to listen to in the car or around the holidays. It is from what I call my "legacy project," Cool Cat Teacher Talk, soon to be released as its separate podcast. In this, I'll tell you about the Cool Cat Teacher Talk Show project, why I'm doing it, and how it is being created and shared. Then, I'll share my 58-minute Cool Cat Teacher talk episode on Gratitude and Thankfulness. I hope you enjoy the show. Show notes:
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How to Get Kids Excited About Writing
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Speech-to-text, audio, personal drawings and pictures, and writing about things kids love are all part of helping kids get excited about writing. In today's show, we talk to 15-year educator Randi Ahrndt about encouraging kids to get excited about writing as we discuss interactive writing strategies and one of the best free tools for teaching writing. We also talk about an authentic project of having kids write a personal book and the various steps of making it happen. We'll explore how to leverage technology and interactive strategies to turn even the most reluctant students into...
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Practical Tips on How to Teach Reading from Jennifer Serravallo
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Sometimes, teachers can struggle to "fit it all in" when it comes to reading. What a relief it is to hear reading instructional leaders like Jennifer Serravallo talk about the artistry of teaching, how to overcome the challenges of teaching reading, and teacher autonomy and responsiveness. Jennifer also reflects on where the research is "fuzzy" in reading instruction needs more work and discusses where we go next (including the challenges of teaching children with changing attention spans). If you teach reading, Jennifer's show is a must-listen. Episode Highlights: Effective Lesson...
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NASSP Principal of the Year 2025: Dr. Tracie Anderson Swiley
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
Dr. Tracie Anderson Swilley the Principal of Fairfield High School in South Carolina was named the 2025 Principal of the Year for the United States by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Today we're going to talk to her about the culture transformation at her school that improved their graduation rate and built a school pride that is promoting excellence in everything they do. She also talks about school safety and how she has approached this sensitive topic. Listen to this inspiring principal and make your school a better place too. Show notes:
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An Interesting Interview with My Principal: Meet Jonathan Dyal
10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher
This episode of The 10 Minute Teacher was a lot of fun. Not only did I get to interview my principal, Jonathan Dyal, but my film class, the "Sherwood Showstoppers," filmed the interview. (I'm so proud of how much they are learning!) After a tweet I sent out in October 2023, George Couros and Allyson Apsey invited me to write a chapter about Jonathan in their book out this year. (You can about what truly makes a great principal and the five pillars shared in the book.) Principal Dyal shares his philosophy of walking the halls frequently to stay connected with teachers and students,...
info_outlineArtificial intelligence is the top conversation among educators everywhere. It was truly a thrill for me, as a classroom teacher, for Lydia Smyers, the Vice President of US Education for Microsoft, to sit down with me at ISTE. As educators, we're at the forefront of this exciting (and scary) change with unprecedented learning opportunities (and threats.) Whether you're new to AI or a seasoned AI-enthusiast, you'll gain invaluable insights into one of the companies on the forefront of AI in education. Brought to you by Microsoft, this podcast offers a glimpse into the future of education and an AI-infused landscape where possibilities are endless (and challenges abound.) Let's do this!
Read the full transcript, show notes, and video here: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e808
Sponsor: This show is sponsored by Microsoft. Check out their new AI Course. All opinions are my own. Once a year, I have a newsworthy topic that I accept that has advertorial content. This is the show for 2023 with Microsoft.
Lydia Smyers, Vice President of US Education for Microsoft
Lydia Smyers is the Vice President of US Education for Microsoft. She leads the sales teams supporting the adoption and sales of Microsoft’s solutions across K-12 organizations and higher education customers in the United States.
Before joining Microsoft, Smyers was group vice president of Worldwide Alliances, Channels Programs and Communications at Oracle Corp. In this role, she had global responsibility for Oracle Partner Network (OPN) programs, strategy, marketing and communications. Her organization supported Oracle’s channel ecosystem with an emphasis on driving partner profitability and satisfaction.
Smyers is a member of the EDUCAUSE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Board and has been named as one of CRN’s “Top 100 Women of the Channel” 2009–2013 and named to its advisory board. She is also committed to empowering the next generation of leaders and supporting her local community. She serves on the board of several community nonprofits including Friends of Marblehead Public Schools, MassCUE, and the Marblehead Family Fund.
Smyers holds an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Trinity College-Hartford. She is a sports enthusiast, an active triathlete in the summer and an alpine backcountry skier in the winter. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two sons.