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🎟️ Come with me to a major edu conference
Next best thing to attending the TCEA Conference …
For lots of reasons, not everyone can attend a major education conference. (Time, money, travel … fear of sticky notes and pens in the expo hall …)
Today, I want to do the best I can to let you attend one — from wherever you are right now.
Recently, I presented at the TCEA Conference in Austin, Texas … and before that at the FETC Conference in Orlando, Florida.
They’re both “edtech” (educational technology) conferences — some of the biggest in the United States.
There are lots of presentations you can attend — and the expo hall is bigger than a football field with vendor booths about products you might use every day.
I’m not totally sure I’m allowed to do this (forgiveness instead of permission!), but …
… I recorded full video of all of my sessions over these last two conferences.
You can get them — and ALL of the presentations slides — on my conference sites below.
In today’s 💡 Big Idea, I give you a quick summary of all 11 presentations from the TCEA Conference. (So you can get ideas at a quick glance.)
Or if you’re feeling ambitious, use those buttons above to jump into the conference resources and watch full video of some (or all?!?) of my sessions.
(Why the subject line? I wanted to show what you’ll get from these conference resources — 100+ lesson plans and activities shared at all of the presentations!)
Inside:
💰 Sponsor a St. Jude Math-A-Thon
👀 DTT Digest: Escape room, email, Wordwall, Reading Rainbow
💡 The Big Idea: The best from my TCEA presentations
🗄 Template: Let’s Go Viral writing activity
😄 Smile of the day: I can smell this picture
👋 How we can help
💰 Sponsor a St. Jude Math-A-Thon
This message is sponsored by St. Jude.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital supports kids and their families through critical medical situations in the toughest moments of their lives.
You and your school can help St. Jude support kids by putting on a Math-A-Thon.
These fundraisers help kids reinforce their math skills (just in time for state testing) AND remind them of the power they have to help others.
I’m an official St. Jude partner and I’m thrilled to get to connect you to St. Jude to support their life-saving efforts.
👀 DTT Digest
4 teaching resources worth checking out today
🔒 Free Valentine’s Day Escape Room — Get Candy Crush, a no-prep, virtual escape room activity that features Valentine’s Day and candy-themed puzzles.
📧 Learn how to email — Grab this activity from Quizizz: How to Email Your Teacher. A ready-to-run activity on email etiquette.
🤩 Worksheet to WOW: Try a Wordwall vocabulary "match up" activity — Wordwall can check the accuracy of students' work immediately (timely feedback). You can generate audio for the keyword, letting students hear the correct pronunciation in multiple languages (which also is more accessible).
🌈 Catch an episode of Reading Rainbow —The new iteration of the PBS series Reading Rainbow, featuring clips with original host Levar Burton, offers engaging videos that spark creativity, explore world cultures, and foster community among early learners.
💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡
🎙️ The best from my TCEA presentations
I had a blast presenting at TCEA in Austin, Texas!
The first three months of the year are always SO busy with teacher conferences. Almost every year, I present at two of the biggest state edtech conferences — FETC in Orlando, Florida, and TCEA (this year in Austin, Texas).
They’re really close together on the calendar! In fact, just a couple weeks ago I shared my FETC resources with you.
Now, you get my TCEA resources!
That resources page includes slides to all of my sessions and resources I share with attendees. It even includes full session video!
Here’s a quick rundown of what you’ll find — and some key takeaways …
(Quick list of all 11: 1. Free teaching resources; 2. AI critical thinking; 3. FigJam curiosity and questions; 4. Diffit; 5. FigJam templates; 6. Video with ScreenPal; 7. SchoolAI Spaces chatbots; 8. Brisk Teaching; 9. Viral learning with Book Creator; 10. MagicSchool; 11. Tomorrow Glasses (my AI keynote).)
1) Like TPT for Free: Free Pre-Made Digital Teaching Resources
💭 Summary: Tons of sites online have access to fantastic pre-made teaching resources — all for FREE! My faves include: PBSLearningMedia for interactives, The Achievery for videos, and our virtual field trips library.
2) Yes, AI CAN Support Critical Thinking in the Classroom
📺 Watch video (FYI: video cut off a little short, sorry!)
💭 Summary: If used properly, AI won’t stand in the way of student thinking. Some faves: the Be the Bot activity and AI images for literary imagery.
3) FigJam: Curiosity, Questions and Exploration: The "It Could Be ... It Is!" Activity
💭 Summary: FigJam can be used to run a whole classroom lesson — all parts, start to finish! This lesson has a fun image reveal feature — and lots of interactivity for students. (FYI: Teachers, schools, and entire districts can get FigJam for free.)
4) All About Diffit with Matt Miller
💭 Summary: I show how I used Diffit to create a multi-part lesson (where students actually think!) in just minutes. PS: Diffit has a new “books” feature that lets you write lessons for specific chapters in books!
5) Templates Galore: Matt's Favorite Pre-Made FigJam Templates
💭 Summary: FigJam is PACKED with pre-made templates for the classroom. In FigJam, click the templates button and drop them right in.
6) 9 Creative Ways to Use ScreenPal in the Classroom
💭 Summary: ScreenPal helps you and your students make videos quickly and easily. Their Chrome extension makes it a breeze, and their free version is really, really good.
7) 10 SchoolAI Spaces Chatbots to Use in Class Right Away
💭 Summary: SchoolAI Spaces chatbots can interact with your students about whatever you’re teaching — or you can choose from pre-created chatbots. The custom ones are really easy to set up!
8) How Brisk Supports Teaching and Learning
📺 Video coming soon
💭 Summary: Brisk adds AI teacher powers to the places you already use — Google tools, YouTube, any website, etc. It can add AI comments to student work — and it has a great student-facing tool, Brisk Boost.
9) Viral Learning: Fun, Social Media-Inspired Activities with Book Creator
💭 Summary: With Book Creator, we can make learning feel like the spaces where students love to spend time. You can use the templates in this Book Creator book to create “viral learning” moments.
10) 10 Ways to Make Learning Relevant with MagicSchool
💭 Summary: MagicSchool’s teacher tools help you transform student activities into fun experiences that feel like the things they love! You’ll see 10 examples in this session — and details on each in this free ebook.
11) Tomorrow Glasses: Preparing Students for an Unknown AI Future
📺 Watch video (from FETC)
💭 Summary: Welcome to my TEDTalk (OK, not a REAL TEDTalk) about what we need to do to prepare students for an AI future. (Spoiler: Focus more on human thinking skills and less on preparing them for specific technology.)
🗄️ TEMPLATE 🗄️
The “Let’s Go Viral” writing activity template
Want to breathe life into writing activities?
This “Let’s Go Viral” writing activity encourages students to write about whatever they’re learning as if they’re producing it for social media.
It works through the same process that your students’ favorite influencers use — the hook, the visuals, the message … everything.
Copy the template. Edit and adjust as necessary. Then assign it to your students and watch them “go viral”!
😄 Smile of the day
Better than other classroom pictures you can smell 🤢
h/t Teacher Memes Facebook group
👋 How we can help
There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education:
Read one of my six books about meaningful teaching with tech.
Take one of our online courses about practical and popular topics in education.
Bring me to your school, district or event to speak. I love working with educators!
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