EPT 001: Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher

Vicki Davis has been phenomenal in reshaping the course of classroom education.  She stays abreast of new and emerging technologies and uses her blog “The Cool Cat Teacher” as a medium to encourage educators to deliver their finest. Vicki is a full-time teacher at Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia and is also the host for the bi-weekly show "Every Classroom Matters" on BAM Radio Network.

Vicki’s blog has won many awards and accolades, including the Edublog Award for the best teacher, the ISTE Online Learning Award and the Vammy Award. Vicki has authored two successful titles, namely “Reinventing Writing” and “Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds” which she co-authored with Jule Lindsay. Besides being an educator, Vicki is also a mother to three children. 

In this podcast, Vicki shares her view of life, how she became an educator, what motivates her and why being an “excellentist” is more important than being a “perfectionist”.

“Think of habits like water and try to channel them in the right direction.”

Vicki refers to Charles Duhigg’s “The Power of Habit” and dotes upon positive traits of good habits to shape the entire development process of an individual. Contrary to popular belief, Vicki thinks that routine actually leads to freedom. There's a little difference between “human being” and “human doing”. Vicki describes how she begins her day by reading her Bible, then plugging into Ambience or Nature Space to resonate positive vibes from the sounds that it transcends. She also likes to keep a track of her time spent through Toggl (I'm using this tool now and LOVE it - thanks Vicki!); an intelligent time tracking tool that integrates across a wide range of applications. 

Emails; according to Vicki, is a “productivity spoiler” and something that kills creativity instantly. She recommends ditching the habit of checking emails each minute. Instead, one should check mails at designated hours of the day. As for herself, she uses the Mailbox app  to prioritize her mails. Speaking of prioritization, she pulls Brian Tracy’s metaphor element “Eat your big frog first” to stress upon the idea.

Vicki talks about Prowriting aid as the perfect tool to help her ease through punctuations. She is a self-proclaimed workaholic and it is because of these apps that she is able to strike the right chord between work and family.

“Life is too short and time is too precious to let it happen.”

Vicki totally agrees with Steve Job’s approach of having as few decisions as possible for life to go smooth. She basks upon the idea of time and that she wants to make the very best of it.  She mentions painter/writer, Austin Cleon and two of his works, namely “Show Your Work!” and ”Steal like an Artist” to emphasize upon the idea of being intentional and keep out the “vampires” or negative people  from interfering with her life.

“My chapter on social bookmarking is not called that. It’s called re-inventing Notecards.”

In her book “Reinventing Writing and Flattening Classrooms”, Vicki assumes a different stance as she mulls over the idea of creating the worthy alternative of every facet of writing. She compares digital Notecards like Diigo and Delicious and looks at them as suitable options for enhancement.

When asked about her writing goals, she recommends reading “Write. Publish. Repeat” by Sean Platt and Johnny Truant, which depicts how one can easily publish their own book in no time. Vicki uses Evernote and Taskclone to break down complex matter in order to organize her thoughts easily. She also mentions using Extensity which effectively manages all Google Chrome extensions. 

“Visioneering is what I do and who I am.”

Vicki talks about “Visioneering” which is also a category she uses in Toggl. She then speaks of “Pareto Saturday” which is a principle that states20% of the causes have 80% of the effects. In other words, an intelligent approach towards planning your week. Not only does it increase productivity but also saves one from the "pangs of procrastination" (a cool name for a blog, no?).

Vicki on the idea of perfection: humans aren’t perfect so stop expecting it. Being excellent is what matters the most and as one practices the imperfection found within, one would be able to "ship their product right away”. This idea resonates with what LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman once said “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” Chew on that for bit...

“You become like the people you think about most of the time”

Vicki mentions her friend and fellow educator Angela Maiers and her dream – team concept. Vicki being a big fan of Michael Hyatt, refers to his podcast on several occasions. While talking about individual development, she refers to one of Michael’s recent podcasts – “How to Lead from the Heart”

Human beings, similarly to computers, have the "reboot" option - aka sleep.

As a teenager, she found “How to win friends and impress people” by Dale Carnegie, a deeply influential book.

According to her, success is all about “Finding your purpose and pursuing it with all your heart”. If Vicki gets a chance to dine one on one with someone, she would pick British actress Angela Lansbury, who she feels, is a perfect epitome of undying energy and enthusiasm.

You can reach Vicki on Facebook, on her  website, on Twitter  @coolcatteacher.

You can also check out her books:

Reinventing Writing

Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds

Hope you enjoy the podcast!

Please leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Show Notes at www.ai2020.com