The Teachercast Podcast

On today's podcast, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Elementary Principal and ASCD Author Jennifer Schwanke to discuss her new book called “https://www.teachercast.net/product/1416622217/US/teach00-20/?cart=y (You're the Principal! Now What? Strategies and Solutions for New School Leaders).” I met Jennifer Schwanke on a recent ASCD book chat and was completely amazed at how similar the story of a new administrator can be to the story of a new Tech Coach. In most situations, you may be the only one in your position in a building, you have to keep your confidence with little opportunity to lean others for support, and you have to remember that no matter what happens during the day, it is the relationships you forge that will ultimately create a successful and long-lasting career. You Must Have Your Head Examined To Be A PrincipalOne of the things that amazed me about my conversation with Jennifer Schwanke was the constant reminder that, quite often, leadership is pointed out by others. Jen is n

In this episode of the TeacherCast Podcast, I sit down with California educator and SMART Exemplary Educator Denesa Menge to discuss how she has created a fully immersive and interactive learning environment for her students, with the help of SMART Technologies. One of the most important things you can do with your students is to provide them an engaging, interactive learning environment. When students are active, they become attentive learners. By using tools such as SMART Interactive Boards along with SMART Amp software, students can become immersed in a different type of learning. About Danesa MengeDanesa Menge is a seventh and eighth-grade English language arts teacher at Oakdale Junior High School. She is passionate about learning and technology and shares that love with her students and fellow colleagues across the globe. Danesa holds a Master’s of Science in Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. She is a SMART Exemplary Educator, a Google Certified Innovator, NovoAmbassador, and

Is your school district looking to make a change in it's Learning Management System, or Student Information System? Are you tired of getting recommendations based only on reading twitter and edtech blogs? In this episode of the TeacherCast Podcast, I sit down with Michael Winters and Molly Levitt from EdSurge to discuss their new service called EdSurge Concierge. Recently released and made available to school districts across the country, EdSurge Concierge allows School Districts a simple and personal, 1:1 consultation to speak with one of their technology integration experts to help you find exactly the application you need and put you in contact with that company to help you and your team provide the best learning environment for your students. According to EdSurge.com: EdSurge https://r.clb.pt/r/f38d0cebe75f2675cef301feac873bd7?d=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.edsurge.com%2Fconcierge%2F (Concierge) is a free service that helps schools find the right technology to support their learning goals. Concie

Welcome to the TeacherCast Podcast. In this episode, Jeff sits down with the Executive Director of CSNYC, Michael Preston and Superintendent Jason Eitner to discuss why students of all ages should have a Computer Science infused curriculum. About CSNYChttps://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.csnyc.org&d=DQMFaQ&c=gOrgfQB8xVH7F0lP7MQhi8CyVXMBvYqNyP3LuSSb8Lw&r=C5EhJpDQOemW-U6ZscAHfCGXMa5_VEAMLAlztaSAie0&m=wtEF6bbH9KgeAF8yeUnWjcxs0Cvtm_ZQhwpwXPZ_W0s&s=iI-f5-Xy7gyLtAjXVBhCrlcFAIKuyXBBXS3j-1nkiGM&e= (CSNYC) is a nonprofit founded in 2013 to ensure that all of New York City’s 1.1 million public school students have access to a high-quality computer science (CS) education that puts them on a pathway to college and career success. To build thriving ecosystems for CS education in NYC and nationwide, CSNYC develops programming across four key areas: community development, teacher pipelines, industry engagement, and research. Together, work in these areas supports our partnersh

Welcome to the TeacherCast Podcast. In this episode, Jeff sits down with Microsoft Innovative Educator Steve Isaacs, and Minecraft Education Manager Neal Manegold to discuss how Minecraft Education Education is shifting the way our students are learning in classrooms around the world. What is Minecraft Education Edition?Minecraft: Education Edition is an open-world game that promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving in an immersive environment where the only limit is your imagination. Links of interestMinecraft http://education.minecraft.net/ (Minecraft Education) http://education.minecraft.net/ (Minecraft Educator Community) https://education.microsoft.com/minecraftmentors (Minecraft Mentors) https://t.co/AMIpD2ISZM (Minecraft Mentor Application) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL41iJfA2iBPHyuNHpxsa80hJaXKvZDdWH (101 Ideas for Minecraft Learners) (Videos) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B36Ehzf2cxE (How to Survive your First Night of Minecraft) (Video) Hour of Code http:/

On November 29 and 30, educators from across the planet will be participating in the annual http://skypeathon.com (Skypeathon). Brought to you by http://education.microsoft.com (Microsoft Education), the Skypeathon is a fantastic way of bringing together not only classrooms, but it's a great opportunity to invite industry experts into your class to share their passions about their professions. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with New Jersey educator and Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert, Steve Isaacs and TEDx Speaker and Middle School Educator Marialice Curran and discuss how the http://skypeathon.com (Skypeathon) has impacted their classrooms. If your class is looking to engage with amazing educators, I would highly recommend reaching out to Steve and Marialice. Steve not only is a fellow New Jersey Educator, he is one of just a handful of teachers worldwide who are MineCraft Education Experts willing to work with you and your students and share his passions for brick building. Follo

Search Engine Optimization is a skill that we all should be thinking about when we teach our students about Digital Citizenship. When we teach our students to comment on each other's Google docs, we are really setting our students up to improve their search rank. In this episode, learn all about SEO and how we can set our students and our websites up for a global audience. About CompanyArdor Media Factory is the ultimate multi-national backlink building company. We help businesses achieve utmost success in their respective niches. By using the most innovative methods of marketing online, we offer a wide range of services with awesome results including search engine optimization, search engine ranking, and link building. We also produce high-quality content for business websites through informative articles. Moreover, we offer free services such as keyword research and web analysis. We dedicate ourselves in simply giving you the best content marketing results for your business niche. W

Welcome to the TeacherCast Podcast. In this episode, Jeff sits down with speaker, author, and “Serial Innovator” John Kao, founder of EdgeMakers.com. In this episode, John and Jeff discuss how creativity can be fostered in every child by developing a strong interest and love for Music Education. Join Jeff and John on September 24th for “http://TeacherCast.net/HackTheClassroom (Hack the Classroom)” Presented by Microsoft Education LIVE from 8-10AM PST. For more information: http://TeacherCast.net/HackTheClassroom (TeacherCast.net/HackTheClassroom) Links of interesthttp://TeacherCast.net/HackTheClassroom (Hack the Classroom) http://www.johnkao.com/ (www.johnkao.com) http://www.edgemakers.com/ (www.edgemakers.com) http://twitter.com/johnkao (@johnkao) https://www.facebook.com/John.Kao2/ (https://www.facebook.com/John.Kao2/) About John KaoDubbed “Mr. Creativity” and a “Serial Innovator” by The Economist, John Kao is a thought leader, practitioner and activist, who has played a leading role in the field

Welcome to the TeacherCast Podcast. In this episode, Jeff sits down with Dr. Corinne Hyde, a fantastic professor at USC Rossier School of Education and an amazing educator to have a very candid discussion about Digital Literacy. In this interview, we touch on every topic from Social Media use to working with teachers who may be afraid of stepping out of the box in their classroom. About Dr. Hydehttps://edspiration.net (Dr. Corinne Hyde) is an Associate Teaching Professor of Clinical Education at the USC Rossier School of Education. Her areas of expertise include Educational Leadership, Elementary Education, Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology. Hyde has a wide variety of experience in the field of education, including classroom teaching, special education, community education, and educational administration. She currently resides in St. Gabriel, Louisiana (near Baton Rouge) and was the first full-time faculty member in the https://rossieronline.usc.edu/ (onlin

Jeff sits down with author Marnie Howard to discuss her new educational books called The BuzzyLuvz and how moms and dads worldwide are teaching great behavior skills to their students with the help of some little bees. About BuzzyLuvz“Kindness is essential in our world today and must be reinforced during the early stages of childhood. As a former elementary school substitute teacher, I have launched a Children’s Kindness Campaign starting with my six-book series BuzzyLuvz®: Practice Kindness. This series includes Be Helpful, Be Generous, Be Polite, Be Loving, Be Positive, and Be Thankful; all brought to life by whimsical, colorful bees.  These books are currently being sold on Amazon.com in both Paperback and Kindle formats. You are certainly aware that bullying has become an even more important issue in the United States today, as our society is witnessing an unprecedented amount of violence and deaths in our schools. BuzzyLuvz® is working to resolve this issue by focusing on th

Jeff sits down with educator, author, and Apple Distinguished Educator Monica Burns to discuss her book Deeper Learning with QR Codes and Augmented Reality. Why Scannable Technologies? Social Media:Blog http://classtechtips.com/ (ClassTechTips.com) Twitter http://www.twitter.com/classtechtips (@ClassTechTips) http://facebook.com/ClassTechTips (Facebook.com/ClassTechTips) http://pinterest.com/ClassTechTips (Pinterest.com/ClassTechTips) About Monica BurnsMonica Burns is an Curriculum and EdTech Consultant, Apple Distinguished Educator and Founder of http://classtechtips.com/ (ClassTechTips.com). As an educator, Monica was part of her school’s Federal Magnet Funding leadership team and was a vocal advocate for bringing 1:1 technology into her 5th grade classroom. During her tenure as an educator, Monica used iPads to create engaging, differentiated learning experience to meet the unique needs of her students. Realizing the power of tech tools in the classroom, Monica started http://classtechtips.com/

About RecapRecap is a free video response and reflection app developed by the makers of Swivl. It gives teachers and parents insight into students’ learning and progress by introducing video as a quick, simple and everyday tool to collect student data. Recap provides evidence of student thinking, improves formative assessment, and supports personalized learning. Sign up at http://www.letsrecap.com/ (www.letsrecap.com)! Teacher Resourceshttp://www.letsrecap.com/ (www.letsrecap.com) http://www.swivl.com (www.swivl.com) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/recap-video-response-reflection/id1067461524?mt=8 (Download on iTunes) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/recap-video-response-reflection/id1067461524?mt=8 (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/recap-video-response-reflection/id1067461524?mt=8) http://www.twitter.com/recapthat (@RecapThat) https://www.facebook.com/recapthat (Find Recap on Facebook) https://www.pinterest.com/Letsrecap/ (Find Recap on Pinterest) VideosCommercial: https://vimeo.com/1

Jeff sits down with Travis and Anthony from mcSquares, a dynamic new edtech tool that brings personalized non-tech learning back into the classrooms. About mcSquaresmcSquares are personal, handheld whiteboards that easily snap together on a wall to create a larger, collaborative system that is infinitely flexible and completely customizable. Links of interesthttp://www.mcsquares.com (www.mcsquares.com) http://www.mcsquares.com/youtube (www.mcsquares.com/youtube) http://www.mcsquares.com/facebook (www.mcsquares.com/facebook) Twitter: @mc_squares Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/mcsquares (https://vimeo.com/mcsquares) About our GuestsAnthony:   Along with founding 7 different successful companies and holding multiple patents, Anthony has held leadership positions in creative direction, feature film post-production, technological architecture, advertising production, enterprise product development, computer aided design, hospitality management, and physical product manufacturing. Most nota

While getting students interested in math can be a challenge for teachers, TenMarks has found a fun – and timely – way to get kids buzzing about numbers. Drawing on students’ interest in sports and the excitement of the annual March Madness basketball tournament, the Math Madness contest is a great way to get kids genuinely excited about math! Through a little friendly competition, students have fun, win prizes and gain mastery in math. However, it’s not just about the cool prizes. Participating in Math Madness will spur student motivation and engagement like never before, resulting in significantly improved math confidence. Best of all, there’s no reason to worry about students struggling while competing on their own during Math Madness. TenMarks assignments provide individualized practice through a variety of tools such as hints and videos, all of which are designed to help students persevere and ultimately master challenging math problems. The Math Madness contest, now in its fifth year, has helped thousan

Jeff sits down with Matt Niemitz from Adobe Education to discuss Adobe Education Exchange, a free resource for teachers to learn how to enhance their curriculum using Adobe solutions. About Adobe EducationThe Adobe Education Exchange helps ignite creativity in classrooms worldwide by connecting educators through free professional development opportunities, teaching materials, and peer-to-peer collaboration. Links of interestAdobe Education Exchange: https://edex.adobe.com (https://edex.adobe.com) Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdobeEdu (@AdobeEdu) Matt on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MattNiemitz (@MattNiemitz) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AdobeEdEx (https://www.facebook.com/AdobeEdEx) About our GuestMatt Niemitz founded and is the Product Lead for the Adobe Education Exchange, Adobe’s first community learning and sharing platform that connects 270,000+ members worldwide. Over 5 years, members have learned from 200+ MOOCs & workshops, shared 10,000+ teaching materials &

Jeff sits down with Eric Schweikardt of Modular Robotics to talk about STEM education in today's classrooms. Learn how your students can learn programming skills through Modular Robotics interlocking Cubelets to create amazing robotic projects. About Modular RoboticsModular Robotics is home to more than 50 people who design, engineer and manufacture tiny robots. Every day, we work to build robot construction systems for kids because we believe that toys shape the way children think about the world. Our goal is to create remarkable fun play experiences that impart an intuitive understanding of complex systems and design thinking. Our team is comprised of engineers, software developers production specialists and operators. Links of interestWebsite: http://www.modrobotics.com (www.modrobotics.com) Blog: http://www.modrobotics.com/blog (www.modrobotics.com/blog) Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/modrobotics (@modrobotics) Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/modrobotics (www.facebook.com/modrob

Have you ever wondered what an Apple Distinguished School looks like? Have you ever thought about rolling out a successful 1:1 initiative across thousands of students and teachers? In this episode of the TeacherCast Podcast, Jeff sits down with Ross Cooper to discuss TL2020, a State of the Art, 21st Century vision for the Salisbury Twp. School District that not only is turning heads worldwide, but chasing the lives of students as they become college and career ready. About Salisbury School DistrictTeaching and Learning 2020 (TL2020) is an initiative of the http://www.stsd.org/ (Salisbury Township School District) located in Allentown, PA. TL2020 is the next phase in the development of teaching and learning that started in our district with http://www.tl2014.org/ (TL2014). TL2020 builds on our successes at transforming teaching and learning through technology. The initiative offers increased learning opportunities by providing a personal computing dev

In this episode, Jeff sits down with Kasia Chmielinski to learn how Scratch is being used in over 150 countries in more than 40 languages. About ScratchScratch is a programming language and an online community where children can program and share interactive media such as stories, games, and animation with people from all over the world. As children create from Scratch, they learn to think creatively, work collaboratively, and reason systematically. Millions of people are creating Scratch projects in a wide variety of settings, including homes, schools, museums, libraries, and community centers. To date, 9M Scratchers have shared over 12M projects to the online community. Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is provided free of charge. You can read more about Scratch here: http://scratch.mit.edu/about (scratch.mit.edu/about)   Links of interestScratch site: http://scratch.mit.edu (scratch.mit.edu) ­ HOC landing page: http://scratch.mit.edu/hoc (scratch.mit

Jeff sits down with Mary Jo Madda and Michael Winters to discuss how EdSurge is one of the BEST resources for educators on the planet! Learn how EdSurge was founded and how it operates today. About EdSurgeEdSurge is a news and information company focused on the intersection between education and technology. EdSurge readers and fans are edtech entrepreneurs, educators, investors, and education policy makers who are interested in technology K12 and Higher Ed. EdSurge has keynoted with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, hosted an edtech video chat at the request of The White House, is one of TED’s top “education blogs to follow,” and in 2013 was awarded “Most Influential Community Builder” by GSV Advisors Links of interesthttps://www.edsurge.com/ (https://www.edsurge.com/)

Jeff sits down with Jason Valade from Techsmith Education to discuss how easy it is for teachers to be Screencasting in the Classroom for their students. In this video, Jason shows several great reasons for creating screencasts for the classroom. Learn how educators across the country are using video to transform teaching with flipping, project-based learning, and to get more choices in how they teach. Join former educator Jason Valade as he provides inspirational ways to teach more effectively and enrich experiences in and out of the classroom, including an introduction to popular video creation tool Camtasia. About Techsmith EducationBased in Okemos, Michigan, TechSmith provides over 180 countries around the world with screen capture and recording software for individual and professional use. We've made it our goal to give you tools that work just like you do, across multiple devices and locations. Our desktop products, such as Snagit, Camtasia, TechSmith Relay, and Morae, make it easy to cre