I’m teaming up with Holly Clark for a free webinar about student AI literacy!

We’ll be discussing concepts right out of my new book, AI Literacy in Any Class — practical ways teachers can level up their teaching AND integrate small AI literacy lessons for students.

DATE: Monday, May 4
TIME: 8pm U.S. Eastern time / 5pm Pacific time
COST: FREE

There’s no registration, so just set a reminder in your calendar with this link and show up!

BONUS: Holly has already recorded FOUR WEBINARS in this series — and you can go watch the replays right now.

The other day in class, I was working with students on an assignment. I was checking their work, but I caught myself doing something else that’s important …

I was encouraging them. Showing them evidence that they were good at Spanish.

I shared this in our new free Ditch That Textbook online community and I just asked: Do you do this, too?

We’ve gotten some great responses to it. I’d love to hear from you, too.

We have just updated the “This or That” Snapchat Game Template, a fun, low-stakes way to get students' brains moving. Think of it as the cousin to “Would You Rather,” but without the selfie pressure. Students just drag an outline over their choice and—here’s the best part—use a text box to explain the "why" behind their decision.

It’s simple, it’s visual, and it’s a total hit for engagement. Here’s a quick look at how the template works.

Looking for a few ideas for using this template with your students? Here are some ways rockstar teachers are already using it in the wild:

It’s the end of the school year for us (in the Northern Hemisphere, at least).

Those end-of-year assessments are coming: state tests, final exams, end-of-course assessments, etc. That means it’s time to remember some things — and be able to recall and use it to show understanding.

Flashcards are still a great way to do that! It’s based on retrieval practice, the concept of recalling information from memory without notes or a textbook. There are lots of ways to use retrieval in class — and flashcards are just one.

In a world with tons of technology and new innovations, a very traditional method — flashcards — still helps students strengthen long-term memory.

This year, I’ve been teaching an in-person Spanish 3 class to high school juniors (year 11) every day.

Years ago, when I was a full-time high school teacher, my students made flashcards to practice vocabulary.

We had SO MANY games and practice activities that we would play with those cards! But over the years, I’ve forgotten some of my very favorites.

Fast forward to today. We just did a paper flashcards activity where Google Gemini made illustrated job cards that we cut out and used. (See my quick video explainer here … and an update video with activities we did!)

It was a hit! So it got me thinking … what other activities could we do with flashcards?

It was time for some AI-assisted deep research. I started scouring teacher blogs, social media posts, and other resources to get hands-on, interactive, game-based flashcard activities.

🎁 BONUS: Claude created a fantastic resource based on its deep research — 50+ creative ways to play with paper flashcards.

Here’s what I found …

Results of AI-supported deep research and my own experiences

Students each have their own set of flashcards. One person puts 12 cards on the desk — terms side up. The other puts the same 12 cards up — definition side up. They take turns checking. (It’s a little like playing the Memory card game.)

It’s the classic playing card game! Students put a card on the desk. Whoever guesses it first keeps it. If they tie, then they have to put down one or two or three more in a pile (the reward for a high-stakes showdown) … then try to guess another card. Whoever gets it first keeps the whole pile. The player with the most cards at the end wins.

Play this game by taking two of your cards and writing the word “BOOM” on them. Turn all the cards face down and spread them out randomly on the table. Take turns selecting a card; if you can answer correctly then you get to keep it. If the card has BOOM on it then you have to return ALL of your cards to the center of the table. You can play for a set amount of time or to a pre-determined number of cards. See the game in action in a short video of my son and I playing a game of Kaboom with his reading cards. VARIATION: You can also add variety by adding a “SHAKALAKA” card. If you draw that card, then you get to take all of your opponents’ cards as well. Kaboom is best played with homemade cards, because it is important that the BOOM cards you make for the game look exactly like the others.

From the TPT blog — "School Spoons" adapts the classic card game by requiring groups to collect four related flashcards (e.g., four synonyms or four different representations of a fraction). Once a set is collected, the student grabs a plastic spoon from the center, triggering a mad scramble for the remaining spoons. This game requires intense focus on set theory and categorization under time pressure.

From the “That is Evil” blog — "Slam" (or "Matamoscas" in Spanish classes) is a high-speed recognition game where cards are spread on a table or board. The teacher calls out a definition or an answer, and students race to "slam" their hand on the correct card. To prevent students from "hovering" over the cards, teachers often require hands on heads or a starting line several feet away, incorporating a burst of movement into the recognition task.

Also from the TPT blog — students discard cards face down and claim their contents (e.g., "three prime numbers"). 1 Peers must decide whether to believe them or call their bluff. 1 This requires students to evaluate the probability of a peer's claim based on the remaining cards in the deck and their knowledge of the subject matter.

For subjects requiring rapid retrieval, such as math facts or vocabulary, "Relay Races" place sets of flashcards at the far end of a room or yard. When a teacher shouts a prompt, a representative from each team sprints to find the corresponding card and returns it to the starting line. This integrates cardiovascular activity with cognitive processing, forcing students to maintain accuracy under the pressure of physical exertion.

"Flashcard Baseball" further gamifies this by treating each correct answer as a "hit". Students move physically around the "bases" marked in the classroom for each correct response, while a "miss" results in an "out" that resets their progress.

The use of 2x2 grids and matrices allows students to evaluate concepts along two independent axes simultaneously. This strategy is subject-agnostic and promotes critical decision-making. Students can plot flashcards on a grid of "High vs. Low Impact" and "High vs. Low Feasibility" for science experiments, or "Moral vs. Immoral" and "Powerful vs. Weak" for character analysis in literature. (Concept of 2×2 matrix explained here.)

Via CoReD — "Diamond Ranking" is a thinking skills tool used to prioritize nine cards in a "1-2-3-2-1" diamond shape. The most critical or important card is placed at the top, while the least important is at the bottom. The middle row contains three cards of roughly equal importance. The pedagogical value of Diamond Ranking lies in the mandatory consensus-building. Groups of 3–5 students must debate the relative merits of each card, justifying their placement with evidence. This process moves the flashcard from a tool of individual study to a focal point for social negotiation and critical argumentation.

Via Playmeo — "Value Stock Market" is a high-energy trading game where students are given 4–5 cards representing different "values" or concepts. They must mingle and trade cards with peers—without showing their hands—to collect a full set of five matching cards. This requires strategic questioning and negotiation.

I dumped all of my sources into a NotebookLM notebook, where you can ask questions in the chat and access resources (audio overview, video overview, slides, infographic, mind map).

There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education: