10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher

A teacher podcast for busy educators—about 10 minutes, every week. Stay current on artificial intelligence in education (plain English), edtech, and what matters in the classroom: culture, instruction, assessment, digital health and wellness, and more. Simple ideas you can use right away. Hosted by AP Computer Science teacher Vicki Davis (Cool Cat Teacher)—author and longtime edtech blogger—this teaching podcast features best-selling teachers, researchers, and in-the-classroom administrators sharing practical strategies that connect with today’s students. Follow the 10 Minute Teacher—the podcast for teachers and school leaders—for weekly, classroom-ready tips. Show notes & resources: https://coolcatteacher.com/podcast

Restorative Practices and a Cell Phone Policy That Actually Works 10/19/2026

Side Jobs for Teachers or a Calling? Build an Education Business 10/17/2026

Think, Pair, Share, Show Me: Science of Learning in Action 10/16/2026

Molecule Builder: How a Teen Coded a Free Chemistry App 10/14/2026

Reflective Teaching: How Video and AI Help Teachers Improve 10/13/2026

Reflective Teaching: How Video and AI Help Teachers Improve Reflective teaching matters. As teachers and professionals, we need to ask ourselves: how are we reflecting and improving? The times I've videoed myself teaching have been hard to watch, but I've learned so much. As you listen to the innovations happening in the teacher education program at Valdosta State University, think about how reflection can improve your teaching. Dr. Karen Terry has spent more than 30 years in education as a teacher, administrator, district leader, and now a professor preparing future teachers. Her goal is for the teachers from her program to still be happy in the classroom ten years later. A big part of her program is the connection with mentor teachers. In today's show, Karen shares how her student teachers record their lessons and use both AI coaching AND mentor feedback to reflect and grow. I find it fascinating that each one adds value. Some student teachers who are eager to grow record themselves, reflect with AI, and try strategies they might not have found otherwise. I would argue that what changes these teachers is their commitment to reflection and growth, along with their willingness to listen to their mentors and use the tools they're given. Most teachers I know are overly critical of themselves, so we need to give ourselves grace when we watch ourselves teach. Yet reflective use of video can be a valuable tool! In this episode, you'll learn: What most student teachers say after they finally watch the lesson they thought was terrible How an AI coach walks a new teacher through reflecting on one goal at a time Why a skeptical veteran mentor ended up named mentor of the year How one student teacher used video to handle a student's tough behavior Karen's test for telling a lasting tool from a passing fad What happened when her students wrote their own rules for using AI If this episode helped you, please rate or review the show wherever you listen. It helps other teachers find it. Show notes, the full transcript, and the research behind this episode: /episode/index/show/10minuteteacher/id/43267338

Student Belonging: A Principal of the Year's Plan 10/12/2026

Bridge in the Classroom: A Screen-Free Math Game 10/09/2026

Screen Value, Not Screen Time: Leading Schools in the AI Age 10/08/2026

Grief in the Classroom When Teachers Are Grieving Too 10/07/2026

Grief in the Classroom When Teachers Are Grieving Too 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 lived just four months. I knew this show would be about grief, but it took such an honest turn that it became one of the most authentic conversations about grief in the classroom that I've ever heard. I'm glad we had this conversation and I hope it helps people better understand both what teachers have to help kids with and what we deal with ourselves. A gentle note: this episode talks about the death of a baby and about miscarriage. If little ones are listening, you may want to save it for later. When a student is grieving, do you bring it up or let them be? Some kids want to talk. Others just want a normal day with their friends. Haleigh and Rebecca are cousins who work in the same Connecticut school district, so their advice comes from the children they see every day. In this episode, you'll learn: How does grief show up in a classroom when a child never says a word about it? The one word a school psychologist says every teacher needs when a student is grieving Why Haleigh wrote a poem a few lines at a time for six years while rocking her baby son to sleep What it's like to show up for your students when you're grieving yourself, and why Haleigh says no one talks about it How Kennedy's family reacted when they first saw the book, and what happened the day the first copies arrived Haleigh Bresnan teaches first grade in eastern Connecticut and wrote If You're Lucky Enough to Know a Unicorn. Her cousin, Rebecca Brigner, is a school psychologist in the same district and illustrated the book. Full show notes, research, and transcript: /episode/index/show/10minuteteacher/id/43201953

Using AI? Keep Teachers in the Driver's Seat 10/06/2026

A Blind Teacher on Truly Seeing Your Students 10/05/2026

Celebrating 1,000 Episodes: My Son Turns the Tables on Me! 10/02/2026

Celebrating 1,000 Episodes: My Son Turns the Tables on Me! 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, but it is also my son asking me questions. I let John, my son and editor, take this show where he wanted. He asked some pretty personal questions but that was ok. It is good to get the personal stories behind all of it, and here you go. I'm so glad I get to do this work. I appreciate all of you who listen, share the show with your friends, and suggest people to come on. Without you, I wouldn't have a show. So, if you want to hear some stories and motivations behind the show, celebrate with us for episode 1000. I also need to say thank you to my husband, Kip, son, John, and my daughter, Susan (she did advertising for me for a while). And our oldest son, James, has also rooted for the show. It is a family project and has blessed us so very much. And speaking of sponsors, thank you to all of the companies who have sponsored the show through the years. You have made it possible, and I'm excited about the many companies who I'm talking to now about sponsoring future weeks of the show. OK, I guess I haven't thanked the academy yet (ha ha), but this isn't about the academy but about teachers and kids. I love teaching and love students and love getting to bring the stories that can help all of us be better. Thanks again. And I will see you later, educator! Full show notes and the complete transcript: /episode/index/show/10minuteteacher/id/43152068

Productive Struggle: When to Help and When to Hold Back 10/01/2026

New Teacher Advice From a 3-Time Teacher of the Year 09/30/2026

Frustrated With AI? Make It Interview You First 09/29/2026

Expelled 3 Times, Now a School Leader: The Believement Gap 09/28/2026

Student Mental Health Questions for Teachers: What Am I Missing? 09/25/2026

Why Kids Can't Stop Moving: The Neuroscience Behind a Student's Need to Move 09/24/2026

5 Easy Brain Breaks for Your Classroom 09/23/2026

5 Easy Brain Breaks for Your Classroom 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 highest potential. The five: a backward race through the room, 60-second pitches, Name Three Things, cell phone ping pong, and the penny arm flip. Each takes a few minutes. Several of them build the soft skills students rarely get to practice — talking, pitching, and thinking on their feet. Rob also answers the question every teacher has: what happens when someone walks in to observe and thinks you're just playing? When his school moved from 42-minute to 68-minute class periods, his administration encouraged brain breaks to help teachers chunk instruction. And the students noticed. "If I don't do this, Vicki, they're begging me," he says. In this episode, you'll learn: - What a brain break is and why students need one - The backward race: a whole-class reset that gets everyone moving - 60-second pitches: a brain break that builds public speaking - Name Three Things: a fast head-to-head for quick processing - Cell phone ping pong and the penny arm flip — two games students will ask for - What to say to an observer who thinks you're playing - Why novelty and breaking routine make a classroom remarkable Full show notes, resources, and the complete transcript: If this episode is useful to you, leave a rating wherever you're listening — it's how other teachers find the show. /episode/index/show/10minuteteacher/id/42999983

5 Ways to Build Reading Stamina in Grades 6-12 09/22/2026

5 Ways to Build Reading Stamina in Grades 6-12 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 still cannot sustain attention on a page. So they fake read. They look at the book, the eyes move, and nothing happens, and because it all goes on inside their heads it is almost impossible to catch during independent reading time. She gives five moves, drawn from her own classroom and from the work of Penny Kittle, Laura Robb, and NCTE: give them protected time, give them choice, get them conferencing and talking about books, advertise great reads so they can see themselves and see past themselves, and then challenge them to stretch — longer books, harder books, new genres. And she is blunt about frustration. "I think sometimes as teachers, especially with older kids, especially older, struggling readers, we want to avoid frustration at all costs. And I don't know that that's doing them any favors." Her alternative is not to remove the hard thing. It is to teach a student to notice they are frustrated and to keep going anyway — because reading stamina, as she puts it, is brain stamina. It is the same muscle they need in science and social studies. In this episode, you'll learn: - What reading stamina actually is — NCTE defines it as sustaining mental effort without scaffolds or adult support - Fake reading: why it is so hard to catch, and what it costs - The five moves — time, choice, conferencing, vision, challenge - Why self-selected reading drives engagement and vocabulary at the same time - How to let a student stretch past their "level" when motivation is doing the work - The exact language to use with a frustrated reader, and why removing frustration backfires - Why a reading specialist calls herself the reading coach, not the reading teacher Full show notes, resources, and the complete transcript: /episode/index/show/10minuteteacher/id/42983898

Rebound: How Schools Accelerate Learning Recovery 09/21/2026

Rebound: How Schools Accelerate Learning Recovery NUMBER 4 IN OUR COUNTDOWN OF THE TOP 10 EPISODES OF THE FIRST 1,000. This one originally aired in December 2021 and has been downloaded 26,813 times — the fourth most-listened-to episode in the history of the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. Dr. Douglas Fisher came on to talk about Rebound, the book he wrote with Nancy Frey, Dominique Smith, and John Hattie. The pandemic framing is dated. The research underneath it is not — and it answers a question every teacher still has: when a student is behind, do you go back, or do you go forward? Doug's answer is forward. The acceleration research says so, and it comes from a place most of us never look: gifted education. That literature has one finding that should stop you cold. On average, forty percent of instructional minutes are spent on things students already know. We call it review. Students identified as gifted have been telling us for decades what it actually is — boredom, dressed up as instruction. So you find out where students actually are. You keep the pace brisk. You make the relevance obvious. You rebuild confidence in learners who have stopped believing their own effort matters. And you build knowledge in advance: a ninety-second video on the LMS, two concepts and two vocabulary words, so the time you have together live can move. He is also blunt about the language we use. "This learning loss narrative is really dangerous," he says. "That's what's killing my morale right now… I'm not convinced that the ninth graders all of a sudden started reading like fourth graders." There is unfinished learning. That's a different thing, and knowing exactly where a student is and teaching them what they need next is, in his words, our superpower. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why acceleration beats remediation — and where that research actually comes from - The 40% finding: how much class time goes to content students already know - The four moves of acceleration: know where they are, keep the pace, build relevance, rebuild confidence - Preview and review — a better way to think about asynchronous work than "homework" - Why tutoring should teach students HOW to learn, not just what they missed - "Water, water everywhere": the student data we store and never use - Why "learning loss" is the wrong phrase, and "unfinished learning" is the right one Full show notes, resources, and the complete transcript: If this episode is useful to you, leave a rating wherever you're listening — it's how other teachers find the show. /episode/index/show/10minuteteacher/id/42902775

AI Literacy for Teachers: Free Lessons, No Expertise Needed 09/18/2026

AI Literacy for Teachers: Free Lessons, No Expertise Needed You do not have to be an AI expert to teach AI literacy. Laura Gray says nobody is one — and points to free, ready-to-teach lessons that work in any subject. SPONSORED: Experience AI, a co-developed program by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Google DeepMind, sponsored this episode. All opinions are my own and that of the guest. Experience AI is a free AI literacy program with ready-to-teach lessons for ages 8 to 16, in any subject. Laura asked some third graders how a smart speaker works. They told her the question gets recorded and sent to a human being who looks up the answer and speaks it back. Her own four-year-old told her a very short lady lives inside her phone. Children are building theories about these systems whether or not a screen ever comes into your classroom, which is the whole case for teaching this even if you never plug anything in. Laura's advice on the expertise problem is the part I keep repeating: nobody is an expert in AI, so stop trying to be one and start small. In this episode, you'll learn: • Why you are likely already teaching AI literacy in your subject without naming it • How to weave AI into what you already teach without going off track • What this looks like at age eight versus age fifteen, including the unplugged advertisement-detective lesson for younger students • Why anthropomorphizing AI is riskier for children than adults assume • "Discernment instead of skepticism," and why she chose that word on purpose • The crutch test — am I reaching for this because I don't know how? — and what students lose when the answer is yes • Where to start in the free curriculum, and how the lessons are edited and localized by the teachers using them Laura Gray is a Senior Learning Manager at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, where she manages Experience AI across North America. Experience AI is free, available in 20+ languages, has been downloaded more than a million times across over 195 countries, and won the 2025 UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICT in Education. Full show notes, resources, and the complete transcript: /episode/index/show/10minuteteacher/id/42954693

Blended Learning Best Practices That Still Hold Up (Recorded 2021) - episode #5 of all time 09/11/2026

Blended Learning Best Practices That Still Hold Up (Recorded 2021) - episode #5 of all time NUMBER 5 IN OUR COUNTDOWN OF THE TOP 10 EPISODES OF THE FIRST 1,000. This one originally aired in 2021 and has been downloaded more than 25,000 times — the fifth most-listened-to episode in the history of the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. Thomas Arnett and the Christensen Institute surveyed nationally representative samples of teachers and administrators about what teaching actually looked like during the pandemic. The headline finding was brutal and clear: seventy-nine percent of hybrid teachers were running concurrent instruction — the room and the Zoom at once — and in the free-response comments they said flatly that it could not be done well. Hardest year of my career, said teachers who had been teaching for thirty years. But a small minority said the opposite. They said it worked. What they did differently is the whole reason this episode still matters five years later: instead of stretching one live lesson across two audiences, they built their lessons as online resources students moved through at their own pace, and spent class time checking in with individual kids. Those are the teachers who reported knowing their students better than they usually do. And when the Institute compared tool use before and after, the biggest jumps in adoption were in exactly those tools — lesson creation and screen recording. There's a second finding in here that has nothing to do with the pandemic and everything to do with your building. Asked how well things were going, administrators clustered between sixty and a hundred. Teachers split into two clusters — one around seventy or eighty, and another around thirty to forty. Same schools. Two different realities. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why concurrent instruction — teaching the room and the screen at once — failed for almost everyone who tried it - What the small minority of teachers who said "this worked" actually did instead - The tools whose adoption jumped the most, and why that tells you which teachers changed their methodology - The optimism gap between what administrators reported and what teachers reported - Three recommendations for school leaders, including what NOT to cancel when the emergency ends - Vicki's question that outlives the pandemic entirely: teachers are going back to what worked for them — but did it ever work? Full show notes, resources, and the complete transcript: If this episode is useful to you, leave a rating wherever you're listening — it's how other teachers find the show. /episode/index/show/10minuteteacher/id/42781770

How to Teach Writing with Digital Media 09/10/2026

Neuroscience Research: 5 Ways to Superior Teaching 09/09/2026

What is Mastery Learning and How Do You Implement It Effectively? 09/08/2026

What is Mastery Learning and How Do You Implement It Effectively? Mastery learning is the driver's-test rule applied to school: if a student fails the test, they take it again until they pass. Jon Bergmann teaches that way, full time, in chemistry and physics. This is #8 in the Top 10 of the First 1,000, a two-week countdown of the most-downloaded episodes of the 10 Minute Teacher leading up to episode 1,000 on September 28, 2026. Jon Bergmann is one of the two teachers who started the flipped classroom movement — and he has spent the years since making the case that flipping was never the destination. Mastery was. He came back to the classroom in 2019 specifically to teach this way, and he wrote the how-to manual he wished he'd had. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why mastery learning is a simple idea most schools already accept everywhere except the gradebook - How an exchange student who arrived in January, with no chemistry background, accidentally proved flipped mastery could work - What a mastery unit looks like in physics — five or six lessons, then a test where students get one shot at hitting the target - The number one reason teachers abandon mastery learning in the first year, and the strategy Jon and Aaron Sams built to fix it - How tiered tests work: a deep-understanding test, a clear test, and a basic test — and how you decide what every student must know versus what is nice to know - Why the research says mastery learning helps lower-achieving students most, and which courses are the easiest place to begin - Where to go next if you want to keep learning: Teach Better's Grid Method, the Mastery Transcript Consortium, and the wider competency-based learning world Show notes, resources, and the full transcript: We are eight episodes away from number 1,000. If you've been listening along, subscribe and stay with me for the next thousand — and if a colleague came to mind while you listened, send this one to them. /episode/index/show/10minuteteacher/id/42777545

Engage Every Learner: 8 Timeless Classroom Principles #9 Episode (updated for 2026) 09/07/2026

Are You an Upset Teacher? How to Understand What Is Wrong (#10 of all time) 09/04/2026

AI in Schools: Stop AI Detection, Start Learning Detection 09/03/2026

Academic Integrity: What 22 Confessions Taught a Teacher 09/02/2026

10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher

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