🎉 I love edtech updates that are good and FREE
I’m still unpacking my notebook from two conferences — the FETC Conference in Orlando and the TCEA Conference in San Antonio — over the past month.
(Literally a notebook. In 2026, I decided to start carrying around a little physical, paper notebook. It’s been fantastic. But that’s a topic for another day …)
At conferences, I learn some things alongside everyone else — as a spectator.
Others? I teach and share them as I’m learning them.
That’s what happened with Brisk Teaching’s new whiteboard feature. It debuted right before the TCEA Conference in San Antonio. I was scheduled to do demos throughout the day in the Brisk booth — and I wanted to get my hands on this new feature.
It was fun! We did little drawing games in the booth and saw how the new feature worked. (Watch my demo of it here on YouTube.)
There’s SO much you can do with it — and it’s free. (Here’s our new post with 10 ways to use it with students.)
Some of the content I share here in the newsletter about specific apps and tools is sponsored — where companies partner with me to share their products and they have control over the messaging.
Today’s 💡 Big Idea is not sponsored content. I’m sharing Brisk’s whiteboard feature just as something that’s worth sharing because it’s free — and it’s powerful.
Inside:
Stop spending your Sundays planning. Start teaching.
👀 DTT Digest: 4 resources worth checking out
💡 The Big Idea: Elevate your visual learning with Brisk Boost Whiteboard
🎯 Quick Teaching Strategy: Host an epic Winter Olympics review session
😄 Smile of the day: Canvas LMS formatting probs
👋 How we can help
Stop spending your Sundays planning. Start teaching.
This message is sponsored by TeachAid.
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👀 DTT Digest
4 teaching resources worth checking out today
🏆 Enter the SchoolAI Winter Games Challenge — The SchoolAI Winter Games celebrate teachers who create medal-worthy learning experiences. 3 winners per week, 6 total champions!
🗺️ Take a Talking Tour! — In case you missed it our newly updated post, 20 things you didn’t know you could do with Google Arts and Culture, we highlighted Talking Tours a personalized, AI-powered audio guide as you virtually wander through world-famous landmarks in Street View.
🏉 Charlie Brown yourself! — Find some fun prompts and image examples you can explore with your students using Microsoft Designer. Try making yourself into a Lego mini-fig or a Muppet!
⚙️ Winter Olympics STEM Challenge Cards — 8 hands-on activities like the Bobsled Dash, Figure Skating Spin, and Hockey Slap Shot that challenge students using simple household materials like bottle caps and craft sticks. Students will design, test, and improve their creations while learning about physics and engineering.
🎯 QUICK TEACHING STRATEGY 🎯
🏂 Host an epic Winter Olympics review session
Almost 10 years ago, I wrote about how I created a weeklong Olympics-themed review session for my students.
It was final exam season and I wanted something that would brighten their day.
We played a variety of review games — like the different Olympic sports.
There was a cumulative leader board running throughout the week.
My students enjoyed it — and it tied into a sports experience that was the focus of the entire world at the time.
You could DEFINITELY do this with the Winter Olympics right now!
Check out our post — complete with templates, links to review games, and more — to see how you could create a fun Winter Olympics-style review, too.
💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡
📝 Elevate your visual learning with Brisk Boost Whiteboard
Brisk Teaching has added a new whiteboard feature to Brisk Boost for students.
Remember the simple "web whiteboards" of the past? They were great for a quick sketch, but as we move toward more personalized learning, we need tools that do more than just let students draw.
That’s what I love about the new Brisk Boost Whiteboard (info here).
To show what they’ve learned, students can draw, add images, type text (or handwrite text), add shapes, and even annotate on visuals that the teacher put on the whiteboard.
Then, Brisk’s AI analyzes everything and provides quick feedback to students.
A quick “draw a cow” whiteboard activity in Brisk Boost Whiteboard.
Here’s how it works:
Create a new Boost student activity from the Brisk menu.
Choose “Whiteboard” and customize the activity with questions, guardrails and scaffolding.
Edit the template to refine the question, add images, or include visual supports.
Share the activity with students through a link. They get to work.
Students can click “Check Work” to get immediate AI feedback.
Boost assesses student work against the objectives and marks them as complete as students progress through the activity.
Teachers can check student work in their teacher dashboard any time.
You can give students a blank slate — or a space where they can mark up an image, fill in a graphic organizer, or interact with embedded content. They show their work visually and get real-time feedback from an AI tutor.
The best part? This new whiteboard feature — part of the Boost student activities — is part of Brisk’s free plan.
You can watch my presentation (8:24) as I demo this new tool from the Brisk Teaching booth at the 2026 TCEA conference.
Data for everyone — student AND teacher
Check work and get help: Students can get instant feedback on their sketches or a "nudge" from the AI coach when they’re stuck, meaning they don't have to wait for you to get to their desk.
Real-time teacher dashboard: It’s like being able to look at 30 notebooks at once. You can see every student's thinking unfold live.
Class-wide insights: Brisk identifies patterns across the whole class, highlighting exactly where students are struggling and suggesting "Next Ideas" for personalized activities.
Practical ways to use digital whiteboards to collaborate in class
Our recent post — 10 ways to collaborate digitally + visually in class — highlights the Brisk Boost Whiteboard and shares 10 ways to use this, or any other online whiteboard tool, in class.
Here are 3 of our favorites:
Level up a graphic organizer: Upload a Venn diagram or Frayer model as a background image in the Whiteboard. Students fill it out using the drawing tools. If they aren't sure where a concept fits, they can use the AI Chat to discuss the relationship between ideas before they commit it to the board. RESOURCE: Visit 50 FREE graphic organizers — and how to make your own and grab one to add to your Brisk Boost activity.
Visual image annotation: Bring a historical photo or a complex scientific diagram into the Whiteboard as a background. Ask students to annotate it by drawing and labeling key parts. They can use "Check Work" to see if their labels are accurate, allowing for instant self-correction. RESOURCE: Try using Brisk Boost Whiteboard with a Caption This activity!
Diagram new ideas (with a scaffold): Certain concepts—like the water cycle or a sentence diagram—need a visual. In Brisk Boost, students can recreate or label a diagram. If they get stuck, they hit "Get Help" in the chat, and the AI provides a nudge to keep them moving without giving away the answer.
😄 Smile of the day
Gotta get the bold and italics jusssssssssssst riiiiiiiiiiiight …
Source: Me (image via LA Times)
👋 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!
