About Vicki Davis Cool Cat Teacher

This blog, the Cool Cat Teacher Blog, was originally named by my students in 2005. I created it so I could learn how to blog and teach them. It was incredible when people started reading my blog! Then, some nominated it for awards. What a blessing!  From Edublog Top Teacher Blog awards to others, it has been a cool journey, for sure. I'll never forget that it has happened because teachers have found the site helpful and shared it with other teachers. That fills me with joy!

I have also blogged on other websites as well including as a top global teacher blogger syndicated through Cathy Rubin's Top Global Teacher Blogger authors and Edutopia.

What a blessing to host two iTunes chart-topping education podcasts. Currently, I interview teachers and education thought leaders on the 10 Minute Teacher podcast.

Originally, the podcast was 5-days a week (the pandemic changed that a little). When it launched on February 1, 2017, it hit a top 10 spot in the K12 iTunes store within the week.

With over 760 episodes, many of the podcasts are used to teach teachers and help them create remarkable classrooms. The great thing about the show is the star of the show is not me — it is the amazing teachers everywhere who tell their stories — over 700 of them!

I also hosted Every Classroom Matters for three years with BAM Radio and won the BAMMY for Best Talk Show Host in Education. You can access the archives of the 301 episodes of the show here.

I have created or co-created more than 30 global collaborative projects, helping kids connect around the world. When the pandemic struck, the principles I learned in global collaboration helped my school not miss any days of instruction and move forward with learning.

My books Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds and Reinventing Writing share many of the best practices I still use today. Students need to be able to work independently but also need to collaborate and work together. The work I've done in this area was in Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat (version 3), Don Tapscott's Grown Up Digital, and Curt Bonk's The World is Open for this work.

I have written for Edutopia, the Washington Post, and a variety of other media outlets across the world.  I wrote the cover story for Media Planet's Edtech insert in USA Today for the January 1, 2022 edition. It was cool to be on the cover with my students.

With 166K followers (or so) on Twitter, Twitter has long been a way that I connect and build my PLN. I want to be helpful. Several times my @coolcatteacher account has been named a top edtech influencer account on Twitter. My goal is to be helpful.

A great joy of mine through the years has been to take my students around the world to share and demonstrate how they use technology. My students have presented in Qatar, India, China, Hawaii, Dubai, and my home state of Georgia where they ran a conference for librarians. Over the years, they have presented online quite a bit. I'm always eager to help my students share what they are learning. They are the stars of the my classroom and I love them!

My husband Kip and I have had a marvelous journey since 1993 as we have raised three precious children. They are the reason I became a teacher. As they struggled to learn, I learned more about education technology and helping them learn.

We've been through some hard knocks with our own children but through experience, I can tell you that every child can learn and succeed. I refuse to believe test scores because I've seen my own children raise their percentiles over 30 points. Every child can learn and my experience with this has started at home at my own kitchen table. I love my children so much! Being a Mama is a calling on my life.

Over the years I've spoken and keynoted at over 100 conferences. See some of the topics. From Dubai to Mumbai, Moscow to Maine, Honolulu to Beijing — oh what fun it has been! 

I teach about technology but also a model of innovation that works for everyone. My simple 3-step “innovate like a turtle” model is transformational and can help every teacher reach every child even when you don't have a huge budget or lots of expensive technology. Contact me about speaking.

I have been a judge for the $1million Global Teacher Prize since 2015, the year it was founded. Through this, I've gotten to interview and meet many of the top teachers in the world. What a thrill!

In an odd turn of events, my software tutorials are used by thousands on YouTube each month. The Cool Cat Teacher YouTube channel. You'll see lots of tutorials I make as well as a syndication of the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast

My classrooms are special places. We use Computer Science to program, make apps, and crate things. We make 3D rollercoasters in VR. We create AR experiences. My student genius projects find them making original movies, music singles, video games, and more. It is so much fun to learn and innovate with my students!