Latest blog post: a peace treaty activity to help students understand a little bit of what is happening currently in Pakistan. #Edusky educationalexploits.com/2026/04/20/p...

Found this online. Yet another reason why projects are better than tests! #Edusky

Join me to tomorrow to learn about NotebookLM
It's your AI teaching assistant

Sign up for FREE on the OTIS website
otis.teq.com/events/previ...

Can't participate live? Sign up to gain access to the recording.

#EduSky

7 Fun and Active Test-Prep Activities Play is a brain-friendly strategy—even for teens. These games get students up, moving, and learning as they review for exams.

7 great ways to get students engaged in review prep—that are supported by science! 🙌

#assessment #EduSky

Why Students Give Up on a Task—and What Teachers Can Do About It Students often start working on a task, but disengage if it gets difficult. You can use these three tips to encourage them to persist.

It can be frustrating when students stop working if a task is hard. But as @cathleenbeachbd.bsky.social writes, it’s probably due to lack of motivation—and most importantly, students can be guided into keeping at it. Try these 3 ideas! 👇

#EduSky

I create a new Google Classroom class every unit.
Makes it easier to design the stream and to reuse when I teach that unit again.

alicekeeler.com/2020/05/03/t...

#TeacherTech #GoogleEDU #GoogleWorkspace #EduSky

"Instead of waiting until she is finished, then marking up all the errors and giving it a grade, I would read parts of the essay while she is writing it..."

Moving from Feedback to Feedforward cultofpedagogy.com/feedforward/ via
@cultofpedagogy

#Grading #TeacherTech #Assessment #EduSky

Designing the Ideal Classroom Space A thoughtfully designed classroom—and lesson—should always take into account the known limits of the student brain, says developmental psychologist Karrie Godwin.

What happens when classrooms—or lessons—are designed with the brain in mind? 🧠 We spoke with an expert in developmental psychology to find out.

#EdResearch #EduSky #ClassroomDesign

Anchor chart titled "End of Unit Reflection: Topic: Environments and Survival." Below are four questions, with sticky notes beneath each containing student responses: "U – What do you understand about the topic?" "N – What new information do you have?" "I – What's interesting about it?" "T – What was tricky for you?"

In educator Wendy Turner's class, each S's insight contributes to this end-of-unit group reflection!

Stacks of popsicle sticks with writing such as "In addition...", "On the other hand..." and "I'd like to add on to what ____ said...".

How do you get classroom conversation to POP?

(Via educator Christie Nold)

Why Your Students Need (Some) Extrinsic Motivation Extrinsic motivation gets a bad rap, but middle and high school teachers can use it judiciously early in an activity to encourage students to get started.

Admittedly, this is a bit of a curveball. The guy who is always raging against grades wrote a piece about why we need extrinsic motivators.

Hear me out...

www.edutopia.org/article/how-...

Why Students Forget—and What You Can Do About It Our brains are wired to forget, but there are research-backed strategies you can use to make your teaching stick.

Learn more about the research: edut.to/49LzMdE

The Box Metaphor for Working Memory — The Learning Scientists How many boxes can you hold? It is clearly a trick question. The answer, like so many things in our complex world of education is, of course, it depends. It depends on several factors that match up ...

"As educators, our job is to take our students from that state of relative novice to relative expert, building on areas where they already have organized knowledge."
@drcindynebel.bsky.social via @learningscientists.bsky.social
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/11...

27 Super-Smart, Teacher-Tested Closing Activities Quick (and fun) strategies to check for understanding, reinforce learning, and identify misconceptions in the last moments of class.

Why end a lesson with a closing activity? It’ll help students get into the routine of reinforcing key information and checking their understanding. ✅

Find teacher-tested ideas:

12 Ways to Use Cues to Boost Students’ Effort in the Classroom Teachers can use these research-based cognitive and behavioral cues to help students feel capable, focused, and ready to work, even when tasks are challenging.

Teachers, what do you do to increase students’ willingness to make an effort on tasks? Share tips here ⬇️

For all 12 research-backed cues, read the full article by veteran educator Cathleen Beachboard: edut.to/4rWcmZY

7/7

Google Vids for Teachers: A Beginner's Guide Welcome to Google Vids for Teachers: A Beginner's Guide! This video is perfect for educators new to Google Vids and looking to bring video creation into their classrooms. Google Vids for Teachers

I used the AI in Google Vids to generate this video from a prompt.

docs.google.com/videos/d/148...

I asked it to create a video about teachers using Google Vids.
I did not edit this at all.

#GoogleEDU #TeacherTech #GoogleVids #EduSky

Supporting Teachers in Implementing the Science of Learning By rooting their professional development in learning science, this district helped teachers figure out which strategies to use more frequently,and which to retire.

How do you get 4,000 teachers on the same page? In Frederick County, MD, they’ve been on a 10-year journey to train every educator—newbies and veterans alike—in the science of learning. 🙌

#SchoolLeaders #Principals #EduSky

Big news! My next book with @solutiontree.bsky.social is available for preorder!

Jason Reynolds on What Fires the Imagination of Young Readers The best-selling author on why "inappropriate" topics may be exactly what teen readers need, and the importance of raising the hair on the backs of readers' necks in the first 50 pages.

For more from Reynolds on writing as an act of self-preservation and our over-reliance on the classics in middle and high school: edut.to/4byaoZQ

6/6

13 Powerful Studies That Tell the Story of AI As AI use rises, the distinction between shortcut or scaffold becomes increasingly harder to spot.

Is AI ruining learning—or transforming it? New research provides clues. 🔍

#EdResearch #EduSky #EduSkyAI

Have you ever pulled a student quietly aside and said, “Hey. What you did was really, really good”? You can watch someone’s life changing in real time.

Is there a way to reopen a tab you closed by accident?

Feedback Fridays Setting aside time each week to check in with students about what’s going well—and what isn’t—demonstrates unconditional positive regard.

But the activity can be adapted for any secondary setting, by making interviews shorter, talking to fewer students a day, or using digital check-in forms.

Read Nicole’s article to learn more: edut.to/3Pz7rAy

3 Ways to Help Students Overcome the Forgetting Curve Our brains are wired to forget things unless we take active steps to remember. Here’s how you can help students hold on to what they learn.

Our brains are wired to forget things *unless* we take active steps to remember.

Here are 3 ways to help students hold on to what they learn. 🧠

How to Get Students to Focus on Learning—Not Grades With a few shifts in the classroom, teachers can encourage students to pay more attention to the skills they are building than to a number or letter score.

Teachers see it all the time: students (and parents) who are obsessed with grades.

Here are 4 strategies that can shift the focus from “What grade did I get?’ to “What did I learn?” 🌟 💯

#EduSky

Bar chart titled Read Aloud to Improve Writing. "When students were asked to proofread texts aloud, they found up to 12 percentage points more typos, grammatical mistakes, and errors in word choice, a 2022 study found." The bar chart shows the difference between accuracy during silent and aloud reading: silent, 59%, and aloud, 71%.

Here’s a useful tip to help students improve their writing. ✍️

Ask them to read their work aloud. While it may not feel as natural—or modest—as reading silently, it can help them catch often-overlooked errors, a 2022 study found.

The Wings of Fire series is, um, fire!

Student questions aren't always aligned with discovery.

Daily Activities That Support Students’ Creative Mindset Teachers can provide learning experiences that guide high school students to become comfortable with uncertainty and risk-taking.

When creativity becomes a daily habit:

⭐ Students ask more original questions.
⭐ They approach challenges with flexibility.
⭐ They notice opportunities for improvement & problem-solving.

Here are 3 simple ways to support learners’ creative mindset each day.

#EduSky

Guiding Students to Receive Feedback as Information to Improve Their Skills Students may take feedback from teachers or peers as a personal judgement unless it is intentionally focused on their work.

“The most impactful feedback makes it clear that students are more than their current ideas, and their work is always open to improvement. When feedback targets the work—the reasoning, the strategy, the evidence, or the process—then students have something concrete to evaluate and revise.” 📝