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Playlist: Bookmarks

When to Go Deeper? When to Just Move On?

For Teachers

When should teachers take the time to build an advanced version of something? And when should they just let students move along?

A Halloween Costume Gone Wrong

Let’s go roller skating in a Halloween costume! What could possibly go wrong?

Pig Pen Cipher (Codes Part 2)

Let’s encode some secret messages with a cipher that was actually used during the American Civil War!

How To Let Your Brain Exhale

For Teachers

As a teacher, I was constantly inhaling new ideas. I became overwhelmed. Then, because I was overwhelmed, I’d inhale more ideas – hoping to find a solution to my overwhelmedness. What I needed to do was let my brain exhale.

Phrases to Join a Discussion

Want your classroom discussions to go a bit more smoothly? Train students to use a few simple phrases and it’ll make all the difference in the world.

Engagement Isn’t The Goal

For Teachers

While “engagement” is fun, it shouldn’t be our main goal.

Thanksgiving Photo Writing

Starting with an old-timey photo, students will write from a particular item’s point of view.

Models of Instruction: Inquiry Training

For Teachers

Want your students to ask better questions? Why not train them to inquire!?

Precipitation Tournament

Eight types of precipitation battle it out in this tournament.

Tournament of Ancient Inventions

Which of these inventions of the ancient world is most influential? Least useful today? Most taken-for-granted?

Brain Needs or Heart Needs

For Teachers

We think of gifted kids as only having academic needs, but – in their own words – they also have many needs of the heart.

Unexpected Intensities

For Teachers

Do you know a student who’s a little bit… intense?

Why “Challenging” May Not Be The Right Goal

For Teachers

So many of us say, “I want to challenge my students!” But, would you want a job that you describe as “challenging”?

Analyze Characters Using Philosophy

What is the Brick Pig’s philosophy? How would he apply it to the characters in Harry Potter?

Difficult vs Complex Tasks

For Teachers

What separates difficulty from complexity? And why do complex tasks lead to much more natural differentiation?

A Lunar Survival Mission

A favorite of mine! This task is delightfully complex and ambiguous, forcing students to make choices without enough information and with no right answer. How will they survive on the moon for three days?

Think Like A Philosopher

What would Socrates have thought if he watched Frozen?

Writing A Thanksgiving Letter

What if an inanimate object could express thanks for a special person in your life? What would it write?

Virtue or Vice?

Aristotle noted that positive traits and negative traits are often the same thing, but just in different amounts. The right amount is a virtue, but too much or too little and it’s a vice.

SCAMPER: Scaffolding Creativity

Asking students to “think creatively” won’t get you far. They won’t know how to start, they’ll get stuck with simple ideas, or they’ll just go completely wild. SCAMPER is a tool for scaffolding the process of creativity.

Asking Questions That Make Students Think

For Teachers

Most classroom questions test memory. These questions test thinking. There’s a difference — and your students will feel it.

Investigating Christmas Trees

Start with facts about Christmas trees. Group them. Label them. Can you boil it all down to one big idea?

Welcome, Students!

A video to welcome students to Byrdseed.TV.

Paradox: The Liar’s Paradox

Nothing like a paradox to get your kids brains exploding 🤯! This one starts with five simple words: “This statement is a lie.”

More Specific than “Smart”

When students are told that they’re “smart”, what does this word actually mean to them? (Psst. It isn’t what we intended.)

Building Creative Analogies

We’ll take two seemingly unrelated pieces of content (say volcanoes and the human body) and then build analogies to connect the two ideas. In the end, students can create a skit, comic, or story relating the two concepts.

Fractals: Koch Snowflake

You could keep zooming in on this snowflake forever!

The Thinking Hats

So… do your students moan when forced to work in a group? Part of the problem is that lack the structure to work well with peers. Edward de Bono’s Thinking Hats are a perfect tool to help with this problem.

Academic Love Letters

What if Kylo Ren wrote a love letter to Abe Lincoln or the Sahara Desert wrote one to the Moon?

Reduce Anxiety: Square Breathing (Tool 1)

Reduce anxiety by breathing in a square pattern.

Asynchrony: Developing At Different Rates (For Students)

For students! In some areas, a student may be shockingly advanced, while in others… surprisingly average. This is asynchrony in action.

An Inductive Exploration Of Geometry

For Teachers

With inductive thinking, students will work from parts to whole, discovering big ideas along the way!

Intellectual Intensity

Do you know someone who becomes a bit overexcited by ideas?