Ditch That Textbook Podcast :: Education, teaching, edtech :: #DitchPod

In this episode of the Ditch That Textbook podcast hosts Matt Miller and Karly Moura share news about Magic School's new SEL lesson generator and a contest for sharing Ditch Summit. They discuss CS Ed Week resources including 20 ways to celebrate the Hour of Code and explore creativity with AI and NASA's Space Jam. They also provide tech tips on creating fill-in-the-blank image generator prompts and using virtual versions of robots. Matt and Karly share quick teaching strategies like writing a message in binary for students to decode and asking an AI assistant for common misconceptions about content. They also share a template of the week and ideas for using it. News and updates: Magic School has a new SEL lesson generator! Other new-ish tools from MagicSchool.ai include their Real World Connections Tool and the Standards Unpacker Tool. Win prizes for sharing Ditch Summit?!?!? Here’s how you can participate … DitchSummit.com your unique referral link Learn more in this issue of the DTT email newsletter. The Big idea: Computer Science Education Week Resources 20 Ways to celebrate the Hour Of Code Unplugged CS resources include Hello Ruby, Kodable Unplugged and the “Program the Teacher” activity from CSinSF. Explore Boards Creativity with AI & NASA’s Space Jam Flip and NASA Live Event Tech tips: Create fill-in-the-blank image generator prompts with Microsoft designer. Check out this Tweet from Becky Keene for a link to an example prompt. Use a virtual version of robots or physical computing devices to enhance your instruction. Visit Bee-Bots online, Ozobot simulator, and MakeCode for Micro:bits. Robots you might want to try in your classroom: Beebots Dash and Dot Ozobots Micro:bit Makey Makey Quick teaching strategies: Write your students a message in binary and have your class decode the message as a warm up. Use Binary Translator and give your students the Binary Code Translator Key. Ask an AI assistant for common misconceptions about your content (#5 in this post Lesson planning with AI: Save time and get ideas) Template of the week Learning awards template Share with us on social media! Use #Ditchbook or tag @jmattmiller or @Karlymoura on Twitter/X Don't forget to join the Ditch That Textbook email newsletter at DitchThatTextbook.com/join and be sure to subscribe to the show.

In this episode of the Ditch That Textbook podcast, hosts Matt Miller and Karly Moura delve into the exciting world of lesson planning with AI. They explore free tools that can help educators save time, offering quick teaching strategies and tech tips that can be implemented immediately. Additionally, they provide updates on education news and share innovative ideas for utilizing the template of the week. News and Updates YouTube will show labels on videos that use AI We have a new community! Join AI for Admins, an email newsletter and community providing AI tips, discussion, and policy ideas for school/district leaders. The Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit is almost here! Get all of the details and snag your FREE ticket at ⁠DitchSummit.com⁠ The Big Idea Artificial intelligence can help you write lesson plans faster -- and give you new ideas you might not consider. Here are some tips and strategies you can use. Check out our post Lesson planning with AI: Save time and get ideas. Ask an AI assistant for a lesson plan. Suggested tools: ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Bard, Perplexity, Anthropic Claude. Use AI tools to create lessons or parts of lessons for you. Suggested tools: MagicSchool.ai, EduAide, Diffit Curipod. Tech Tips This idea comes from Nadine Gilkison, she suggests using responses from your students’ interest surveys to help craft AI prompts. Using resources like MagicSchool.ai’s “Make it Relevant” tool you can generate ideas that make what you’re teaching relevant to your class based on their interests and background. Check out: Student interest surveys to connect learning to their world - Ditch That Textbook Use Google Forms to record data about your students. Check out: 25 practical ways to use Google Forms in class, school Quick Teaching Strategies: Try the add-and-pass strategy but add an AI twist by having an AI assistant generate the prompt for you! Ask AI to begin a story using your content. Have students either finish the story or use the add-and-pass strategy to complete it. Check out: Add and pass: A fun activity to get them moving AND creating - Ditch That Textbook Create a checklist for common feedback for students. Read: How do I give feedback to 100+ students? Template of the Week ⁠Be the Bot template from Ditch That Textbook Don't forget to join the Ditch That Textbook email newsletter at ⁠DitchThatTextbook.com/join⁠ and be sure to subscribe to the show.

Welcome to the revival of the Ditch That Textbook Podcast, hosted by Matt Miller and now joined by Karly Moura! In this exciting new season, we will be recapping the content shared in the Ditch That Textbook newsletter, along with other news and updates from the education world. Join us as we dive into a big idea, delve into quick teaching strategies, and discuss a template of the week, designed to empower educators with practical tools for their classrooms. Get ready to be inspired, informed, and equipped to revolutionize your teaching approach. News and Updates DitchSummit.comGoogle Slides is getting GIFs and Stickers! The Big Idea Magic School AIIEP generator.Canva's Magic Media Tech Tips Microsoft's Bing Chat4 ways Microsoft uses artificial intelligence to support teaching and learningAI for Educationprompt library for educators Template of the Week Yelp Review TemplateApril WatkinsNote: April created her own Yelp Review template to use with her students. You can create your own or use ours.Lindy HockenbaryChad Miller Next Week Don't forget to join the Ditch That Textbook email newsletter at DitchThatTextbook.com/join and be sure to subscribe to the show.

Back to school is getting close. And as we get closer, many educators are thinking about how remote learning fits into their teaching plans. As we make those plans and create strategies, there are two important words to keep in mind, and how we balance them will have a lot to do with our students' success. In this episode, we will talk about those two things and how we can use them successfully.

There are lots of digital tools out there to help students record their thinking. video tools. Audio tools. There's a lot to choose from. but what if we, as teachers, use some of those tools to give our students instructions? This could be especially important during remote learning. In this episode, I'll talk through the idea, which was first shown to me by fellow educator Holly Clark.

When we do instruction remotely, it's nice to be able to record videos for your students. You can record instructional videos, daily check-in videos, announcements, and more. Lots of educators are using Flipgrid (flipgrid.com) for this. In this episode, I share a couple of quick tips to level up your videos for your students on Flipgrid.

Are you a Google-using educator or a Microsoft-using educator? Both companies offer training for educators that goes WAY beyond simple support pages. Google has the Google for Education Training Center, which helps you get Google certified and provides courses for learning their products. The Microsoft Educator Center offers lots of courses on a wide variety of topics -- on Microsoft products and others. In this episode, I'll tell you all about them both.

Imagine a conference you could attend that had lots of really, really good presenters. Imagine they were presenting on lots of topics that really interested you. Now imagine that conference happening for free, every day, and virtually. That's the idea behind the Global EdTech Academy, a project by CUE and Microsoft. They include lots of presentations, master classes, and office hours you can attend for free. In this episode, I'll tell you all about it and where to get signed up!

Summer is a great time for us to renew and recharge. But once we have, sometimes we want to level up our teaching skills. In this episode, I'll share a handful of courses you can take on edtech tools that will widen your teaching repertoire.

YouTube has some pretty fun videos to watch. That should be no surprise. it is the second largest search engine in the world! YouTubers have found very creative ways to engage their viewers. We can look to YouTube for inspiration on the activities we ask our students to do! In this episode, I share a fun idea for your next video activity with your students -- The unboxing video!

I love having a whiteboard to write on whenever I'm in a classroom! But when we are doing remote learning, or when we want to engage students in digital spaces, sometimes the whiteboard doesn't translate into those spaces easily. What can we do? In this episode, I will share lots of options for recreating a whiteboard in digital spaces.

We have had to do a lot of adapting and learning in a short period of time with our adjustments to remote learning. To help provide some ideas and solutions going forward, I have created a free online course about remote learning. in this episode, I will tell you what to expect if you enroll and a little bit about what you might learn.

After a hiatus of more than a month, I'm back! My new book, Tech Like a PIRATE, is now finally available! In this episode, you will hear all about it. Plus, I will share where you can find lots of free resources whether you buy the book or not! Plus, you can read the "lost chapter" of the book, the one I wrote that didn't make it in print!

when all of our students don't have equal access to the internet, what can we encourage them to do to keep learning going? In this episode, the third in a series of activities you can do with no internet, I share four final ideas to help keep the learning going and help students develop themselves as learners.

When students don't have equal access to the internet, what's a teacher to do? There are lots of options for students who don't have regular access to the internet. We can encourage them to do certain activities that will help them grow in our content areas and as lifelong learners. In this episode, we will talk about three more ways to build our learners without focusing on the internet.

If your students don't all have equal access to the internet during remote learning, you are not alone. Many educators have concerns about the equity of access during remote learning. However, there are still lots of activities students can do to advance their learning and make themselves better learners. In this episode, I will share three ideas to keep learning going and help students develop themselves as learners from home.

Could you handle a little extra happiness in your day? I recently found an app that helps you track and reflect on what you are grateful and happy for. This could be a great tool for us as educators. It could certainly help our students. And the prompts inside of it could make for great discussions and reflections for students!

With the world changing -- and our class situations changing -- during this time of pandemic, what do students need from us? Their needs may be different than they were when we were last face-to-face in class with them. On the OnlineLearningIdeas.com website, Holly Clark and I discuss five things we think students need from their teachers right now. In this episode, I summarize those five things.

lots of educators are using video calls to do remote learning. But once you and your students are on a video call, what can you do? In the previous episode, I shared three ideas. In this episode, we take it to the next level with three new ideas!

lots of educators around the world are connecting with their students through video calls. There are lots of different platforms to use. But once you get on a video call, what will you do with your students? There's so much more to it then direct instruction! In this episode, I share three ideas for using video calls with your students.