📺 Ditch Summit: Practical, fun activities your students will love

Watch any of the +100 Ditch Summit sessions on the Ditch Summit Video Library page.

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🗓 Ditch Summit: 20 days down, 7 days to go
The Ditch Summit closes on Jan. 11, 2026. After that, sessions + resources are unavailable until December 2026.

🔎 SPOTLIGHT SPONSOR 🔎

A World of Multimedia Digital Possibilities with Padlet

Years ago, Padlet started out like a digital bulletin board where you could add sticky notes.

Over the years, it has maintained that core — but it has added so many features and applications. (It has also become a solid home base for class for lots of teachers and students.)

In this Spotlight Sponsor Session, Zareen Levien shares how you can use Padlet to:

• Do quick student interest polls

• Plot locations on an interactive map

• Create a home for student podcasts

• Make comic strips

• Create and fill out graphic organizers

• Make book cover designs

• … and much, much more

Zareen created a Padlet board full of all of her examples from her Ditch Summit session (plus a few things she didn’t even get to).

Watch this session to see how you can use this versatile tool.

🔎 WATCH: A World of Multimedia Digital Possibilities with Padlet

📺 CATEGORY COLLECTIONS 📺

😆 Watch these videos on student engagement, voice, and relationships

Students need a reason to come to school.

Some are motivated by grades, by success in their classes, by graduation and whatever comes next.

But that motivation doesn’t extend to everyone. Sometimes, it’s other factors that draw students in — and make all the difference in the world.

In our Category Collection on student engagement, voice, and relationships, our presenters share what has motivated and engaged their own students — ideas you can try, too.

Here’s what’s in the collection …

Building Relationships and Communicating with Students with Kim Bearden — This session, with Ron Clark Academy co-founder Kim Bearden, covers lots of practical ways to connect with students and build trust.

Keeping it Real with Student Relationships in Class with C.J. Reynolds — C.J. Reynolds learned the power of student relationships while teaching in Philadelphia. He shares how he meets students where they are and helps to build strong bonds with them.

Student-Led Classrooms with Paul Solarz — In his classroom, Paul Solarz has let his students lead the way. It’s not the most intuitive way to teach elementary school students, but he has built structures and strategies to keep his students at the center — and you can use them, too.

Other sessions in the Student Engagement, Voice, and Relationships category:

• Amplifying Student Voice: Podcasts, Identity, and Choice with Stevie Frank

• Building Classroom Culture and Healthy Student Relationships with Hedreich Nichols

• How to Build Student Choice and Autonomy in the Classroom with Gina Ruffcorn

• Student Engagement, Projects, and Classroom Culture with Andre Daughty

• Using Conversation to Strengthen Relationships and Learning with Chanel Johnson

• Who’s Listening? A Conversation about Storytelling in the Classroom and Student Identity with Micaela Blei and Onnesha Roychoudhuri

🗄 FROM THE ARCHIVE 🗄

Building Habits to Be the Most Efficient, Effective You with James Clear

James Clear published his book, Atomic Habits, in 2018.

When nobody had heard about it yet, he started reaching out to bloggers, podcasters … anyone who would tell others about his book.

I was one of them.

He sent me a copy of Atomic Habits — way before it sold 20 million copies and turned him into a #1 New York Times bestselling author.

I replied to his email and told him about the Ditch Summit — and how he could tell teachers about habits and how they can impact themselves and their students.

And he said yes! So, from a hotel room the day before an in-person speaking event in 2018, James Clear told me about Atomic Habits and how they can impact teachers.

Now — at the beginning of a new year, a very popular time to set goals and evaluate habits — Atomic Habits is one of the most popular books on Amazon.

You can watch James’s Ditch Summit session about habits for teachers and students right now.

📺 WATCH: Building Habits to Be the Most Efficient, Effective You with James Clear

Watch any Ditch Summit session from previous years on the Ditch Summit Video Library page any time.