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Professional Development

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“My students give one-word answers to every question.”

“Students made a great project but the thinking is shallow.”

“My students are bored but I'm already using fun activities.”

“I want to differentiate but I don't have time for three lesson plans.”

“Some kids already know the whole unit before I teach it.”

“My D&C worksheets aren't producing deep thinking.”

“I don't know what good D&C looks like in a classroom.”

“My reading questions are all "what happened next."”

“I want students to think about math, not just calculate.”

“I have a gifted kid who's struggling and nobody understands why.”

“I need a project that involves real thinking, not just crafts.”

“I need to run PD that isn't just a lecture.”

More Videos

A Chapter’s 🏛️ Big Idea
A Chapter’s 🏛️ Big Idea
Let’s improve “Create a title for this chapter. Explain why your title fits the 🏛️ Big Idea.”
Addressing Disorganization
Addressing Disorganization
Know any kids who, despite their brilliant minds, have a bit of a hard time keeping things in order, turning things in on time, or remembering to put their names on their papers?
An Inductive Exploration Of Geometry
An Inductive Exploration Of Geometry
With inductive thinking, students will work from parts to whole, discovering big ideas along the way!
Assessing Differentiation Strategies with Student Products
Assessing Differentiation Strategies with Student Products
Student products give an instant glimpse into whether differentiation is happening on your campus.
Assessing Differentiation Strategies With Walkthroughs
Assessing Differentiation Strategies With Walkthroughs
How do you know, when you’re walking through a class, whether the students are receiving appropriate work?
Building Creative Confidence with the Torrance Tests
Building Creative Confidence with the Torrance Tests
Here are a bunch of ways to quickly practice creativity with your students for zero dollars.
Can Students Solve Your Classroom Layout Problems?
Can Students Solve Your Classroom Layout Problems?
What if your students designed your classroom layout?
Climbing Bloom’s with Depth and Complexity
Climbing Bloom’s with Depth and Complexity
Combine higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy with the prompts of Depth and Complexity!
Comparing Strengths and Weaknesses
Comparing Strengths and Weaknesses
Go beyond merely explaining strengths and weaknesses and get students thinking in interesting ways.
Complex Task: Academic Tournaments
Complex Task: Academic Tournaments
Who would win in the Tournament of Least Useful Geometric Shapes or Bravest Shakespearean Characters? Create an academic tournament and watch your students’ brains sweat!
Context Clues and Classics
Context Clues and Classics
How to use a classic to revamp a study of context clues.
Depth and Complexity and Graphic Organizers
Depth and Complexity and Graphic Organizers
Let’s see a few examples of how Depth and Complexity slides nicely into any graphic organizer.
Differentiation of the Environment
Differentiation of the Environment
Lisa explains how Log Cabin Living changed her classroom environment. Sort of.
Don’t Just List Ethical Issues
Don’t Just List Ethical Issues
My students made a list of problems… and we stopped right there.
Ethics In The Young Elementary Classroom
Ethics In The Young Elementary Classroom
Can we get students as young as kindergarten discussing ethical issues? Learn some ideas for integrating these multiple perspective problems throughout your curriculum.
Explain Concepts with the Frayer Model
Explain Concepts with the Frayer Model
Giving a definition just doesn’t cut it! Use the Frayer Model to explain (and assess!) vocabulary.
Exposing Students to Classics
Exposing Students to Classics
Some kids are exposed to a wide range of classic art, music, and films at home and others aren’t. Let’s even the playing field by quickly integrating classics into our lessons.
Fixing My 👓 Multiple Perspectives Question
Fixing My 👓 Multiple Perspectives Question
I asked “How could two experts’ perspectives regarding information from this reading selection differ from one another.” Yikes!
From “Identify” to “Analyze” – Famous Structures
From “Identify” to “Analyze” – Famous Structures
Rather than just learning about one structure, let’s climb Bloom’s and think more deeply.
From “Too Many Choices” To “One Quality Task”
From “Too Many Choices” To “One Quality Task”
Fixing an under-developed (but interesting) task that was originally part of a choice menu.
From Summary to Synthesis
From Summary to Synthesis
Here’s how you can move from merely “summarizing a text” to a high-level task that culminates in synthesis.
Go Beyond “Identify Figurative Language”
Go Beyond “Identify Figurative Language”
So students can identify a simile, metaphor, and hyperbole. What next?
Going Beyond “Name That Genre!”
Going Beyond “Name That Genre!”
What will my students do after they’ve named the story’s genre?
Graphic Organizers and Higher Order Thinking
Graphic Organizers and Higher Order Thinking
A few quick tips on how to better use graphic organizers to support higher-order thinking.
Help my students remember these confusing terms!
Help my students remember these confusing terms!
When we want students to memorize two terms, we actually shouldn’t aim for memorization!
Help Students to Memorize Anything
Help Students to Memorize Anything
How to memorize the countries in Africa, the Japanese writing system, or a deck of cards.
How To Let Your Brain Exhale
Improving Evaluative Questions
Improving Evaluative Questions
How to improve questions at the “evaluate” level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Inductively Analyze Website Reliability
Inductively Analyze Website Reliability
Rather than giving students rules to apply to websites, let them analyze websites to create rules.
Introduction to Puzzlements
Introduction to Puzzlements
How I accidentally discouraged curiosity in my classroom.
Introduction to Watercolor
Introduction to Watercolor
Cindy Phan shares her method of introducing watercolor to students using a mosaic technique.
Meeting Gifted Students’ Social and Emotional Needs
Meeting Gifted Students’ Social and Emotional Needs
How can you tell if your students’ social-emotional needs are being met on your campus?
Misconceptions About 🏛️ Big Idea
Misconceptions About 🏛️ Big Idea
For too long, I let my students turn in blah Big Ideas. Here’s how I fixed it.
Moving Students from “On-Level” to “Advanced” in Writing
Moving Students from “On-Level” to “Advanced” in Writing
What separates our on-level writers from our advanced writers?
Multiple Perspectives in Primary
Multiple Perspectives in Primary
Even our youngest students can learn to think from multiple perspectives!
Multipotentiality: Excellent at Many Things
Multipotentiality: Excellent at Many Things
Why being good at many things can be a bit of a burden.
New Uses for Everyday Things
New Uses for Everyday Things
Here’s how Joelle Trayers gets even her youngest students ready to think in unexpected ways.
Reduce Anxiety: 5 Question Rule
Reduce Anxiety: 5 Question Rule
Adults can limit anxiety by implementing the Five Question Rule.
Reduce Anxiety: Worry Time
Reduce Anxiety: Worry Time
Adults can learn to help students reduce anxiety with the tool Worry Time.
Response to Lit: An Inductive Approach
Response to Lit: An Inductive Approach
Here’s how one teacher uses inductive thinking to help students respond to literature.
Running A “Notice, Wonder” Lesson
Running A “Notice, Wonder” Lesson
Use these puzzling images to build a classroom culture that is comfortable with curiosity, ambiguity, and taking intellectual risks.
Running A Curiosity Based Research Project
Running A Curiosity Based Research Project
How to structure and run an ongoing research projects based on students’ own curiosities.
Students and Personality Types
Students and Personality Types
How can our students be so different? And how can we help them to understand themselves and each other better.
The Curse of Knowledge and Checking for Understanding
The Curse of Knowledge and Checking for Understanding
How knowing your material well easily becomes a curse… and what to do about it!
Think Like a Disciplinarian (or an Expert!)
Think Like a Disciplinarian (or an Expert!)
Here’s how I got better at using the Think Like An Expert technique.
Universal Themes
Universal Themes
Universal Themes are an easy way to connect lessons, units, and content areas, even going across grade levels, and into students’ personal interests.
Updating Old Questions: Comparing Two Leaders
Updating Old Questions: Comparing Two Leaders
How I’d upgrade a dull “which one is better” question.
Updating Old Questions: Conflict and Character Change
Updating Old Questions: Conflict and Character Change
I update an old question about conflict and character change in the story Hatchet.
Updating Old Questions: Pay Raise
Updating Old Questions: Pay Raise
How I’d update a low-level, overly engaging math question.
Updating Old Questions: Volcano from Two Perspectives
Updating Old Questions: Volcano from Two Perspectives
How I’d break down and rebuild a task about judging a volcano.
We have Unanswered Questions – Now what?
We have Unanswered Questions – Now what?
My students listed Unanswered Questions and then… we moved on! Oops.
What if Dr. Seuss Covered a Poem?
What if Dr. Seuss Covered a Poem?
Rather than just “paraphrasing” a poem, what if we did a cover version?
Why “Analyze” Is My Favorite Level of Bloom’s Taxonomy
Why “Analyze” Is My Favorite Level of Bloom’s Taxonomy
Analyze is like a gateway that connects the lower- and higher-levels of Bloom’s. But make sure you’re truly asking an Analyze-level question!
Writing Differentiated Lesson Objectives
Writing Differentiated Lesson Objectives
My early lessons didn’t even have objectives, let alone good objectives! Here’s how to build four-part, differentiated lesson objectives.