🍎 Advice to young, aspiring educators
These high school students give me hope. ❤️
Remember when I asked you for advice for aspiring teachers last week?
You delivered!
On Friday, I shared my speech with hundreds of high school students who are interested in being teachers. And I included 12 quotes from readers just like you.
(If you shared tips, maybe I included yours in the speech!)
I was the afternoon speaker. Rick Wormeli spoke to the students in the morning. (He was incredible!)
You can watch the full video here — and you can see a spreadsheet with ALL of the reader advice here.
Below in our 💡 Big Idea, you’ll find a summary of the speech and time stamps so you can skip to any parts you’re interested in.
PS: Let’s improve the student writing process — together. I’m partnering with Elliott Hedman, an independent edtech developer, to create a free tool to support the student writing process.
We think AI detectors are terrible and we need better options for teachers and students to preserve the importance of student writing.
We’ll need teachers to provide feedback and try this tool out — and let us know if it actually really works!
Inside:
🥪 Host a FigJam Lunch and Learn at your school!
👀 DTT Digest: SchoolAI, FigJam, Book Creator, Microsoft Designer
💡 The Big Idea: My speech to aspiring educators
🎯 Quick Teaching Strategy: Student classroom jobs
😄 Smile of the day: Frustration incoming …
👋 How we can help
🥪 Host a FigJam Lunch and Learn at your school!
This message is sponsored by Figma
Have you been enjoying FigJam as a free Jamboard replacement, and want to get teachers in your school involved? Now is the perfect time to get you and your colleagues up to speed on all things FigJam.
When you host a FigJam training at your school this year, the Figma Team will cover lunch! 🍔🌮🍟
Learn more about Figma’s new 'Lunch and Learn' program (and schedule your lunch) here: https://bit.ly/3Xe8c3q
FigJam is a free online whiteboard by Figma that allows students to create, collaborate, and engage in interactive learning activities.
Teachers across the country are moving to FigJam as a replacement for Google Jamboard (that goes away on October 1st). Join the countless teachers who've begun using FigJam to make learning more engaging, collaborative, and fun: https://www.figma.com/education/k-12/
👀 DTT Digest
4 teaching resources worth checking out today
🤖 ICYMI: Create study chatbot tutors for students — In this video, we'll walk through how to create a Space — and how to assign it to your students.
📖 FREE ebook: 20 ways to use FigJam in the Class — Get 20 FigJam templates plus ideas to use them in class along with new features and shortcuts. Download our ebook 20 ways to use FigJam in class.
📙 The Book Creator September activity journal is here!— Start your year off with this jam-packed journal full of September themed activities.
🧙🏽♀️ Create avatars with Microsoft Designer — Have you tried creating avatars or other images with Microsoft Designer? So many fun ways to use this AI image generator. Learn more in this post.
💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡
🍎 My education journey — and 10 tips for aspiring teachers
My speech to high school students about teaching
On Friday, almost 300 high school students crowded into the Bayh College of Education at Indiana State University (my alma mater).
They were all students in “education professions,” a vocational pathway to prepare them to study education in college.
I was given a tall task …
You have 60 minutes to tell these students what they need to know about becoming a teacher.
I’d love it if you watched. ❤️
But if you'd prefer to skip to the parts that interest you most, here are the highlights (with time stamps):
1:18 — My winding journey from high schooler to college grad to journalist to educator (16 mins)
10 things I wish someone would have told me about teaching
17:18 — 1) Teachers are influencers
23:13 — 2) Your teaching should reflect YOU
26:36 — 3) Relationships are vital
33:12 — 4) Learn the science of learning
38:05 — 5) You don’t have all the answers
40:30 — 6) Protect yourself
43:47 — 7) “Do the best you can until you know better …”
47:48 — 8) Teaching is hard
49:09 — 9) Find your community
52:12 — Educators in the room give THEIR advice
55:36 — 10) We need you
Quotes from DTT newsletter readers like you:
22:46 — Teaching should be celebrated (Heather Vallot)
26:03 — Be yourself and keep it fun (Jena Smith)
30:50 — Enjoy the students as human beings (Heather Olvey)
32:44 — Importance of admin. assts. & custodians (Sonya Land)
37:37 — You know what your students need (Tracy)
40:01 — It’s OK not to know the answers (Helen)
42:54 — Take care of yourself (Stephen Krawczyk)
47:02 — Don’t be afraid to try something new (Larisa Black)
48:40 — Prepare your heart (Tracey Budworth)
51:46 — Find the happy & efficient teachers (ElizaBeth Warner)
56:35 — Thank you for choosing teaching (Julie Daniel Davis)
58:35 — You’re hope (Raquel)
If you enjoyed any part of the speech, please give it a 👍 thumbs up on YouTube — and subscribe if you haven’t already!
🎯 QUICK TEACHING STRATEGY 🎯
💪🏾 Empower your class with student jobs
Get this free job description template below!
Assigning classroom jobs is a fantastic way to engage students and foster a sense of responsibility. By giving students specific roles, you can help them develop essential life skills, create a strong classroom community, and streamline your classroom management.
👍 Here’s why they work:
Boost Engagement: Assigning classroom jobs keeps students actively involved and responsible.
Develop Skills: Jobs help students build essential life skills like teamwork, leadership, and time management.
Create Community: Classroom jobs foster a sense of community and belonging among students.
Streamline Management: Delegating tasks to students can make classroom management smoother and more efficient.
Encourage Accountability: Students learn accountability and the importance of contributing to their environment.
Iowa fifth grade teacher Gina Ruffcorn has used classroom jobs for years and years. She wrote about it in her book Our Class, Our Voice (which I edited!).
🧰 Templates and tools to make it easy to get started:
Job description cards: This Canva template has 20 job cards that you can edit and print to use in your class.
Job application form: Consider having students apply for the jobs that they want to have. This allows students the opportunity to practice filling out a job application and can help them identify the skills they already have that make them good at certain positions.
💡 Learn more: Getting started with classroom jobs
This post provides a comprehensive overview of incorporating student jobs into your classroom, drawing inspiration from ,author and educator, Gina Ruffcorn's job descriptions and expanding on them with additional job ideas (for larger classes) and practical tips.
😄 Smile of the day
No caption needed 😂 AI prompted: a grumpy teacher in the first day of school.
h/t Joshua Weatherson r/teachermemes
👋 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!
