Hello Reader,

Happy February! This month I'm making kindness the focus in my classroom, and I've got some great episodes and resources to share with you — plus a brand new section at the bottom with planning-ahead ideas for February and March. Let's dig in!

🎧 Listen now:https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e926​

Here are some resources for you right now:

• Understanding Neurodiversity: The Double Empathy Problem — Here's a surprising statistic: one in five children has a learning and attention issue, but one in three educators believes that's just laziness. I sat down with Sue Fletcher-Watson and Vanessa Castañeda Gill for Cool Cat Teacher Talk Episode #56. 🎧 https://www.coolcatteacher.com/neurodiverseclass/​
• Executive Function Strategies Kindergarten through Third Grade Teachers Can Use Today with Dr. Sarah Oberle — the six executive functions developing in young children and science-backed strategies like giving directions immediately before a task and switching to instrumental music. 🎧 https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e927​
• Maker Monday: Start the Week with Creativity with John Spencer — how starting each Monday with a creative maker project transformed his classroom culture and even boosted test scores. One of my most popular episodes and getting a lot of new traffic! 🎧 https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e226​

Zero-Shot, Single-Shot, Double-Shot: A Prompting Framework for Teachers

I presented this at FETC and I'm teaching it to my students. Here's the quick version:

• Zero-shot = You just type a request with no context. Generic results.
• Single-shot = You upload your research, notes, or content along with your request. Much better.
• Double-shot = You provide your content AND examples of your previous finished work. AI now knows what you want and how you like it. Game-changer.

The step most people skip: Upload your finished product back into AI after you're done editing. Most people edit AI's output and move on. But if you upload your final version back, you're training AI on your real standards. If you use ChatGPT's memory, this upgrades your single-shot to double-shot over time.

Note: When you look this up online, most people call this zero-shot, one-shot, and few-shot prompting(instead of double shot.) I find that zero, single shot and double shot are easier for them to remember.

How AI Helped Me Be More Human This Week

Research shows that performing at least five acts of kindness in one day can boost happiness by up to 42% after six weeks. I wanted my students to experience this, not just hear about it.

I needed slides, a handout, and a Google Spreadsheet kindness tracker. Normally that's an hour of prep spread across days — meaning I wouldn't launch until Wednesday or Thursday. Instead, I wrote a detailed prompt in ChatGPT's thinking mode and had all three deliverables in 15 minutes. I launched Kindness Month on February 1st — Day One — because AI handled the production work while I made all the decisions about what to teach and how to teach it.

My rule: do the things that only you can do. I decide the curriculum, the approach, and the tools. I grade every assignment. I build the relationships. AI makes the slides.

Here are my slides.

❤️ February

Check out my Pinterest Board with lots of ideas.

Valentine's Slime Science (K-5) — Hands-on science meets Hearts. Students measure, mix, and learn about polymers! Free printable.​

"Why We Love Our Class" Collaborative Wall (K-8) — Students write what they love about their class on hearts and build a display together. Or you can try some of these 11 community building ideas.

Kindness Challenge Week (All Grades) — 5 acts of kindness in one day. Use a tracker and make it a friendly competition. (See above.)

📚 March Is Reading Month

Check out my March Pinterest board with ideas.

Book Bracket March Madness (K-12) — Students vote on books instead of basketball teams! Free templates at WeAreTeachers. https://www.weareteachers.com/book-bracket-template/ ​

Dr. Seuss Printable Wall Art (K-3) — Free quote art for Read Across America week https://www.pinterest.com/ideas/dr.-seuss-printable-wall-art/929598025647/​

March is also music in schools month. Get inspired with music teacher Adrian Gordon.

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🏀 March Madness Bracket Ideas

Last year my students made a "March Madness" hype video. Feel free to share this fun video to talk about what it is but the introduce your own bracket fun!

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TIP: Go to Flipity and use their tournament bracket template to add items and create the bracket. Hat tip Eric Curts.

Historical Figures Bracket (Middle & High) — Students debate who was "most influential." Gets even reluctant students making evidence-based arguments.

Math Madness Brackets (Elementary) — Multiplication facts, fractions, or decimals as bracket-style tournaments. Great for 3rd-5th review. (See a demo here and there are TPT templates for this as well.)

Periodic Table Tournament (Middle & High Science) — 32 elements, chemistry challenge cards each round. Students actually enjoy reviewing formulas and molar mass. https://sciencelessonsthatrock.com/march-madness-science-edition-html/​

AP Lit / ELA March Madness (High School) — Students vote daily on literary works. Only 10 minutes of class but sparks debates all month. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/march-madness-meets-ap-lit-brian-sztabnik​

STEAM Challenge Bracket (K-8) — Weekly maker challenges with random supplies. Teams compete bracket-style. (This blog has 12 ideas)https://www.teachstarter.com/us/blog/march-madness-ideas-classroom/​

🧪 More March Ideas

Sprout House Science (K-5) — Mini greenhouses for spring life cycle and ecosystem units. https://thestemlaboratory.com/sprout-house/​

St. Patrick's Fine Motor Activities (Pre-K–2nd) — Leprechaun binoculars from toilet paper tubes, rainbow threading, shamrock stamping. https://katieroltgenteaching.com/st-patricks-day-fine-motor-activities/​

Epic Ways to Celebrate Pi Day - March 14 (All Grades) — One of my most popular posts! Creative ideas for every grade level. https://www.coolcatteacher.com/epic-ways-celebrate-pi-day/​

Probability & Pi Day Math (Middle & High) — The odds of a perfect March Madness bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillion. Great real-world math connection. https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/bracketiq/2026-02-18/perfect-ncaa-bracket-absurd-odds-march-madness-dream?amp​

Women's History Month Bracket (All Grades) — Free Women's History Book Bracket with 16 picture book biographies from WeAreTeachers. https://www.weareteachers.com/book-bracket-template/​

Teachers, the way you show up for your students — especially the ones who learn differently, the ones who are quiet, the ones who are struggling — that matters more than you know. This week, be the teacher who builds the bridge. Be the one who pauses long enough.

I missed send your newsletter last week because I have been sick with flu and COVID! (I have had the doggone c word 6 times now and every time was different). It has really taken some time to get myself back together!

You are so important. Thank you for subscribing and telling your friends! I hope you find lots of ideas here.

Also, for those of you who have students having standardized tests, I take the standards and put them in my planner and have already started review and practice for them. That way, it is a little time each day and isn't so much near the end!

I hope your February is sweet and we move forward into a happy March. Thank you for dedicating your life to helping kids!

Joyfully in your service,

Vicki

P.S. Never Miss an Episode of Cool Cat Teacher Talk! 🎙(And you can also subscribe to the 10 minute teacher podcast as well!)

🎧 Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cool-cat-teacher-talk/id1797404323

🎧 Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/58L2LX0fQnQvnuxaYWihLA?si=8a35a83518e44608

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