Happy back-to-school season! 🍎 If your to-do list currently scrolls longer than a TikTok feed, you are in good company. Mine does too. So this month's newsletter is intentionally short and sweet: a quick scroll's worth of ideas you can actually use during the busiest season of the year.

And speaking of the scroll... that's exactly our theme for this month's newsletter. This edition is all about short-form video: how to think about it, how to model healthy habits around it, and how to steal its best tricks for your own teacher-created videos.

As you scroll, you will find:

• 📱 New Blog: Doom Scrolling vs. Productive Scrolling
• 🎬 New Blog: Catch Them in the Scroll (plus a BINGO board!)
• 🎥 Tomorrow's Free Webinar: BINGO Your Way to Better Videos
• 🎤 Big News: I'm a Featured Speaker at FETC 2027!
• 🎧 Quick Hits: A New Podcast & My Shake Up Learning Session

📱 Doom Scrolling vs. Productive Scrolling

Device bans and rollbacks are sweeping through schools, but here's the uncomfortable truth: banning screens during school hours doesn't teach a single student what healthy screen time looks like when no one is watching. Our kids are going to scroll. The question is whether any adult is going to show them how to scroll with intention.

In this new post, I break down the difference between doom scrolling and productive scrolling, and share concrete ways to model healthy screen time for your students, starting with your own scroll habits.

🎬 Catch Them in the Scroll: Short-Form Style Video in the Classroom

The world has spoken, and it has chosen short-form video as the format of engagement (for the time being at least!). The research agrees: learner engagement drops off after about the 3-minute mark, which is exactly the length of the videos your students consume every day. Coincidence? I think not.

Here's the freeing part: it's not about the content. Someone got 4 million views folding towels! It's the delivery and small production techniques that hold attention, and you can steal every one of them for your own teacher-created videos.

To make it practical (and fun), I created "Lights, Camera, BINGO" a bingo board full of short-form video techniques. Pick one square and try it in your next video. Bloopers encouraged. 😉

🎥 Tomorrow! BINGO Your Way to Better Videos

Want detailed instructions on how to implement the BINGO board? Join me and ScreenPal tomorrow for a free webinar:

BINGO Your Way to Better Videos: 12 Techniques That Actually Keep Students Watching​
📅 Wednesday, July 30 | 3:00 PM Eastern Time

You don't need a ring light, a teleprompter, or a film degree to make videos students actually want to watch. You just need simple video production techniques (and a BINGO board). We'll break down 12 small techniques with a big impact on student engagement, explore what each one looks like in practice, and learn how to pull them off right inside ScreenPal.

Come ready to play, leave ready to record.

Can't make it live? Register to receive the recording!

🎤 Big News: I'm a Featured Speaker at FETC 2027!

I am beyond excited to share that I will be a featured speaker for FETC 2027, happening January 26-29 in Orlando, Florida!

If you'll be at FETC, come say hi! If FETC isn't on your radar to attend, it should be!

🎧 Quick Hits: Podcasts & Resources

Because it's the busy season, here are a few things worth your ears and clicks:

• My Shake Up Learning Summer Learning Series session is live and available for anyone to watch: Tired of Student AI Slop? Solve It with the Assessment Puzzle Toolkit ​

• ​“Kids Can Read, They’re Just Reading Differently”: Teaching with Intention with Lisa Snow​

That's it. Short and sweet, just like a good teacher-created video. 🎬

Wishing you a smooth start to the school year. Your students are already in the scroll... go catch them there!

See you next month.

❤️ Lindy

Lindy Hockenbary K–12 EdTech Advisor she/her 406-853-2661 ​lindyhoc.com​