Jon Bergmann talks with Vicki about flipped learning by which he means moving direct instruction to the individual space so the classroom space can be freed up for collaborative projects. Listen now to find out more about this pedagogical method. The real sweet sauce happens when a teacher moves from the flipped classroom to flipped learning. @jonbergmann Powered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This Click here to listen to Jon Bergmann Add @jonbergmann to your PLN @jonbergmann Turning Learning on its Head Listen now to Jon Bergmann Jon Bergmann - Show #90 - Preparing Your Students for Flipped Learning Jon Bergmann, a BAM Radio host of "The Flip Side with Jon Bergmann", talks with Vicki about how to watch and learn from videos as well as flipping learning. He explains the difference between flipped classrooms and flipped learning, which is more in depth pedagogical method. Jon explains how to flip learning in areas without connectivity, how this system improves learning, and raises grades. The biggest mistake teachers make is that teachers don’t teach the kids how to watch the videos. @jonbergmannPowered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This The best tool Jon recommends for flipping learning is the one that will be used. He is a fan of video creation tools but also mentions screencasting tools. He recommends four to six minute long videos per grade level and the importance of what happens in the classroom after students have watched the videos. Listen now to hear Jon’s advice to teachers about how to flip their classrooms. Jon also talks about the powerful method (which I’m using in my own classroom) - the "in-flip" method of teaching. Jon shares a story of a teacher getting fantastic results on his student achievement using this method. He recommends 1 to 1.5 minutes per grade level for the length of the video. He says it is about what happens in the classroom because of the videos NOT the videos. Click here to listen to this show Flipped Classroom Video Tools Screencastomatic Powerpoint Office Mix Camtasia (Jon also mentions TechSmith Relay) Zaption Places You Can Embed Your Flips Haiku Learning (my current LMS) Instructure Canvas Sophia A YouTube Video Showing How I Teach My Students to Take Notes on Videos Every Classroom Matters is a bi-weekly Radio Show by Vicki Davis on BAM Radio network with best practices for busy teachers.  Subscribe.  Show notes prepared by Lisa Durff, Production Coordinator for Every Classroom Matters. Need help listening to the show? You can click "play" on the BAM Radio site or subscribe in a podcatcher. If you need help, use this tutorial.     The post Jon Bergmann: Preparing Your Students for Flipped Learning #flipclass appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

We know that when students are tested in environments similar to those they learn in, that they recall the information better. (This makes us wonder why students are taken out of the classroom and put in a gym or computer lab and expected to recall the material.) We also know that chewing gum or even certain smells can improve test scores. (Anyone starting to see the preposterousness of this?) We work hard to differentiate in the classroom but we don’t differentiate our test giving at all — no videos, audio, or anything unique even for those with special needs. (As someone ranted to me yesterday on Twitter (see below).) @coolcatteacher Special needs students taking the SAME standardized test as everyone else. Why? We differentiate..so should the tests. — Ruth Hrebinka (@RHrebinka) March 4, 2015 I even found this other research study that shows that distractions don’t necessarily hurt learning. In fact, if you’re equally distracted when you learn as when you recall, you have better recall. (See the bottom of this post for the research summary. And why are we trying to make everything quiet during testing?) All of this to say, we are gum chewing, environment manipulating and all kinds of gyrating to do what we can for even a miniscule jump in a test score. Test scores rule the day!!! OK. Does anyone see the insanity of this approach? What about life? What about living? What about nurturing? Education seems to be frantically pursuing right answers to the wrong questions. There is no doubt, we are asking the wrong questions in education. It doesn’t matter if you have right answers. The right answers to wrong questions never make wrong questions right. For example, the Nazi generals during World War 2 asked for more efficient ways to kill prisoners. They may have gotten some "right" answers to that wrong question but the question itself is repugnant and should never have been asked. Wrong questions are WRONG. WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! You’re not going to get the right results until you get rid of the WRONG questions! Wrong questions get wrong results NO MATTER WHAT. What is our central question now in education? How can we improve test scores? WRONG! Wrong Question. One of the right questions is: How can we improve the lives of our students both now and in the future? There are other right questions we can be asking: How can we help students find their strengths? How can we empower and nurture those strengths? So many of our problems in education stem from the wrong questions being asked. It is time for brave educators, parents, and politicians to question the questions.          Summary of New Research on Distractions and Learning Distracted to Learn? | Psych Central News Surprising new research may rewrite learning theory as Brown University scientists contend that distractions do not necessarily impede the learning process of a motor task. Investigators discovered that if attention was as divided during recall of a motor task as it was during learning the task, people performed as if there were no distractions at either stage. Thus, the real issue is that inconsistent distraction can impair our recollection of the task. As long as our attention is as divided when we have to recall a motor skill as it was when we learned it, we’ll do just fine, say the researchers. tags:research distraction education bestpractices It was as if those who were denied the same degree of distraction during testing as they experienced during learning suffered a disadvantage. In the end, it didn’t seem to matter what the distraction was during recall, as long as subjects had had a distraction during learning. Everybody who had been distracted in both learning and recall performed better than those who were distracted while learning but undistracted during recall. There just had to be the same degree of distraction at both times. Another task is to figure out what might be going on in the brain to allow divided attention to be a boost for recall, rather than a hindrance for learning Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here. The post QUESTIONS: What is Wrong with Education appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

I received a demo unit of the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Scanner. Honestly, I thought it was going to be just another scanner, and I haven’t had much luck with them. I have to scan so many things for the school website; it was worth trying it out. (The scanner on our copier always breaks.) Plus, now I’m using Haiku Learning and scan many of the things I used to hand out. As I was unpackaging it, I had a great sign. The CEO of the IT company that we hire to do our contract computer repair was in my room for a meeting. He said, "That is the ScanSnap, I got rid of every other scanner and bought five of them. It is the only thing we use and is the best scanner I’ve ever used." And he’s picky. So am I. I’ve included the video from the company below because this is one of the rare cases that the video DOES do justice for the device. <iframe width="560″ height="315″ src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1jTY_vazup8″ frameborder="0″ allowfullscreen></iframe> So, why is the Fujitsu ScanSnap Scanner so incredible? Here’s why: The scanner is crazy fast, and it intelligently detects if it is single or double sided (if you leave that setting on). If there is a problem, it will ask you what to do and let you rescan. (I’ve had to scan my drivers license before and even got it to do that!) You can scan to their iPad or iPhone app directly. I have it set up on wi-fi if students need to scan something for a project directly to their phone (how cool is that) - This uses the ScanSnap mobile connect software. The software is awesome. (More on that in a moment) It scans in color, gray or black and white up to 1500 rez It has the software (ABBYY Fine Reader) to scan to Microsoft Word with the text typed in Word (This is called OCR - Optical Character Recognition). It does the same for Excel. It will scan to Powerpoint, and it turns the paper slides into PowerPoint slides. I will admit this area was less than perfect as most of the images and text insert as graphics. That said, it is very functional. You can edit the scan before you save or work with it using the ScanSnap Organizer. It also flips the pages for you and auto-detects that side faces up!! It will ignore blank pages. It will scan up to 50 pages at a time. It connects via wi-fi to mobiles and computers. It has never jammed or misfed paper on me since I’ve been using it in October. Set up the Scansnap Software I have my Scansnap set up to do some very cool things. It scans to Evernote as either a document (all the pages in one note as a PDF) or a note (one page per note). It scans to Dropbox and Pocket. I even have it set up with ifttt to scan important items into Pocket (I scan it to a Dropbox folder which IFTTT puts into Pocket.) I scan all of my "to read" straight to Pocket and read it on the weekends. If I had never had another scanner, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. But I have had the NEAT, several flatbed scanners, and even fight with the scanner on our copier at school (which I have to wait for.) I don’t use anything but the Scansnap and am saving to get one at home. I have it right beside my computer. Now, you might wonder with the photography what it is on the iPhone and mobile devices why you would need a scanner. SPEED. Plain and simple. I take pictures of my journal pages and put them in Evernote (because they are bound pages and won’t go on the scanner.) However, my Scansnap can scan full documents quickly. I scan everything. So, for example, you can see in the video below where I show you how to make a table of contents for notes pages, how I’ve scanned the rubrics. I scan everything I return. I’m done making paper copies. It is entirely pointless. I scan each child’s rubric as its own note and tag it with the name of the student. I’m able to assemble quickly and search all of the work for each student if I need it for a conference or reference.   About Product Reviews on Cool Cat Teacher Frequent readers will know that I rarely review items on my blog. This is because I take so few items for consideration because they have to be something I NEED. When I review them, I have a policy to do no harm. If I don’t like it or have issues recommending it, I’ll communicate that to the manufacturer and give them suggestions. I have returned products that just didn’t work out. If I have reviewed it long enough to see that it is trustworthy, then I tell you. There is a reason this scanner is being recommended for anyone and everyone. It is fantastic. I love it. It makes Evernote more powerful, my website updating faster, and makes me more productive. I highly recommend the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Scanner. Great Scanner! Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."   The post The Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Scanner: The Best Scanner I Have Ever Used appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Vicki and her student reporters will be covering the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai this week. You can see the live stream on the GESF website and follow the #gesf  hashtag on Twitter. You’ll be seeing her students write their opinion on the future of education right here on this blog. The $1 Million Dollar Global Teacher Prize to be announced Sunday Ten finalists have been named in the Global Teacher Prize contest, having been voted as the best by teachers around the world.  This contest awards  $1 million to an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession.   The Global Teacher Prize highlights incredible stories of teacher inspiration from around the world.  Teachers in K-12 or ages 5 to 18 were eligible for this prize.  More information is available at http://www.globalteacherprize.org/ These are the finalists - please peruse their videos: Aziz - http://youtu.be/AJuv2zO_1YM Guy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRseiDy_8_A> Jacque - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoA0ko8unaU Kiran - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkOlfkXXtXk Madenjit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGpLZvc0wi4 Nancie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usy3ixT0QpA Naomi - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhw89YdJWJ0 Phalla - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy15ugTf8eM Richard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuTyX4NKBRA Stephen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEn_Rp2Tcp4Check out the amazing work that the Top 10 Finalists for the Global Teacher Prize are doing: http://bit.ly/1Dzu5cI #GESF Powered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This The post Who Will Win the $1 Million Teacher Prize? #gesf appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Coming from a small, traditional farming community in the southern United States, it’s a bit of a shock to suddenly find yourself immersed in such a diverse array of ethnicities and cultures-ancient and modern-young and old. New ideas and ways of thinking mix with the traditional views and cultures of people around the globe as people from a myriad of backgrounds come together at the Global Education and Skills Forum held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is so diverse that it is almost like a smoothie with a little bit of everything in it. Authored by Elizabeth G and Rebekah B, student reporters from Westwood Schools attending the Global Education and Skills forum in Dubai with their teacher, Vicki Davis. There are people from every corner of the globe here and it is just amazing to see how all these people come together with a common goal of furthering education around the world and making the world a better place. The collaborative atmosphere of the people here at the conference is really incredible and it is truly an eye opening experience to be able to talk with other people from around the globe with different viewpoints and learn to see things from a different perspective. It seems like everyone here is completely dedicated to the task at hand and has a heart and passion for education. So, even though the delegates of the conference all come from different walks of life, they are able to blend their cultures together and bridge the gap to make lasting relationships as they pursue a common goal of education, equity, and employment for all. A note from teacher, Vicki Davis. I believe that conferences about education should include students. I’m excited that the organizers of the Global Education and Skills conference do as well. This is a very important conference because it brings together policy makers, politicians, principals, teachers, and world leaders to envision and push forward education in the world. You’ll be seeing the voice of students shared on my blog as they experience the conference and share their thoughts. Related articles Maine teacher wins $1 million Global Teacher Prize in Dubai The post The Global Education and Skills Conference is a Cultural Smoothie #gesf appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

At the Global Education Skill Forum in Dubai, one of the things that I noticed was the overwhelming devotion of teachers to their profession and their students. I have encountered many wonderful and caring teachers throughout my career as a student, but I was overwhelmed with the passion for teaching that many of these teachers exhibited during the conference. These teachers also display this passion even in times of significant adversity. Many of the top ten finalists for the Global Teacher Prize taught their students in challenging times; some of them even risking their lives in the name of education. This post is by Mark G, a student reporter from Westwood Schools at the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai. When we have education conferences, we must include student voice. An education conference without students in attendance is missing out on the reason we pursue this profession. I hope you’ll find Mark’s views about teachers as uplifting as I do. Please comment if you do. Thank you, teachers. You matter! — Vicki Davis Mr. Azizullah Royesh, a teacher from Afghanistan and a finalist for the Global Teacher Prize, started facing adversity at 12. He was forced to leave Afghanistan when the Soviet Union invaded. The last words his father told him were "I wish that you stay alive." After fleeing to Pakistan, he started teaching at the age of 16 so that he could share his literacy with the other refugees. Throughout his career as a teacher, he also was faced with stressful situations. In one situation, many of his female students were protesting a controversial law passed by the clerics. The clerics, who drafted the law, stormed his school, tried to burn it, and called for his execution. He later moved back to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban regime. Mrs. Phalla Neang, a teacher from Cambodia and a finalist for the Global Teacher Prize, opened up a school for the blind and deaf. In Cambodia, people with disabilities are regarded as having sinned in a former life, and are persecuted and shunned by society. Many of them receive no quality education. Mrs. Neang has opened up five schools across Cambodia to give blind and deaf people the opportunity to have an education, and also to educate the people of Cambodia of the worth of people with disabilities in society. She works ceaselessly to give her students a quality education, and when students don’t show up, she visits them to check on them. Great Teachers All great teachers share a common characteristic: A devotion to their profession and their students. This devotion was prevalent among all teachers attending the GESF conference. In a panel discussion at the conference, one question was, "what makes for an effective teacher?" The most common answer was that for a teacher to be effective, they need to be passionate and devoted to their job, and dedicated to their students. The Winner of the Global Teacher Prize: Nancie Atwell Nancie Atwell, the winner of the Global Teacher Prize, said that in her classroom, she allows her students to make decisions about what they want to read. She enables them to pursue their passions in literature. She is very committed to her pupils, allowing their voices to be heard in the curriculum and letting them have more control over their education. Mrs. Nancy is one of those teachers who is not content with a paycheck, she wants to see real results in her craftsmanship. She shapes and molds her students with her immersive literature curriculum, and makes a lasting impact on all of her students. Thank You Teachers for Your Devotion In order to change lives and change the world, teachers must be devoted to their profession. As an attendant of the GESF conference, I can testify that all teachers present do not only have a devotion to their job, but have a passion for it that defines them as human beings. Because teachers are devoted to their job, world leaders are created, doctors are made, and the world becomes a better place. Thank you, teachers of the world, for your devotion to me and all my fellow students. The post Thankful for Teacher Devotion: A Message from a Student #gesf appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Matthew Kohut claims people make a decision with a tenth of a second about a person’s warmth. Projecting a sense of warmth is imperative for teachers. Matthew and co-author John Neffinger, said in Compelling People: The Hidden Qualities That Make Us Influential that character is how one chooses to be not the way one is born. Listen now to Matthew Kohut Add @besmonte to your PLN @besmonte Compelling People Listen now to Matthew Kohut Matthew Kohut- Show #81 - The Two Hidden Qualities of Effective Educators Based upon research in social science, Matthew Kohut claims there are universal metaphors that cue our bodies via hormonal boosts to trust people. Humans can influence their public speaking abilities by body pose and influence others with non-verbal communication. Matthew reminds us to align the visual, the vocal, and the verbal when speaking to others. These are three channels that are most effective when they work together. Matthew reminds us effective educators also project a sense of strength and warmth. Listen now to find out more on this research about the qualities on which our social judgements hinge. This show centers upon something called "embodied cognition." The position of your body impacts how you think and feel in powerful ways. I highly recommend Matthew Cohut’s book Compelling People as a way to understand this concept. — Vicki Davis 5 Useful Things to Gain from Listening to this Show The ideal pose to take before you speak Warmth and Strength and how they impact you as a teacher (and are different for men and women) What is embodied cognition? How do we decide what people we will trust and like? What is some interesting research to help me understand how my body impacts how others view me? Every Classroom Matters is a bi-weekly Radio Show by Vicki Davis on BAM Radio network with best practices for busy teachers. Subscribe. Need help listening to the show? If you’re clicking "Play" on the BAM Radio Site, this often works best in Internet explorer. Or subscribe in a podcatcher. If you need help, use this tutorial. The post The Hidden Qualities of Effective Educators appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

Over the last couple days, we have been attending the Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF). GESF is a global conference with people from all cultures and backgrounds attending. Being students from a small private school in the small town of Camilla, Georgia, we were eager to attend a session on the role of private schools in the education system. Titled "Is there a place for "private" in education?", the discussion was controversial and enlightening. Mark G is a student reporter covering the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai. In this post, he has chosen to recap the views of a controversial panel on the role of private education in society. While I typically work to remain apolitical and focus on what unites us in education, Mark has been given full liberty to share on this controversial topic. I also want to note that learning how to hyperlink effectively is an important part of blogging and Mark has done this very well, in my opinion. Mark includes the video of the session so you can view it. — Vicki Davis, Teacher There was a distinguished panel that discussed this controversial topic. Jay Kimmelman, CEO of Bridge International Academies, Kenya, John Bangs, Senior Consultant to the General Secretary, Education International UK, Geoffrey Canada, President, Harlem Children’s Zone, and Sir James Mancham, former President of Seychelles. Each one of the panel members was asked their position on this issue. There was a variety of views on this question. Sir James Mancham said that private schools are crucial to the education system of a country. He mentioned that in his country of Seychelles, their Constitution includes a provision for the preservation of the private school system. Private schools create competition between other private schools and public schools to create a need for constant improvement. He went on to say that private schools are more focused on hiring the best teachers and teaching an important and effective curriculum. He raised an important question about public schools, asking if it was public education or public indoctrination. Geoffrey Canada remarked that private education is invaluable to the education system, but only middle class and affluent families could afford it for their kids. He said that every parent wants the best possible education for his or her child, and that parents should be able to have the choice to send their children to better schools if they have the money. Mr. Geoffrey was a big proponent of charter schools, saying that they allowed poor students to get a better education than they would receive at public schools. He said that private schools are critical to the education system because they give students a choice in their child’s schooling. John Bangs and Jay Kimmelman had a slightly different opinion on the topic. Both of them agreed that it is important for parents to have a choice of various schools for their children to attend. John Bangs stated that parents do not only choose between a private and public school, they choose the best possible school for their children, that they can afford. Bangs said that state has a profound role in education, because education is the glue of society. Because education is crucial to the success of a country, he believes that it is the responsibility of the government to educate the people. Jay Kimmelman believes that all students have a right to a quality education. Jay works in Kenya, and has seen much inequality in the education system. He believes that it is immoral for privileged students to have a world class education, while many poor students are left behind in low performing schools. Jay was against private education that caters to a particular class of people, he believes that private schools must cater to all students, regardless of race or income. All panel members were in agreement that private schools played a role in education; the only discrepancy was the extent of that role. Some members were in favor of private education as the dominant system, others believed that it should play the role of a backup to the public school system. Another opinion was that the private school system and the public school system should be balanced, both contributing ideas and innovation to improve both systems. As students attending a private school in Georgia, and by attending this session with these esteemed panelists, we can conclude that there is a role of "private" in education. If You Comment:I encourage you to comment, but please remember that this post is written by a student as a summary of a session. I do moderate comments and hope that you’ll model effective discourse as you share your thoughts and opinions on this topic. I reserve the right to moderate all comments. Thank you for being part of this experience as I encourage my students to develop their voice and use their blogging skills for a wider audience. You can leave a comment by clicking here. The post The Role of Private Education #gesf Session Summary appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.

If you see technology controlling students, then you’ve got a classroom using 21st century technology for 20th century teaching. If you see students creating and programming the technology, then you’ve got a more modern classroom approach. As part of Cathy Rubin’s series on the Global Search for Education, this month’s question is "What is the biggest mistake classroom teachers make when integrating technology into the classroom?" Too many classrooms cover Lesson 52 today and Lesson 53 tomorrow and the next day, guess what they’ll do…. 54. These same classrooms will make a fatal mistake when using technology. Falling short of the potential of technology, they’ll program our children to just learn multiplication facts or grammar—not that technology doesn’t teach these things more rapidly… it will. But we need to unleash creativity, not just find a faster way to learn facts. Seymour Papert and Cynthia Solomon talked about the tendency for "dumb technology" uses more than 40 years ago, "The phrase ‘technology and education’ usually means inventing new gadgets to teach the same old stuff in a thinly disguised version of the same old way. Moreover, if the gadgets are computers, the same old teaching becomes incredibly more expensive and biased towards its dumbest parts, namely the kind of rote learning in which measurable results can be obtained by treating the children like pigeons in a Skinner box." There is a model for technology integration called SAMR. The first stage of implementing technology in the classroom is "substitution" where you just substitute technology for what you can do already. Teachers who just use technology to teach facts and routine items are stuck in substitution. To successfully implement new technology, we must get to the R stage of "redefinition." Redefining the classroom with technology can be seen in the Maker Movement, app smashing, and genius hour. All of these unleash student creativity. Teachers become coaches. In my classroom, I teach the principle of convergence. For example, when your GPS and smartphone merged, that is called convergence. I used to have students just learn what had converged in the past. But now, I have students invent how they think technology will converge in the future. This year, when I taught this lesson, Rebekah, a tenth grader envisions smartphones converging with contacts. She made the following video.  We learned about the term convergence but instead of memorizing examples, students created something new. John Seely Brown says "To fully utilize a new teaching technology you often need to invent new teaching practices as well." When journalist David Carr was asked to give advice to students, he said, "You have to make stuff. No one is going to give a damn about your resume, they want to see what you have made with your own little fingers." But to create, we must give students permission. We must make classrooms places where they can experiment and fail. For without failure, there is no success. Without permission, there is no creativity. "Studies of creativity suggest that the biggest single variable of whether or not employees will be creative is whether they perceive they have permission." says management expert, David Hills. We need to give students permission to create and innovate. Our classrooms are not prisons of the mind. We should not stifle students in rows and chairs, rotely entering numbers into an iPad, when their fingers long to create a movie. Math facts may be significant, but the simple fact is that timidly using technology to program students is a waste of technology, a waste of time, and more importantly, a waste of mind. It is time to bravely redefine what a classroom can be. REFERENCES Brown, J.S. New Learning Environments for the 21st Century, 2005. Retrieved from www.johnseelybrown.com/newlearning.pdf April 12, 2012, p. 5. Kleon, Austin. Show Your Work, p. 41. David Hills as quoted in Maxwell, John. How Successful People Think, p. 33 Seymour Papert and Cynthia Solomon, "Twenty Things to Do With a Computer," Artificial Intelligence Memo #248. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1971). 






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"Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it I wash my mouth out with chocolate." ― Charles M. Schulz I’ve previously shared about cooking, let’s get physical. 1. Lose It https://www.loseit.com/ Track calories, weight, and exercise. People who faithfully track calories in this app really do lose it. 2. Fit Bit http://www.fitbit.com/ Lots of us around town are wearing Fit Bits or Fuel Band (by Nike) to track steps. It will even wake you up when you’re sleeping your lightest. (Don’t do like Big Hoss did on Pawn Stars and tie yours to a paint shaker, that isn’t honest.) 3. Fitocracy https://www.fitocracy.com/ Fitocracy is THE social network for fitness where you encourage and level up with your friends. Great way if your closest friends don’t live nearby.   4. Weight Watchers http://www.coolcatteacher.com/weightwatchers Yes, you have to join the online Weight Watchers to use the app. It helps you stay on the program and tracks everything. 5. FitStar http://fitstar.com/ My student Reid Ford showed me this app full of fitness videos and exercises. You can pick the type of space that you have and the time you have and it will give you videos (some free and others cost money). 6. Fitness Buddy http://www.fitnessbuddyapp.com/ My student Mary Kate Dallas loves this app because it gets you on a fitness routine. You can make a schedule and know your workout routine for every day. It pulls from 1000+ exercises that you can do at home or in a gym. 7. YouTube Do you know that most of your favorite fitness professionals have free videos on YouTube? Before buying another video, look them up there and try it out. (Like this video from Jillian Michaels  coolcatteacher.com/jillian )   8. Nike+ Running https://secure-nikeplus.nike.com/plus/ When I ran, I LOVED this app. Sometimes I alternated this with Runkeeper (http://runkeeper.com/) - they are both great apps for tracking your run. Nike even links with Facebook and you’ll hear a cheer when someone likes your run. 9. Withings http://www.withings.com/ The withings scale tracks your body weight and BMI and will send it to an app to track your weight every day via wifi. 10. Zombies Run! https://www.zombiesrungame.com/ This is a crazy app and yes, I’ve used it. I don’t recommend this for kids as it scared me and I’m… ahem… older. So, in this app you’re listening to a story and there are certain times you have to run to save people on an epic quest as zombies snarl at your heels. It is a fun way to run. Many of these apps link together and even more importantly can link you to a support group to help you achieve your fitness goals. Apps can help us get fit but ultimately we’re the ones who have to sweat. The post 10 Health and Fitness Apps To Make Getting Fit Fun appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.