🗑 Our best resources from '24-'25

Recapping the school year for Ditch That Textbook

Author

Matt Miller
June 03, 2025

Welcome to June ☀️

And just like that … May is over and we’re into June!

It’s summer break for my wife (high school social studies teacher) and kids (incoming college sophomore, high school senior, and high school sophomore).

And GONE is any sort of productivity I have when I’m at home doing Ditch That Textbook work. When it’s warm and sunny outside — and my family is home — I just want to spend time with them.

I hope you’re spending time with family, enjoying the weather, and/or doing things that you love.

(And if you’re not quite to summer break yet … it’s getting close!)

Summer also means my travel and speaking schedule is heating up …

These pins are just my June events!

As soon as June hits, summer PD ramps up quickly! This week, I’m speaking at …

  • the Confluence Conference in Lubbock, TX

  • the Technanigans Conference in Loveland, CO

  • the LEARN Conference in Ogden, UT

  • Robinson ISD in Robinson, TX

(Whew … when I’m done on Thursday, I’m going to need a nap!)

Later in June, I’ll travel to Louisville, KY, and Abilene, TX, before attending the ISTE/ASCD Conference in San Antonio, TX, as a featured speaker.

The end of the school year is a time for looking back and reflecting.

👀 In that spirit, we’ll be looking back on some of the best resources we shared this year in the Ditch That Textbook email newsletter.

But also …

We have a lot of new projects going on!

👀 Don’t miss the Teacher AI Literacy Level 1 course!

I’m co-authoring it with Holly Clark and Ken Shelton through the AI Fluency Lab. It opens on July 7, but you can register now — at a 50% discount!

… and if you’re a primary teacher???

👀 You won’t want to miss our newest weekly newsletter called What’s New in K-2!

It officially starts in the fall, but you can subscribe for free now — and get a free bonus when you subscribe.

Keep scrolling … and keep your eyes open. Don’t miss any of it!

Inside:

  • 🚨 50% off Teacher AI Literacy Level 1

  • 👀 DTT Digest: 4 resources worth checking out

  • 💡 The Big Idea: The best of Ditch That Textbook, ‘24-’25 edition

  • 🚨 New resource: The new What’s New in K-2 newsletter

  • 😄 Smile of the day: It’s a glorious feeling ☺️

  • 👋 How we can help

🚨 50% off Teacher AI Literacy Level 1

This message is sponsored by The AI Fluency Lab

The AI Fluency Lab has released its first online course, and it’s starting with a bang! 💥

We’re offering a 50 percent discount to Ditch That Textbook readers who enroll in the course before July 7!

This early bird rate gets you the full course — instructional videos, learning activities, pre-written prompts, discussion boards, and tons of valuable resources.

It’s taught by The AI Fluency Lab faculty — Matt Miller, Holly Clark, and Ken Shelton — so you know you’ll get experienced, practical training.

Take advantage of this opportunity before it disappears!

Interested in enrolling multiple people? Email [email protected] for pricing on bulk orders!

👀 DTT Digest

4 teaching resources worth checking out today

🚨 NEW RESOURCE🚨

📬 New newsletter: What’s New in K-2

We’re expanding our newsletter offerings here at Ditch That Textbook!

  • More than 10 years ago, we started the Ditch That Textbook newsletter, geared toward K-12 teachers who wanted to teach better, use tech, and engage their students.

  • Recently, we added AI for Admins, a weekly newsletter for school leaders to help them make smart moves regarding artificial intelligence.

Now, we’re getting ready to launch our newest newsletter …

It’s all about primary teachers, with tips, tools and templates … videos from our Teachflix Junior collection … even teacher finds for the classroom.

Our editor in chief, Karly Moura, is Ditch That Textbook’s blog and social media editor. Her whole teaching career has been in elementary, so she has the perspective and experience you’ll want to make the newsletter as relevant as ever.

The newsletter will officially launch in August, but you can subscribe for free right now so you don’t miss anything …

… and feel free to forward this email to anyone you think would enjoy getting What’s New with K-2!

🎁 BONUS 🎁 — When you subscribe to What’s New in K-2, you’ll get our Teaching with Teachflix ebook. It’s a companion guide to Teachflix Junior (teachflix.org/junior), our K-2 centered instructional video site.

Get the Teaching with Teachflix ebook when you subscribe to What’s New with K-2.

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

🏆 The best of Ditch That Textbook, ‘24-’25 edition

It’s been a busy school year for us at Ditch That Textbook.

With the ‘24-’25 school year largely behind us, we’re starting to look back at the year in review for Ditch That Textbook.

A little crunching of the numbers really blew my mind. 🤯

  • We composed 101 email newsletters over the last 12 months.

  • We sent those emails to our active subscribers, which number 144,567 right now. (It fluctuates by the minute. In fact, it has changed several times since I started writing this email!)

  • In total, we sent 11.6 million individual email messages through the newsletter. That’s a lot of email!

  • Thankfully, our subscribers don’t see our newsletters as “just another email.” More than 40% of newsletters we send get opened.

So … what were you all most interested in?

Here’s a quick recap of our most popular resources (based on most email opens and most clicks).

We know our subscribers love copy-and-assign templates. So it’s no surprise that our most-clicked email was this one! Here are the templates we shared:

Google Slides is one of my favorite edtech tools for the classroom because it’s so versatile. And clearly, lots of our subscribers feel the same way!

When you’re writing an email newsletter, the subject line is key to getting your emails opened. Usually, I don’t do a “catch all” subject line, but this one piqued your interest!

We did a subscriber survey a while back, and you told us you were most interested in learning about new tech tools. When I came back from Google HQ with some new AI-powered Google learning tools, you took notice!

Ah, templates … another popular newsletter because of templates! This one answers the crucial question: “This template is cool, but how do you use it for <insert subject or grade level>?”

This one shocked me. We looked at website data … and it turns out that our free Family Feud game template is our most visited page on our entire site! Have you checked it out yet?

Every April we celebrate Subscriber Appreciation Week. It’s right before Teacher Appreciation Week, and we always share a digital gift basket full of goodies with our subscribers. The good news: that digital gift basket is still available!

(Note: We have already given away the prizes in the merch raffle and the Amazon gift card raffle.)

The curiosity and interest in AI seems to be growing among educators. We created this AI Teacher Toolkit to give you tools, prompts, lessons … even a printable guide you can send to parents.

What’s next? Stay tuned!

This year, we’ve gotten to know good folks like you — new subscribers AND our familiar faces that have been DTT subscribers for a while.

In this coming school year, our mission is the same — to equip you with teaching ideas, tools, and things to think about — all to support you in the important work you do.

What would you like to see this school year? Hit reply and tell me what you’d like us to do next. (Yes, I really read your replies!)

😄 Smile of the day

Oh, that glorious “first day without an alarm” feeling! 😴

Source: Kids in Need Foundation

👋 How we can help

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

  1. Read one of my six books about meaningful teaching with tech.

  2. Take one of our online courses about practical and popular topics in education.

  3. Bring me to your school, district or event to speak. I love working with educators!

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