📺 Ditch Summit Day 5: Teacher perseverance + Book Creator

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📢 New speaker days: 5 days down, 3 to go
We’ll send Ditch Summit emails every day thru Mon. Dec. 23, when all speakers will be released (then less frequent emails until the summit ends Jan. 10).

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🗓 Ditch Summit: 5 days down, 21 days to go
The Ditch Summit closes on Jan. 10, 2025. After that, sessions + resources are unavailable until

🤔 What to do during the Ditch Summit: Register for a Math-A-Thon

🎉 Big news: We at Ditch That Textbook are now official partners with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital! (In fact, they’re a new Ditch Summit spotlight sponsor. You’ll hear more about them later.)

And to celebrate, we’re partnering on some special Ditch Summit giveaways!

• 🎯 Focus on St. Jude Math-A-Thon: An event that helps students practice math skills and teaches the importance of helping others.

• ➡️ How it works: Students work through the Math-A-Thon Funbook to practice math activities while sharing their fundraising page to earn prizes AND help kids of St. Jude.

• ⏰ Perfect timing: Often, teachers will coincide a Math-A-Thon with spring state tests to help students practice.

And, through your efforts, you and your students will support children with childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

🎁 How to win prizes: A lucky winner will get a Stanley-style St. Jude tumbler — and you can get a free copy of my book, AI for Educators! Here’s how:

1. Request info about a Math-A-Thon here.

2. Register to host a Math-A-Thon before Jan. 10 to enter to win the tumbler.

3. Complete the Math-A-Thon by March 31 to get AI for Educators for free.

Learn more about St. Jude Math-A-Thon here.

📺 VIDEO: If you’re new to Ditch Summit — or want to make sure you’re not missing out on anything — watch our Ditch Summit welcome / tour / tutorial video here.

📲 SOCIAL: Don’t forget to share what you’re learning on social media using the #DitchSummit hashtag on social media — Twitter/X, Instagram (log in to view hashtag), Bluesky, wherever!

📺 FEATURED SPEAKER 📺

Don't Be Bajiggidy: How to Slay with Classroom Tech with Manny Curiel

When Manny Curiel moved to the United States from Guadalajara, Mexico, he struggled to speak English can get used to U.S. society.

Since then, he’s become a licensed elementary school teacher.

Now, he’s a Head of Community at a major edtech company.

His story has been one of perseverance, of being true to yourself, and having some fun along the way.

Manny’s Ditch Summit session is packed FULL of his big personality — and plenty of stories throughout his journey.

(Can you tell from that photo above?!?)

Manny encourages us to stick with it — just like he did after moving to the United States — and to persevere when faced with new circumstances.

📺 WATCH: Don't Be Bajiggidy: How to Slay with Classroom Tech with Manny Curiel

🔎 SPOTLIGHT SPONSOR 🔎

Creativity and STEM in ANY Classroom with Book Creator

Book Creator is more than a way to publish text books online.

It’s a multimedia powerhouse where students can mash up images, text, video, and content from other sites to show what they’ve learned.

In fact, it’s a great way to infuse STEM into any subject area — and in this Ditch Summit session, Katie Fielding shows you how.

She has created several Book Creator books you can copy and use right away (get them here), including:

• 5E Scientific Notebook

• Engineering Notebook

• Design Thinking Notebook

• Data Science Notebook

• Nature Journal

Book Creator is for any content area or grade level, with page templates and tons of visual, interactive ways for students to display learning.

🎁 BONUS: You can get 3 months of premium Book Creator for FREE! (Their free version — one library with up to 40 books / unlimited students is great, too.)

• Use code DitchSummit at checkout before Jan. 12, 2025. (No credit card necessary.)

OK, enough talk … let’s see this session!

🔎 WATCH: Creativity and STEM in ANY Classroom with Book Creator

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