🗑 5 cool things to do at the end of the semester

📺 FREE WEBINAR: What’s Next in AI for Schools: Insights for 2026

AI in education is evolving rapidly, and district leaders need to prepare for what’s ahead.

In this Brisk Innovators 2025 webinar finale, Arman Jaffer, Founder & CEO of Brisk Teaching, will be joined by Phil Hintz and Matt Miller, to explore the trends shaping AI in 2026 and beyond.

Together, they’ll share how schools can stay future-ready, anticipate challenges, and build on what they’ve learned this year to drive innovation with confidence.

📆 Date: December 17
⏰ Time: 1 pm U.S. Eastern / 10 am U.S. Pacific
📍 Location: Online
💵 Cost: FREE
♻️ Replay available? YES

🎯 QUICK TEACHING STRATEGY 🎯

😎 5 cool things to do at the end of the semester

Want to plug some holes in your lesson plans as the semester wraps up? Here are some fun things you can try in these last days before break.

1. Hour of AI: The Hour of AI makes teaching AI literacy easy, engaging, and fun. Empower your students to become the next generation of innovators with AI.

2. 40 sites for students with free time on their hands: If your students ever say, “Hey, I’m done … what do I do now?” … this list will give them something productive and learning-focused to do!

3. 20 ideas for digital end-of-semester projects: Final projects can help students summarize and review content from the entire semester. Plus, they can create fantastic products with what they've learned!

4. Create a time capsule with Adobe Express: It’s a fun way for students to wrap up their year and create a digital keepsake of their favorite things. Use this free template in Adobe Express to make it look nice!

5. Summarize the year (or class content) in Spotify Wrapped style: Spotify Wrapped summarizes your students’ year in music. Use the same style to recap things they’ve learned — or their year — or to show what they’ve learned.

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

📺 10 things to know about Ditch Summit

1. Dates: December 15th until January 11th.

When the summit opens on the 15th, you’ll have access to all of the video sessions from previous summits — nearly 100 to choose from.

2. We drop a new featured session every day.

We have eight new featured sessions this year — presentations by fantastic, engaging educators with important messages to share. A new one is released every day through December 24.

3. We have spotlight sponsor sessions, too!

Our sponsors get to present, too! I only offer this opportunity to my favorite companies — the ones with really great products. Their sessions are fantastic.

This year’s spotlight sponsors are Figma for Education, Book Creator/Kami, Google for Education, Padlet, Wakelet and St. Jude.

4. You’re going to get more emails than usual.

Be warned: I’ll send you an email every day while we’re releasing new sessions. Then, I’ll email you during the summit to tell you about sessions you can watch.

I beg you: If you love the newsletter, please don’t unsubscribe because I’m emailing you a lot during the summit. It’s a unique thing!

5. Win a “swag pack” by sharing the summit.

Did you catch this earlier? Share your excitement for the Ditch Summit on social media. Fill out the form (linked above in the email intro) and we’ll pick three big winners on Sunday, December 14!

6. We have session topics for everyone.

Between new 2025 sessions and previous sessions, everyone is covered. This year’s new sessions include artificial intelligence, school culture, relationship building, technology, and more.

Previous sessions include tech tools, creativity, project-based learning, teacher wellness, student engagement, and more.

7. Our presenters? 🔥🔥🔥

They include national teachers of the year, New York Times bestsellers, top speakers at edu conferences, and some of your favorite online educator voices and personalities.

Previous speakers include James Clear (author, Atomic Habits), Kim Bearden (Ron Clark Academy), Austin Kleon (author, Steal Like an Artist), and Brad Montague (co-creator, Kid President).

8. Get free PD credit for watching.

After you watch a session, generate a free certificate of completion for 1 hour of professional development credit. There are ~100 sessions available, so you can knock out lots of PD hours this way.

9. Share your learning on the #DitchSummit hashtag.

Across all of the socials, use the #DitchSummit hashtag to share — and to see what others are sharing. We’ll be watching — and will amplify your posts when you share about the summit! (PS: Use the fun template above to tell people you’re attending!)

10. Everything disappears after January 11.

The summit doesn’t stay open forever. All of the videos, PDF notes, forms for certificates of completion, etc.? They become unavailable when the summit closes after January 11. Do all of the things before then. It all re-opens next December.

👋 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!