This week we’re back after a very accidental year-long hiatus, and apparently all we needed was a little time off to remember how to podcast. We’re talking screen time in schools: how much is too much, whether minutes are even the right thing to measure, and why “ban it” might be the least interesting answer. From LA Unified’s new screen-time limits to YouTube bans, EdTech subscriptions, doom scrolling, AI lesson planning, and three completely unnecessary chickens, we dig into what intentional technology use actually looks like in a classroom.
Cool in School:
• Chandler enters her “Year of No” and starts protecting time for what actually matters
• Russell experiments with a classroom where learning matters more than grades and percentages
• Student reflection, ownership, and conversations about what kids actually know
• Reclaiming classroom joy by focusing less on numbers and more on growth
Teacher Tips (you can steal tomorrow):
• If something isn’t working, stop and reset — even on day 174
• Put the worksheet on the wall and get kids moving instead of sitting through another page
❤️ Good in Life:
• AI as a thought partner — doing the busy work so teachers can reclaim some actual life
• A birthday built around biking, massage, In-N-Out, vegan sushi, comedy, and Snoopy LEGOs
How much screen time should students actually have at school? Turns out, there isn’t one magical number. Instead, we make the case for looking at active vs. passive use, quality vs. quantity, taking real breaks, and teaching students how to use technology responsibly instead of assuming they can’t handle it.
We also talk teacher autonomy, the cost of EdTech, apps slowly putting everything behind a paywall, why YouTube can actually be an educational tool, and why education has a habit of adopting technology first and asking the important questions later. If this episode made you rethink screen time — or made you question whether the plural of hippopotamus is hippopotamuses or hippopotami — tag us and share it with a teacher who needs to hear it.
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✨ Stay nerdy, stay kind, and keep building classrooms where everyone belongs. ✨
