🗑 Our best 2024 teaching resources

I’m at the FETC Conference in Orlando this week!

Tomorrow, I leave for Orlando, Florida, for the FETC Conference!

(What, no enthusiasm for my trip to sunny Florida? If it’s cold where you are, I’m guessing probably not …)

I’m a featured speaker and have 4 FETC conference sessions — plus several presentations in the expo hall.

Like any major conference I attend, I want to bring the best I can back to you — even if you can’t attend.

Next week, after the conference is over, I’ll share all of my presentation resources — and full video of some presentations.

If you’ll be at FETC, check out my schedule above — and on my session resources page. I’d love to see you at a presentation — including these expo hall sessions …

• Book Giveaway + Signing: Kami booth #1477 at 3pm Wednesday

• Presentation: SchoolAI booth #3154 at 4pm Wednesday

• Presentation: Class Companion booth #3181sp at 9:30am Thursday

• Presentation: Book Creator booth #1855 at 12:30pm Thursday

• Book Giveaway + Signing (sponsored by St. Jude): Meet the Author booth #1847 at 10:15am Friday

• Presentation: MagicSchool booth #2879sp at noon Friday

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

🗓 Ditch That Textbook Wrapped: Our best of 2024

2024 was a big, fast-paced year for Ditch That Textbook!

Here are some of the highlights, Spotify Wrapped style:

• 134 email newsletters

• 159.7k words written

• 123k+ subscribers (same size as West Palm Beach, FL)

• Subscribers opened 39.69% of our emails

• 14.7 million individual emails delivered

• New email format and new 2-per-week frequency

• 44 speaking events (35 in-person / 9 virtual) in 18 states (+ Northern Mariana Islands)

• I taught high school Spanish full-time in the spring semester

And, to wrap up 2024, here are some of the things subscribers like you loved them most (based on email and website data):

🗄 TEMPLATES 🗄

🎶 Spotify Wrapped template for students (Dec. 9) — Spotify users look forward to “Wrapped” every year, where they get listening stats, learn about their music habits, and see their top songs. This template lets students recap and summarize what they’re learning in Spotify Wrapped style.

🖼 Instagram profile for students (Sept. 9) — Students love following their friends — and celebrities, and people they look up to — on Instagram. If they’re used to learning about people there, they can use this template to summarize what they’ve learned about someone.

🤳🏽 “Let’s Go Viral” writing activity (Nov. 18) — Influencers go through a process to identify their audience and create content for them. What if students could use a similar process to share what they’ve learned? This “Let’s Go Viral” template helps them communicate in a format they know.

🗄 More templates in our Templates Library — We have more than 100 free copy-and-assign templates in our DTT Templates Library. Make a copy. Adjust as necessary. Assign to your students. (Yep, it’s that easy.)

🧑‍🏫 TEACHING IDEAS 🧑‍🏫

🕐 10 low-prep learning activities to try (Dec. 5) — Low-prep doesn’t have to mean less learning. These 10 practical classroom activities can get students thinking and learning while saving you time.

👆🏻 Choice boards: Tips, templates and more (Feb. 29) — Students love autonomy, and it can be lots of fun. Choice boards are very student-centered and give students some control. This newsletter offers tons of examples, templates, strategies, and more.

🤔 “AI weirdness” and the classroom (June 12) — I taught a full load of high school Spanish classes in the spring semester. I used some new AI tools — and talked to my students about AI. This was a simple yet powerful “no prep” strategy I used to help them understand the impact of AI.

❤️ OTHER FAVORITES ❤️

🍎 10 things no one told me about teaching (Sept. 2) — I gave a presentation to high schoolers aspiring to be teachers. It was called “Dear Younger Me” and told them things I wish someone had told me about teaching before I started. You can watch the full video — and get the highlights.

🤖 6 AI-powered Google tools (Nov. 25) — I attended the “Learning in the AI Era” event at Google’s HQ in Mountain View, California. I left with some new perspective about AI in education — and several AI-powered tools to try in the classroom. These were some of my favorites.

👀 Looking for more?

Next week, we’ll share some of our very best resources — things our readers really love.

If you’re a new subscriber, you’ll find some great stuff you probably haven’t seen!

If you’ve been a subscriber for a while, it’ll be a good reminder — or help you catch up on what you missed!

🎯 QUICK TEACHING STRATEGY 🎯

🧐 60-Second Strategy: Flash philosophy

I love these 60-Second Strategies from Edutopia. They’re quick, one-minute videos with really great, practical teaching ideas.

This one’s called Flash Philosophy (from the classroom of Pennsylvania teacher Benjamin Barbour) …

It involves a question — a moral or ethical dilemma, often with political implications. Students write a brief response in 15-20 seconds.

Then, the teacher pairs students for a brief discussion. Then volunteers share their thoughts.

It sharpens critical thinking, but it also encourages classroom community and builds communication skills.

Learn more about Flash Philosophy here.

👋 How we can help

There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education:

1. Read one of my six books about meaningful teaching with tech.

2. Take one of our online courses about practical and popular topics in education.

3. Bring me to your school, district or event to speak. I love working with educators!