A wild couple of weeks …
Our last couple weeks included a basketball state championship!
I’m not sure about you, but for me, these last few weeks have been unbelievable!
Just a quick recap, from the personal and the professional …
I traveled to Italy and Greece as part of a school tour trip with my daughter (HS senior).
Soon after we got back, my son’s high school basketball team played in the Indiana 2A state championships — and won! (It was decided at the very last second … nerves!)
The next day, I got on a plane to facilitate an AI teacher workshop with teachers in Clearwater, Florida (and couldn’t pass up an opportunity to go the beach for the rest of the afternoon!).
And today, after playing half of the basketball season with a torn labrum in his shoulder, we took my son to have surgery to get it repaired. (Just got home.)
On top of all of that, more and more people are finding my new book — AI Literacy in Any Class! You can get it here in paperback or Kindle ebook on Amazon.
Thanks to tech coach Stevie Frank for the LinkedIn endorsement of the book!
A fun way to engage students at the end of the year
If you’re getting back to school after spring break and need something fun to inject some energy into class, I have an idea …
Check out our free Family Feud template (Google Slides / PowerPoint)!
In today’s 💡 Big Idea, we’ll show you how to use it, what kinds of data you can fill it with, and provide links to a blank template — and a fun example you can try!
Inside:
📢 Upcoming educator event: The Complete 180 Conference
👀 DTT Digest: 4 resources worth checking out
🎙️ Your Voice: When to turn devices off in class
💡 The Big Idea: Updated Family Feud template + ideas for class
😄 Smile of the day: My permanent teacher face
👋 How we can help
📢 Upcoming educator event: The Complete 180 Conference
I’m delivering an AI keynote speech during this virtual event!
The Complete 180 Conference is a 3-day virtual instructional reset for teachers and school leaders to stabilize performance in the final stretch; with clarity, consistency, and less mental load.
I’m presenting an AI in edu keynote session on Day 2 of the event!
It includes on-demand sessions for teachers AND leaders; workbooks to interact with content; evening live keynote sessions; post-event content, and more.
The Complete 180 Conference is hosted by Daryl Williams Jr. — author, speaker, and a catalyst for educational transformation.
Free ticket: Access to opening night live session
General experience ($47): All live sessions (including my keynote), workshops, conference workbook, and limited replay access
VIP experience ($67): Everything in general plus lifetime access to replays and post-conference implementation with Daryl
👀 DTT Digest
4 teaching resources worth checking out today
📺 Check out something NEW at Adobe — Watch Adobe Live on April 3rd to learn about Adobe's Project Aqua, a creative app designed specifically for elementary and middle school-aged kids to build confidence, critical thinking, and social-emotional skills through digital art and creative expression.
🌸 Activities for every day in April! — The April Activity journal from Book Creator is here! This month’s journal includes activities for Earth Day, National Librarian Day, National Science Appreciation Day and more days you probably didn’t even know existed!
🎙️ Teach Students to Spot What’s Real, Fake—or Deepfake — This engaging (and fun!) lesson from the Edutopia Podcast helps students build essential digital literacy skills for the AI age.
🎮 ICYMI: Play games to prep for the state test! — These free game collections give them reps on the exact vocabulary and writing skills your state test measures — in 5-minute games that feel like competition, not test prep. Pick your state and grade. Click a link. Play.
🎙️ YOUR VOICE 🎙️
💻 When to turn the devices off in class
On Monday, I wrote about when to turn the devices off in class.
I encouraged you to hit reply and let me know what you think — and how you navigate it yourself.
And several of you did!
Here are some things readers like you had to say (edited for brevity) …
When a teacher decides to show their students how to use a piece of technology […] they are demonstrating to the students that this is a good time to use that piece of technology. […] When they utilize technology well throughout their learning, they gain a far deeper understanding of its uses and limitations, which is invaluable in this world. — Jost (Idaho)
In my 2nd grade classroom, I try to have a good balance of tech and no-tech. We do timed centers twice a day on most days - Math centers and Reading Centers. I have four centers each time, and the students rotate through them. (1) I am almost always a center, because I do most of my teaching in small groups. (2) One center is tech. Some of the programs I use are: Reflex/Frax, Prodigy, Reading Eggs, Khan Academy, Keyboarding Without Tears, Savvas, eSpark. (3) One center is individual work, usually with paper & pencil (or sometimes cut & glue). (4) One center is hands-on, which is usually an activity they do together like a game, puzzle, or other manipulatives. — Marla (Arizona)
I think we really need to consider taking devices away from the elementary world (but have a technology CLASS, instead of handing them a device). We have to teach them how to think FIRST, then use the tools to EXTEND the thinking!!! Now, if you want to talk about accessibility for students who need the modification, that's a different story. — Nancy (New Jersey)
I appreciate the balance you remind me of in the article. Integrating tech is GREAT and there are so many places it gives us advantage. AND, there are places where the eyes, ears, hands, and a piece of paper are great! One of the joys of physics teaching is inventing opportunities for illustrating physics concepts both in demos and student investigations. And tech has been a great asset to those. — Eric (Minnesota)
💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡
🎤 Updated Family Feud template + ideas for class
We’ve all (probably) watched it. Or at least we know that music! Now, it’s time to bring that game show magic to your students.
I’m talking about a 100% FREE Family Feud template that you can use in class tomorrow.
Whether you are surveying your students on the most common things they forget to bring to class (shoutout to the 39% who forget their charged Chromebooks) or testing their knowledge on academic content, this updated gameshow template is ready to spice up those post-Spring Break pre-testing weeks.
📘 How to Use It in Your Classroom
Gather Your Data: Use a Google Form to survey your students or colleagues.
Pro Tip: If you don't have time to run a survey, try using an AI assistant like Gemini to generate a ranked list. For example, ask for "The 5 most common elements in Earth’s atmosphere" or "The top 5 most popular school lunch items" (though we already know Salisbury Steak is likely at the bottom of that list).
Create your game: Make a copy of the template (Google Slides) or download it (PowerPoint).
Customize Questions: Make them fit your lesson.
Set the Buzzer: You can use a web app like Buzzin.live. It’s device-agnostic, meaning it works on anything with a browser, and it perfectly handles that split-second "who buzzed first?" tension.
Bring the Noise: Download a game show soundboard app for your phone to trigger the classic "Ding!" for a correct answer or the dreaded "Buzz!" for a strike. If you don't want to use a mobile device, this Host Your Own Game Show page has lots of sound effects and could work.
Family Feud Music: There’s a tiny YouTube video embedded in the second title slide. If you present your slides starting with Slide 1, the music should start automatically when you advance to the second slide.Prep Like a Pro: Print out your answer keys! This downloadable PDF has a layout that makes it easy to print and write answer key cards so you aren't stuck staring at the projector screen. Or make a copy in Google Slides and edit then print.
Warm up your Game Show Host voice: Start the game by presenting the slides on the big screen — and students guess the top answers while you reveal them.
NOTE: With this template, you have to reveal the answers from top to bottom. You can’t, for example, reveal the #3 answer and then the #5 answer and then the #1 answer. I know, it’s a limitation to working in Slides/PowerPoint. Pro tip: I make this work by asking each team to make their guesses and then we reveal all of the answers.
Types of data to use with students
So … what kinds of questions can you ask? Here are some ideas of data you can include in the Family Feud game — or data you can gather on your own …
Student opinions (peer data) — What do students do when the teacher isn’t looking? What’s the hardest part of school? Why are students late to class?
Everyday habits (daily life) — What do people do when they wake up? What do you bring on a road trip? What do people do on their phones?
Content-based (academic tie-in) — Name a place you might visit. Name a job people admire. Name something you will do this weekend.
Survey results (class data) — What’s the best way to study? What’s your favorite subject? What motivates you to do your work?
Pop culture (trending topics) — Name a popular video game. Name a streaming platform. Name a superhero.
Humor prompts (fun/absurd) — Name something you wouldn’t want to smell. Name something that makes people scream. Name something you shouldn’t do in class.
Teacher views (adult perspective) — What do teachers wish students did more? What frustrates teachers most? What makes a “great student”?
Big ideas (opinion prompts) — What’s the most important future skill? What should schools teach more of? What’s a big problem in the world today?
Download your template
Download the Teacher Life Family Feud Game
Looking for a ready to play sample game? Check out Teacher Life Family Feud, an updated version of the original template. Use the game as-is or poll your own audience with the same questions and update the game.
😄 Smile of the day
Can you relate? 😒
Source: We Are Teachers
👋 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!
