Teaching is hard, and it keeps changing. Vicki Davis opens with the 200-question test she gave the second week of her first year — a disaster that made her ask what she actually wanted students to be able to do, and set off the chain of changes that led to the internationally recognized Flat Classroom Project. Then, a 2012 study of 242 teachers in the UK and the Netherlands: 93% and 96% of them believed the learning-styles myth, and the teachers who knew more general facts about the brain believed more of the myths, not fewer. So what do we do? We keep learning, and we check the evidence. Today is about encouraging us to learn and grow.

Three educators show what that looks like. Ross McGill of Teacher Toolkit spent 18 months reading MRI research for his new book on the science of learning, and he used to confiscate fidget spinners — "maybe if I had been more evidence-based, I might have been a bit more compassionate." He explains cognitive load in plain English, why learning styles don't hold up while dual coding does, why highlighting and rereading are the least impactful study habits, and his own twist on a classic: Think, Pair, Share, Show Me.

Starr Sackstein, co-author of Actionable Assessment with Michael McDowell, defines formative and summative in a way any teacher can repeat, explains why a grade stops feedback from doing its job, walks through Four Corners and the Post-It trick for equity of voice, and tells on herself about the project whose directions were so unclear that most students missed the point.

Sean Morrisey spent eight years as a school psychologist testing struggling readers before deciding to teach them himself. Eighteen years into fifth grade, he shares the 60-second routine for teaching a word, why morphology unlocks whole word families, why words can't be one-offs, and what he tells teachers carrying guilt about the science of reading: you gotta let it go and get a little better every year.

Then, Vicki (that's me!) closes with ideas you can try tomorrow, a few for parents, and why changing how you teach puts you out on a limb — and why you should go out there anyway.

Show notes, the full transcript, and every resource mentioned: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/bettereveryday - we can all grow, and improve. And sometimes our biggest mistakes lead to the things that set our career up for success.

If this one helped, share it with a teacher who needs the encouragement this week.

Every AI story in the news right now has a human being at the center of it who looked twice. A reporter read the products on Teachers Pay Teachers. A community college chemistry teacher with a full course load read fourteen meta-analyses and found the research was rotten. MIT's own faculty said policing AI was poisoning their relationships with students. In this episode, Vicki Davis and John Davis open with what those stories have in common, and why "the human in the loop" is not a checkbox. It is a teacher.

Then Kathy Nimmer tells her story. She taught high school English for 29 years, totally blind, and it started with a shattered window and a first year she calls "the Rocky Mountains." She is the 2015 Indiana Teacher of the Year, a National Teacher of the Year finalist, and this year the American Foundation for the Blind gave her the Helen Keller Achievement Award. She explains what it means to see students from the heart, how she built SEEDS, a program whose whole job is protecting the joy of brand-new teachers, and why her affirmative observations, notes on only the good, never made a single teacher complacent. And she tells us about the second-grade teacher who watched one little girl a little longer than five doctors did.

Show notes, the full transcript, and every resource mentioned: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/notice

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How do we help this next generation with their relationship to screens, to each other, and to the adults in their lives? That's the question we're digging into today. Betty Ray talks about rites of passage — those moments that help children move from one stage to the next. She also has a genius way to work with children so they gradually earn more responsibility with technology. Lawrence C. Harris is a 20-year-old who looks back on his time in high school just a couple of years ago. He rose out of a traumatic childhood to become successful instead of a statistic, and now he helps other kids move forward. He has tips for reaching kids like him — the ones who don't act out, but need our attention all the same.

Finally, Luddite clubs and screen-free activities are growing fast, and — gasp — here's one for you: bridge! Yes, bridge clubs are growing, and Patty Tucker shares how the ACBL Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, will help you get the cards, the supplies, and the curriculum you need to teach bridge, reinforce math concepts, and have fun in your classroom. We're focusing on screen-free connections and reaching kids this week.

In this episode, you'll learn:

- How much screen time kids average at every age, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics
- The STARS framework for scaffolding a kid's relationship with a device instead of just handing it over
- Signal Check — a simple red, yellow, green system for earning screen privileges
- What NOT to say to a struggling student, and the four-second sentence to say instead
- Why the kid who is "always fine" may need you more than the kid who acts out
- How to get free bridge curriculum, cards, and supplies for your classroom

This show is not here to judge you. It's here to share the facts and the conversations so you can decide what works for your child, your classroom, and your community.

Full show notes and every link: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/reachkids

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Two women were named a 2026 National Principal of the Year — and when you ask them how they did it, they both use the same word: love. In part two of this leadership series, Vicki Davis talks with Amanda Jamerson, associate principal at Shorewood High School in Wisconsin and the 2026 National High School Assistant Principal of the Year, about the restorative discipline framework that cut office referrals by 69 percent, a cell phone policy that actually worked, and why she calls all of it heartwork. Then Sonia E. Ruiz, principal of Jane Addams Middle School in Bolingbrook, Illinois and the 2026 National Middle Level Principal of the Year, explains how she built a middle school where English learners and students with IEPs make real, measurable gains — and why she leads con corazón, with heart.

Show notes and full transcript: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/becoming

Leadership is not a personality you're born with. It can be learned — and if it can be learned, it can be taught. In part one of a two-part series, Vicki Davis talks with Ronn Nozoe, CEO of the National Principals Association (formerly NASSP), about what principals across the country actually told us about AI in their schools — and why the number one thing they need isn't a tool, it's time. Then Muriel Summers describes taking a struggling Title I elementary school and rebuilding it around a single conviction: every person in that building is a leader, including the five-year-olds who interview teacher candidates. The thread running through both conversations is the idea Vicki's mother gave her — make your to-be list before you make your to-do list. Character before tactics. Identity before activity.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why "time" — not training, not tools, not money — is what principals say they need most right now, and what a leader can actually take off a teacher's plate this week

• How to find the two or three teachers everyone in your building already listens to, and why consulting them before a decision solves problems the front office can't

• The difference between a multiplier who draws more capability out of people and a diminisher who shrinks it — and how to tell which one you're being

• What happened when a Title I school taught leadership habits to kindergarteners: discipline referrals fell, academics followed, and the model spread to more than 8,000 schools in over seventy countries

• Why "nobody is just anything" belongs on your wall, and what three words written above a school door did for the children who read them every morning

Full show notes, every book and link from the episode, and the complete transcript:

https://www.coolcatteacher.com/becoming

Part two takes this into the building with two National Principals of the Year who lead with love and prove that it works.

If this show helps you, the single best thing you can do is leave a rating or a review wherever you're listening — it's how other teachers find us. And if one educator comes to mind who needs to hear Muriel's story, send it to them.

AI is already in your school—the real question is how to use it on purpose. In Part 3 of the ISTE 2026 AI & EdTech Super Series, recorded live in Orlando, Vicki Davis talks with three education leaders about implementing AI across a whole school while keeping the teacher at the center. Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Owoh makes the case that reaching kids still starts with relationship. Author Tony Frontier (AI with Intention) reframes the conversation from AI detection to learning detection. And Renaissance product chief Todd Brekhus explains why his team pulled student-facing AI back and built a tool that keeps the teacher in the middle.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why a strong school technology policy runs toward AI, not away from it
• How to shift from catching cheaters to detecting real learning—through integrity, transparency, and explainability
• What students actually say about how much they use AI (and how little guidance they get)
• Why one edtech company pulled its student-facing AI back and put AI on the teacher's side of the desk
• A simple "innovate like a turtle" way to start this week: pick one lesson where kids see what AI gets wrong

This episode is sponsored by Renaissance Learning.

Show notes, every link, and the full series: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/iste2026

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ISTE 2026 Buzz + AI assessment + space education: the conversations every teacher is having this summer, with Dr. Carmalita Seitz, Steve Swanson, and Dr. Mark Wagner.

This summer's biggest ed-tech conversations in one show. Dr. Carmalita Seitz of ISTE+ASCD previews what everyone will be talking about at ISTE 2026 — AI, instructional leadership, the tech backlash, "brain rot," and the return of project-based learning. High school engineering teacher Steve Swanson built his own AI grading tool, ClassLens — then deleted the one-button auto-grade feature because every grade should pass through a teacher's eyes. And Dr. Mark Wagner, author of Space Education, shows why the growing space economy needs every kind of learner.

In this episode, you'll learn:
- What teachers actually take home from ISTE 2026 — and why to lead with good teaching, not the tool
- Why "human in the loop" matters for AI grading, and the privacy questions to ask first
- How to vet an AI tool's data handling (OAuth verification, FERPA, NDPAs)
- The four mindsets students need for the space economy
- What the "overview effect" can teach your classroom

Show notes: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/iste2026

Enjoyed the show? Leave a review wherever you're listening, and share it with a teacher friend.