Announcer: This is the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast with your host, Vicki Davis.

Vicki Davis: Today's episode 949 is Significant Saturday. I won't run one of these specials every week, but every now and then, I want to air something a little different — something about the other side of your life. The one where you're a human being, not a human doing. You are significant, not because of what you produce, but just because of who you are. So today you'll get a few of the books I have loved that have helped me remember that. So here are 11 book recommendations from me to you. I hope you find one that you enjoy.

Vicki Davis: As we talk about integrating AI thoughtfully into our classrooms, it reminds me that wisdom comes not just from the latest technology, but from timeless truths and continuous learning. Speaking of learning, summertime is upon us, and whether you're poolside, on a road trip, or just enjoying some well-deserved downtime, I want to share some books that have absolutely transformed my thinking and my classroom. These aren't just books I've read. These are the books I've devoured, highlighted, and returned to again and again. In fact, looking at my Readwise library, I've highlighted over 6,800 passages from these books combined.

Vicki Davis: Let me start with a book that's absolutely essential for anyone using AI who wants to honor their Christian faith: The Age of AI by Jason Thacker. He says, quote, “AI is doing things like driving cars around our streets and automating countless jobs that were created for humans. AI is changing everything about our world and society, and we aren't prepared,” end quote. He then takes two questions to aid the journey of understanding AI from a Christian perspective. For one, what does it mean to be human? And number two, what is technology in AI? Friends, if you're a Christian educator or business person or parent who wants to use AI wisely and ethically, this needs to be at the top of your summer reading list. Thacker brilliantly addresses the intersection of technology and faith, helping us navigate questions like, how do we maintain human dignity in an AI world? What does it mean to create with integrity when AI can generate content? This book speaks directly to the heart of what we've been discussing — using technology as a tool while keeping our humanity and values intact. So book number one, The Age of AI by Jason Thacker.

Vicki Davis: After reading that book, read The Future Is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler. They make a point in the book and they say, quote, “every time a technology goes exponential, we find an internet-sized opportunity tucked inside.” Think about the internet itself. While it seemingly decimated industries — music, media, retail, travel, and taxis — a study by McKinsey Global Research found the net actually created 2.6 new jobs for each one it extinguished. There's a lot of hope as you read this book, and it'll help you understand the big picture of what things are happening. So my book number two, The Future Is Faster Than You Think by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler.

Vicki Davis: Now, let me share a book that's been a companion to me for many years: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie. This is one of my favorite passages. He says, quote, “one of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.” Carnegie's wisdom from decades ago feels more relevant than ever. Carnegie also says the most relaxing, recreating forces are healthy religion, sleep, music, and laughter. Have faith in God. Learn to sleep well, love good music, and see the funny side of life. Book number three, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie.

Vicki Davis: For those of you feeling overwhelmed or burned out — and let's be honest, who isn't after this school year — I recommend Necessary Endings by Henry Cloud. Cloud opens the book and says, “today may be the enemy of your tomorrow. In your business and perhaps your life, the tomorrow you desire and envision may never come to pass if you do not end some things you are doing today.” This book taught me that sometimes the most life-giving thing we can do is let go of what's no longer serving us. Cloud writes about how endings aren't failures. They're often the doorway to new beginnings. Book number four, Necessary Endings by Henry Cloud.

Vicki Davis: For my author and creator friends, Die Empty by Todd Henry is a must-read. Now, the title sounds morbid, but here is what he says. “The most valuable land in the world is the graveyard. In the graveyard are buried all of the unwritten novels, never-launched businesses, unreconciled relationships, and all of the other things that people thought, I'll get around to that tomorrow.” He also says there is an over-emphasis on celebrity and recognition in our culture, and it will eventually be the death of us. Cultivating a love of the process is a key to making a lasting contribution. With only one in four people in the world feeling they are living up to their creative potential, he reminds us that your legacy is built one decision at a time. Todd Henry's message is life-giving. Don't go to your grave with your best work still inside you. Book number five, Die Empty by Todd Henry.

Vicki Davis: And if you're looking to build sustainable systems for capturing and organizing ideas — especially important in our information-rich world — Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte revolutionized how I manage knowledge. I've done past shows on my personal second brain system that you can see on my Cool Cat Teacher YouTube channel. So book number six, Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte.

Vicki Davis: Friends, I'd be remiss if I didn't share the book that has the most highlights in my entire library: The Complete Work of E.M. Bounds, with 541 highlights. Bounds writes about prayer in a way that changed my life. And he said, quote, “our short prayers owe their point in efficiency to the long ones that have preceded them.” Book number seven, The Complete Work of E.M. Bounds.

Vicki Davis: And for daily encouragement, Springs in the Desert by Lettie B. Cowman offers devotional thoughts that feel like cool water on a hot summer day. As she cared for her husband for many years, who was terminally ill, she and her husband looked for things that encouraged them, and then they put them into this book. From college to now, and anytime I have hard things going on, this book is my go-to devotional book to settle my mind and get some sleep. Book number eight, Springs in the Desert by Lettie B. Cowman.

Vicki Davis: And I love books that encourage me and help me think. John Maxwell has these small books he calls the 101 series. They are perfect for reading a chapter and then having your adult children read it and discuss them at the table. He says, quote, “hoping for a good future without investing in it today is like a farmer waiting for a crop without ever planting a seed.” Maxwell also says, “you can have anything you want, but you cannot have everything you want.” Life's about choices, isn't it? So book number nine is actually a book series, John Maxwell's 101 series. I like the small little individual books because I can share them, even though it's in a big large book too.

Vicki Davis: And finally, if you're a teacher and last year didn't go right in terms of procedures or behavior, there are two books I recommend and give these to first-year teachers: Harry and Rosemary Wong's The First Days of School for classroom procedures, and Fred Jones' Tools for Teachers about behavior management and classroom setup. These two books make number 10 and number 11. And you know, as I look at these books — from AI ethics to ancient wisdom about prayer, from productivity systems to letting go — I'm reminded that growth happens when we're intentional about what we feed our minds and souls. This summer, I challenge you to pick just one or two of these books. Don't feel like you need to read them all. Choose what speaks to where you are right now. Remember, we're not just educators or business people, we're lifelong learners. And the beautiful thing about summer is it gives us permission to slow down and dig deep into ideas that can transform not just our work, but our lives.

Vicki Davis: Thanks for tuning in to the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast. Watch the video version of this podcast and catch my new radio and TV show, Cool Cat Teacher Talk, on YouTube and a radio or TV station near you. Join my Cool Cat Teacher Classroom Matters newsletter at coolcatteacher.com/newsletter. Leave a review if you found this helpful. See you later, educator.

Vicki Davis: It's Fab Idea Friday. Pick an AI art tool to use with your students. Adobe Express and Canva — that we talk about in today's show — do more than you think, and you'll get lots of ideas. But here's why I'd start with Adobe Express. Most AI image tools learned by scraping the internet — somebody's art taken without asking. Adobe trained Firefly on licensed and public domain work instead. It's not spotless — some of that training data turned out to be AI-generated itself — but Adobe will at least tell you where the model learned to draw. And that's the question, isn't it? Not what can this make, but where did it learn? Let's talk to Amy Storer.

Announcer: This is the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast with your host, Vicki Davis.

Vicki Davis: Amy Storer is an innovative learning specialist in Montgomery ISD in Texas. She's a nationally recognized ed tech speaker whose work centers on purposeful technology integration that makes teaching and learning easier, more creative, and authentic. She is known for Coaching That Clicks. Amy, thanks for coming on the show — welcome.

Amy Storer: Thanks for having me.

Vicki Davis: Today we are going to talk about all the tools that have teachers excited, whether they're new or old. I know you do training on all of these — but what are teachers getting the most excited about that you're sharing these days, Amy?

Amy Storer: A big part of my job is working directly with teachers. Each month, I come with a theme or a topic. One month it was all about Canva; this month, February, is all about falling in love with Adobe Express and diving into that tool as teachers and students. One of the tools I've been sharing is one of their newest, and it's Create a Podcast. It is a professional, studio-style podcast experience for students. I introduced it to a third-grade teacher last week — she used it within two days. The animated character feature in Adobe is another great one too, but the podcast is now a button that kids and teachers can click on the Adobe Express homepage. It's a blue button. You can do things like add intro music — they have an entire music library — and you can even invite people onto your show. All of that you can do in that one tab. And even better — let's say the kids are recording in a busy hallway at school, which happened last week with these kids — you can then click the Enhance button and drown out that background noise and make your voice cleaner and crisper. It's just the one-stop shop.

Vicki Davis: But the thing about Adobe Podcast when it came out — oh my goodness, the audio cleanup feature is so great. They've actually built that into Adobe Premiere Pro, which is what I use to produce the radio and TV version of this show. [Kip, my husband and the show's original producer] would spend just 30 minutes doing all the settings and all the manual cleanup, and now it's like we hit a button and it's done. The quality that comes out of Adobe Podcast is truly remarkable. But the other thing is, it's so easy. The only problem I've ever had in my classroom is if people don't make sure their mic is allowed in Chrome. But if that's the only thing, that's a big win. What kinds of podcasts did the third-grade students record?

Amy Storer: One little girl was trying it out and she was interviewing a parent who was there, talking about Valentine's Day — favorite things about Valentine's, types of candy you like. She had another student who came up with a name; it was called “Ruffin' Time.” Some other teachers I've visited with were thinking about using it for kids to interview each other, to talk about topics or concepts. For example, the fourth-grade kids are learning about continents right now, and another teacher was going to pair up kids to interview each other about what they know about continents. Just another way for kids to show what they know that's not a traditional pen-and-paper task. It sounds cheesy, but the possibilities are endless with the different things you can do — book studies, interviewing people in different fields. I'm just so excited to keep working with teachers when it comes to this, because I could see so many things that could benefit kids.

Vicki Davis: Oh, my kids love Adobe Express too. What do your teachers say about Adobe Express, and what are the features they really like in there?

Amy Storer: Animated Character. It's a very easy lift for even your littlest students. They get up to two minutes to record, which is just enough time to share what you need to share. What it does is take the recording of the students, and the character's mouth will move in sync with that recording. We did an animated Valentine card — that's a really neat one. I've seen teachers use it for different GT projects. I've worked with teachers in Houston where they created a hybrid animal for a GT project — for example, it was an otter and a butterfly, the “otterfly.” And you can use that same feature in the designer and in the character's mouth: you would add a mouth with a transparent background. The Quick Actions for teachers have been really popular too — to do things like edit a PDF or merge documents together, some of those really simple tasks that teachers are having to go to multiple websites to do. You could do it all inside Adobe Express. And I'm team anything that saves teachers time.

Vicki Davis: My students really, really like Adobe Express. So, okay — teachers are getting excited about Adobe Podcast, Adobe Express, all those little cool things. What else? Because you have a big toolkit.

Amy Storer: Canva Code. The first time I used it, I was beside myself with how much time it saved me — and that it was going to be interactive and engaging for students. So if it's not something you're familiar with: Canva Code, you don't have to know anything about coding, less than zero. But you think about your dream interactivity that you want to build with students. For me — I'm a science teacher — we're studying food chains. To wrap up our unit and assess my kids, I want them to play a game where they're organizing organisms into buckets — producer, consumer, et cetera — to give them instant feedback. I don't have time, I don't have money to build it or pay for it. This is where Canva Code comes in. So on the Canva website, there's a Canva AI button, top center. Click Canva AI, and you'll see another button that says Code, and you just copy and paste in. Maybe you've leaned into AI to help you come up with your prompt. Once you have everything there, you click the button to generate it. When I'm presenting on this, my sister thinks I sound so silly, but when it starts to run and build, I always say, “Look, Ma, no hands!” It's writing all those lines of code for me. And even better — once it's done writing the code for that interactivity, I can keep talking to it: “I forgot to add a spot for a student to put their ID number.” I just found out at TCEA, not too long ago, that you could ask it to put a Spanish toggle button, and it will translate the interactivity.

Vicki Davis: Anything else about Canva that your teachers are going, “Oh yeah, this is awesome”?

Amy Storer: Their Magic Studio. When you're in the designer and you are designing presentations or graphics, on the left-hand side, that panel — there's the Magic Studio. It has things like remove background, generate background, things like that.

Vicki Davis: So we've got all this Adobe stuff, all this Canva stuff.

Amy Storer: What else? Another tip I found out recently: if you're in presentation mode in Canva and you click any number on your keyboard, it will pull up a timer overlay on top of that presentation. I was like, I did not know that.

Vicki Davis: And I push, like, seven and it gives me a seven-minute timer, or one and it gives me a one-minute. Wow. Now that is cool.

Amy Storer: So when I was at TCEA, one of the tools — Scribe, S-C-R-I-B-E. What Scribe does is it's an extension you put on your computer. When you turn the extension on, a side panel pops up, and what it's doing is recording everywhere that you click. When you're done capturing the steps, you click Stop Capture. A new tab will open and it's the steps from start to finish — but not just the steps. They have grabbed screenshots, and wherever you have clicked, they have added a hotspot. So it will say, “Number one, go to the Google Slide link.” Teachers would click that, and when they get there, it shows them a picture: “You're going to click here, click here.” I call it like a how-to flowchart from start to finish. I just made one for families recently on how to get into ClassLink and get to different apps for students. It's good for sharing instructions with teachers. It's one of my favorite tools to share and use.

Vicki Davis: You've given us a lot of tools. Let's just shift it a little bit. How are teachers feeling these days with all the AI that's happening? What's the mood? What are teachers saying to you about their struggles or their excitement?

Amy Storer: I think it's a mix. Many are leaning into it — how it can support them, support teachers — which is how I started. It was teacher-facing for me, and still a lot of what I do is teacher-facing. I think the older the kids get, the more worry teachers and families do have if AI is helping or hurting with student learning. I really firmly believe that once our teachers get more comfortable with it and have used it and can understand how it can support, not replace, I think that's going to help. But I do think it's a good mix, understandably.

Vicki Davis: As we finish up — talk to educators who feel overwhelmed, who feel stressed. Just give some encouragement.

Amy Storer: I'm saying things that sound easier said than done, but: you've got this. You are a professional. You know what to do to support your students. I know at times it can feel as if all of these different apps and tech ideas are coming at you. Do you have to do all the things? No. You do what works best for your students. Pick up one tool. Pick up one tool, use it the entire school year, get really good at that tool, put it in your toolbox — and maybe next school year, pick up a new one. You do not have to do all the things. You find what works best for you and your students. At the end of the day, if you're supporting our kids, they're learning, they're engaged, they're creating — not just consuming — then you're doing it.

Vicki Davis: So Amy Storer has been with us today. She's a learning specialist in Montgomery ISD in Texas and a nationally recognized ed tech speaker here in the US. I appreciate all these tips — you taught me some new ones. I'm really excited to go try those, and thanks for being encouraging. It was really awesome to spend time with you.

Amy Storer: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Vicki Davis: Thanks for tuning in to the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. Watch the video version of this podcast and catch my new radio and TV show, Cool Cat Teacher Talk, on YouTube and a radio or TV station near you. Join my Cool Cat Teacher Classroom Matters newsletter at coolcatteacher.com/newsletter. Leave a review if you found this helpful. See you later, educator.