Jason Deehan 🇵🇰🇲🇲🇩🇴🇰🇷🇰🇼

The Extraordinary Impact of Drawing to Learn School of Practice · Episode

Or listen on Spotify: bit.ly/3Jv02zL

Want to *literally* add your voice to @edutopia.org's podcast episode? 🎤

☎️ Call our hotline at 866-333-4930 and leave a message about your trickiest classroom challenge.

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Break Bingo – Printable Bingo Card During school breaks, I always hope my students find time to rest, recharge, and rediscover the world beyond their screens. This year, I created a simple Break Bingo card to give them a little insp…

Latest blog post: a printable bingo game designed to encourage students to do try some fun screen-free activities during school breaks. educationalexploits.com/2025/10/23/b... #edusky

How You Can Use Writing to Shape Your Teaching Practice Teachers can explore different modes of writing to facilitate personal reflection and meaningful connections with other educators.

“I’ve realized that teachers who write, for themselves or others, discover powerful opportunities for reflection and connection,” teacher Kasey Short says.

Here’s how writing articles (like this one!) has helped her improve her practice and critically analyze her choices as an educator. ✏️

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My 7th graders will be exploring LOTS of civilizations this year. We are tracking them on our map. So far: Ancient China, Indus River Valley, Norte Chico, Ancient Greece/Rome.

7 Ways to Support Executive Function in Your Classroom How to design your classroom environment and materials to support a wide range of executive function skills, from managing distractions to boosting planning skills.

Try these classroom design strategies to support students’ executive function skills—from following directions and managing distractions to planning projects and making priority lists. 📝

#EduSky #ExecutiveFunction

Crafting Data-Driven Narratives About Students Telling stories with and about data helps students better see themselves as learners and helps teachers center them in the classroom.

"Data stories can help students see themselves not as test scores, but as thinkers and collaborators."

Carl Slater via @edutopia.org
www.edutopia.org/article/data...

Greet students at the door. Be visible and active in between classes.

Ep 2: A Flexible Seating Arrangement That Teachers Love Is there an ideal desk layout—easy to adapt for most class sizes and learning activities?

⚡🎧 Our 2nd School of Practice podcast episode is out!

In this week’s show, we tackle a classic teacher dilemma: DESK LAYOUTS.

Is there one to rule them all?

I think it's important for parents to see me as more than a teacher. So, as student council supervisor, I regularly write to parents about upcoming events.

They're here! This year I managed to create 2 fun stories: one is a silly misunderstanding tale about kids and their dad, the other is an international teacher adventure novel. Enjoy! #Edusky

The cover of the School of Practice podcast from Edutopia Radio. It features a human pyramid of educators helping each other up.

Introducing School of Practice, our first podcast! 🎧

Join us for 15-minute episodes filled with smart, pedagogy-shifting advice—backed by the research, and test-driven by teachers just like you.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4psx6Zv

Subscribe on Spotify: https://bit.ly/47T3Wwg

Project-based learning can be a powerful learning framework, but it often excludes students who need a different approach. On this week's podcast, John Spencer shares five changes we can make to help every student thrive in a project-based environment.
www.cultofpedagogy.com/accessible-p...

How Teachers Can Make Sure Their Cold Calling Is Warm and Collaborative With the right approach, teachers can turn a sometimes controversial practice into a helpful tool for inclusion and learning.

“Cold calling works best when it’s routine, not random, and gentle, not jarring … If students know they can be called on at any time, but in a predictable and respectful way, the strategy becomes less threatening and more useful.”

Warm up your cold calls with these tips! 🧊

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1-Minute Read. Student Engagement. 3 Student Self-Reflection Strategies After They Finish an Assignment. By Marcus Luther. Photo of a student and teacher talking in front of a laptop.

A classroom culture of self-reflection “allows for a more authentic understanding of how students perceive their progress,” HS English teacher @marcusluther.bsky.social writes.

Here’s a simple strategy he uses that reveals how students are doing as well as how they view their own performance:
🧵1/6

A Quiet Classroom Isn’t Always an Ideal Classroom By rethinking what a good day in the classroom looks and sounds like, new teachers can better support their students.

The goal isn’t to have students who follow directions without question—the goal is to raise students who think, feel, and belong. @edutopia.org

www.edutopia.org/article/clas...

1-Minute Read. Brain-Based Learning. Giving Students' Memories a Workout Before the Test.

Left on their own, most students study by rereading notes or their textbook over and over. 📚👀

But research shows this isn’t a good use of their limited study time. ⏲️

The secret to better studying? Active retrieval—training your brain to recall info WITHOUT external aids. 🧠💪

🧵1/5

Projects, Purpose, and the Teenage Mind Neuroscientist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang on why adolescent students search for deeper meaning—and what that tells us about designing schools that engage teens.

Neuroscientist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang spoke with Edutopia’s @stephenmerrill.bsky.social about why adolescent students search for deeper meaning—and what that tells us about designing schools that engage teens.

Read the conversation here 👇

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Why Students Should Write in All Subjects Writing improves learning by consolidating information in long-term memory, researchers explain. Plus, five engaging writing activities to use in all subjects.

Why get students writing in math, science, social studies, and more? It’ll help them process information and remember what they’ve learned. ✍️

Edutopia’s @youkiterada.bsky.social shares the research.

#EduSky #literacy

AI in the Classroom Activity: Microwaves, Steroids, and Escalators? When I was deciding how to approach the use of AI in my classroom this year, my focus wasn’t on if they’ll use it, but how. So this week, I set up an activity that got my middle schoolers thinking …

Activity where students compare AI use to microwave, steroids, and escalators. Linked resource. educationalexploits.com/2025/09/10/a... #Edusky

An interesting read for #historyteacher #TeacherEducation #HistoryEducation colleagues.

Projects, Purpose, and the Teenage Mind Neuroscientist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang on why adolescent students search for deeper meaning—and what that tells us about designing schools that engage teens.

Teenagers are especially emotional thinkers. The question is: Are their emotions about the *ideas*, or about the *grades*?

Read our conversation with neuroscientist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang for more.

#EduSky

Projects, Purpose, and the Teenage Mind Neuroscientist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang on why adolescent students search for deeper meaning—and what that tells us about designing schools that engage teens.

This article is lit! #Edusky. www.edutopia.org/article/proj...

Of Course a Teacher Would… The hero is a teacher? Totally believable. I just finished writing an adventure novel about a Social Studies teacher (and former hockey goon) who, with the assistance of a colleague, takes on a con…

Latest blog post: shameless promotion for my teacher adventure novel! #Edusky educationalexploits.com/2025/09/04/o...

Did You Know? In sixth grade, only a third of friendships endure through the school year, research shows. By 12th grade, just 1 percent of middle school friendships remain intact. Most friendships aren't built to last. To help kids preserve existing friendships, consider letting close friends chat and work together periodically, while also helping middle schoolers understand that moving on from old friendships and creating new ones is just a natural part of life. Sources: Hartl, Laursen, and Cillessen, 2015; Lessard and Juvonen, 2018

Moving on from old friendships and creating new ones is a natural part of life. 🧡

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Shapegrams PDF Members can download Shapegrams Posters about Drawing for Friends. It's a 65 page PDF with posters about shapes, shortcuts, tools, options, color, and techniques.

I wrote a book!

It's a 92-page PDF full of one-pagers about making digital art in Google Slides and Drawings.

The only way to get it is to be a Shapegrams member for $35. 🙃 #EduSky #EdTech

shapegrams.com/pdf

22 Recent Books You Shouldn't Miss Edutopia’s books editor read 70 new education books in the past year. Here are the most notable, must-read books for teachers and school leaders.

Looking for a list of great education books, including some that may have been under your radar? 📚 Here are 22 must-reads.

#EduSky #ProfessionalLearning

A beautiful book cover featuring a giraffe with horns, a winged horse, several strange insects, and a winged leopard. The title is RIALTO.

Drumroll, please! Announcing RIALTO! It's the story of three kids, a town full of secrets and buried legends, and an abandoned theme park, with themes of anxiety, sibling relationships, and a touch of first love. Head to clockworkfoundry.com if you want the info that follows in one click.

Ask & Answer from Edutopia.

Ready to swap ideas with fellow educators? Check out the conversations this week on Edutopia’s community forum, Ask & Answer. 👇

Four Advisory Activities I know it can be challenging to pull together good advisory activities, especially at the beginning of the school year, when it’s easy to be overwhelmed with meetings, lesson prep, and classroom se…

Latest blog post: 4 linked advisory activities for building belonging, as well as discussing boundaries, good apologies, and the pain of cringey memories. Perfect to kickstart the year. #edusky educationalexploits.com/2025/08/27/f...