Ditch That Textbook Podcast :: Education, teaching, edtech :: #DitchPod

Can you really produce a whole yearbook with Google Slides? Jennifer Scott's school did, complete with full color and a fancy cover. The total cost: $10. Plus, she has resources so you can do it, too!

Branding isn't about making money and being famous. It's about sharing your story and letting people know what you stand for. Ben Cogswell and Josh Harris share how students and schools can benefit from a little branding.

Alice Keeler says there's something missing from math instruction. It's dialogue. Math is more than putting your head down and completing problems. She talks about what we can do to change that.

March Madness is upon us, and America will be watching lots of college basketball. How can we use this in the classroom? Dave Burgess, author of Teach Like a PIRATE, shares some ideas you can start using right away. (Dave's Twitter: @burgessdave)

There's a trough in our thinking abilities in the afternoon. It can have a profound effect: as much as having a couple alcoholic drinks. How can we position students to succeed -- in class and on standardized tests?

With online documents and slides, we often stick to the status quo for size. If certain work isn't going to be printed -- or displayed on a projector -- why do we keep it in traditional letter size? Here's a case for rethinking our digital working spaces.

We spend so much time helping students with their writing skills. Giving them some guidance on speaking can have huge benefits. Here's a model for it, and it works GREAT with Flipgrid.

Have you ever started a project and got stuck before you ever got started? There are some things we can do to help students overcome that obstacle and get started.

Many of us know of "growth mindset" as the idea of "yet" -- I can't do it *yet*. But there are other small adjustments we can make in the classroom to help students better develop growth mindset.

How to Fix the Future is a book by Andrew Keen, a self-proclaimed Internet pessimist. He's written five books about how destructive technology has been to our lives, but this book is an optimistic one about how we can act more responsibly for a brighter digital future. It's a great fit if you use or talk about technology in your classroom and/or personal life. (I think that covers most of us ...)

I believe in voice typing! Also called dictation, it's when you speak and your device converts it to text. It's SO much faster than typing with your fingers (or thumbs). Imagine what you could do if you got through your emails or other work just a little faster ...

Twitter is the BEST thing that happened to my teaching career. It really saved it. However, there's a balance to be maintained, and if we're careful, Twitter (and other social media) can consume our lives instead of help them.

GIFs are super fun. They're those moving image files you see all over social media. There's this fun tool you can use to record your own animated GIFs with your webcam. Add them to student work for feedback, to a class website, to Google files ... almost anywhere!

So often, we encourage students to study by putting info into their brains by re-reading notes and chapters. But brain science tells us it's more effective if we study by pulling info FROM our brains. A great strategy for this is the digital brain dump.

There's a button we use in many digital learning tools to keep kids from cheating. But it can do more than that! Learn how it can be used to help kids learn too.

Podcasting is a growing medium. It let's you learn by listening -- consume content -- while doing something else. Students can share learning with an authentic audience by creating a free podcast. Learn how!

How can we encourage students to use their voice -- in learning, in positive ways, to make a change -- in class and throughout our lives?

Google Drawings is a great tool to help teachers and students create eye catching images digitally. There are some cool tricks to it that you might not know. In this episode, we cover some of them. You won't want to miss it!

Story Speaker lets you create interactive "stories" or interactions with your Google Home. Learn how you can create them with NO CODING ... just a Google Doc and this add-on!

Padlet, the web tool that lets you add digital sticky notes to a virtual bulletin board, has been around for a long time. But with new features -- take pictures, record video, and more -- there's more to love than ever. If you haven't checked it out recently, it's worth looking at!

I'm so excited to start this podcast! My goal is to equip, inform and inspire educators five days a week. In this episode, I will tell you what to expect from this show and tell you a little about myself.