Ditch That Textbook Podcast :: Education, Teaching, Edtech :: #ditchpod

We have so many mechanisms in our life to keep us from boredom. We check our phones. We listen to music and watch TV. But our brain likes to be bored! It does it's best thinking that way many times. I recently heard author Manoush Zomorodi talking about this idea on the Vrain Waves podcast and had to share some of my takeaways from it!

During the FETC Conference, there were lots of tools and apps shared in a variety of sessions. During the Tech Share Live, The four prisoners shared some of their favorites. In this episode, I have picked four of them that are super interesting to me!

When is the best time to do analytical work? Or administrative tasks? Or insight work? In his book When -- and in his keynote address at the FETC Conference -- author Dan Pink shared what science knows about how to optimize our day. There are fascinating takeaways from it for the classroom and for our daily lives.

Timing is important in so much that we do in schools, whether it's the start of the school day or when we do different types of academic work. In his keynote at the FETC conference, author Dan Pink shared how schools and education can make better decisions on when to do certain things in schools. his insights were fascinating, and I share a few of them in today's episode.

When designing our learning spaces, many times we think about going to Pinterest before we think about turning to research. In today's episode, The Space co-author Bob Dillon shares some practical things you can start doing right away to optimize your classroom for solid student learning.

If you use Google tools very often, you are probably familiar with the feature to make a copy. You can find it under the file menu. In Google Slides, there's a new feature. Make a copy of a slide presentation and only take the slides with you that you need. In today's episode, we hear how to do it and how you might be able to use it.

We all know the importance of building those close relationships with our students. But did you know that being close in proximity helps us develop relationships too? Neuroscience tells us that being in personal space, between two and four feet from a person, can help us develop relationships. How often do we take the time to communicate with our students on that personal level?

Flipgrid lets students respond to a topic or a prompt with a short video clip. Many times, teachers simply ask a question And have students respond to it. What if students recorded those video responses with a new twist? How can we look at those video responses through a different lens that lets students play a different part? I have a couple of ideas you can try!

Lots of teachers have seen great success with gamification. they incorporate the elements of games into their classrooms. If you haven't tried this and are thinking about it, you might be overwhelmed with getting started. You might worry that you don't have all of the pieces in place. In her book, Make Learning Magical, Tisha Richmond offers these two tips to encourage you to give it a try anyway.

It's so easy to get distracted by small tasks ... The kind of things that don't move the needle in the right direction in our lives. For me, that means emails, social media, meetings, and other things. It's important to keep the first thing as the first thing. This quote that I share in today's episode really reminded me to keep my priorities straight.

Have you heard some of the buzz about augmented reality and virtual reality? they are starting to make more and more of a presence in the classroom. During the Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit, Jaime Donally shared some of her favorite apps and ideas for using augmented reality and virtual reality. In this episode, I share some of her suggestions so you can check them out yourself!

If you need to create quick tutorials or instructions for students or parents, You definitely need to check out Iorad. This app creates tutorials on the web, not as a video, so the creation process is really fast and it isn't as data intensive. Use these to give students differentiated instructions for activities and even to share with parents too.

When we only ask students a select few questions on a quiz or a test, it can lead to a game of gotcha. It's almost like we say, gotcha! I figured out what you didn't know! Instead, how can we create assessments that encourage students to show us what they know? in the last episode, I shared a couple of strategies to use. Today, I share two more.

When we give traditional quizzes and tests, it's easy to play a game of gotcha with students. By asking only a select few questions, we are penalizing students for what we caught them not knowing. Instead, we could be empowering them to show us what they do know. In this episode, I'll share a couple of strategies for making that shift on your assessments.

Memes have become so commonplace in social media and online. They can be a great learning tool! They can help students find the essence of what they're learning, expressing it with brevity and a bit of humor. Learn how to help students make memes quickly and easily using Google Drawings. This idea was shared in my presentation in the Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit (DitchSummit.com).

Don't just teach a lesson. Create an experience! When I read that line in Dave Burgess's book, Teach Like a Pirate, it changed the way that I would teach. I started thinking about ways to teach that way with technology and the list grew and grew. This spring, I will release my newest book, Tech Like a Pirate, with tons of ideas you can use in class tomorrow!

Is your Google classroom a mess? Wish it could be more organized? there are a couple simple strategies you can use to take control! Your students will thank you when they can find what they need quickly.

do you ever stop to think about your big wins? You know, the things that have gone really well over the last day, week, or month? or the last semester? Or your entire career? It's so easy to get wrapped up in our to do list and think about what we haven't accomplished instead of what we have.

in a presentation during the Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit, Toney Jackson talked about using rap, poetry, and hip hop in his classes. He encourages his students to have a creative outlet, and he does that purposefully through the culture he is creating in his classroom. Have you thought about the kind of culture that you are creating in your own classroom?

You may have noticed at the beginning of every episode that I mention that I'm a member of the Education Podcast Network. The EPN is a great resource full of great educational podcasts to check out. there's a huge variety of topics, and I'm sure there's something that will be right for you. In today's episode, I talk about some of the great shows in the network.