The Todd Cast - Teaching Theory into Teaching Practice

Gears of Genius - we use the word "genius" as an adjective to describe a person or idea, but how do we actually get someone there? What does it take to produce a genius idea? It is not just one thing. It is a combination of curiosity, creativity, challenge, and critical thinking. But how do we foster those ideas and skills in the classroom?

Creating Brain-Busting Bulletin Boards - often times the bulletin boards in classrooms are simply white noise that students do not pay attention to. But what if you could make them part of the educational process and get students involved? Here are some ideas for doing this.

What is Critical Thinking? - critical thinking is one of those terms that can mean a lot of things. In the case of skills taught in school, what does critical thinking mean? And why is it so important to teach it to our students?

Chances vs. opportunities for challenge - when we try and challenge our students in the classroom there are two ways to do this. Planned challenge where we prepare things ahead of time, and teachable moments where we see a spark of curiosity we want to tap into. Learn how to do both of these.

Academically Challenging vs. Intellectually Stimulating - academically challenging is how most of school is set up, where things gets progressively more and more difficult. Intellectually stimulating is where students are challenged in their thinking. Which one is used more in school and how can we balance these?

The needs of gifted students - gifted students have specific needs that are often not addressed or overlooked. Why is it important to address these needs and how can you ensure they are growing as learners?

What is Creative Thinking? - we identify some students as creative thinkers. But what does this actually look like? This is the definition of an outside the box thinker. They usually have multiple possible answers and make connections others don't see.

Flexible Grouping - when we put students into groups we must be purposeful about it. This is because in order for their needs to be met, they must be in the best environment for them to grow. But placing them properly is only half of the battle. Once they are in groups they must know how to work and collaborate to be successful.

Compacting Curriculum - is everything we are required to teach necessary for all students? What if they already know what we are going to be teaching? Do they need to learn it again or can we streamline the learning so that students are skipping over material they already know or have learned quicker than the pace set by the teacher? One solution is compacting the curriculum where we cut the fat f...

Tiered Lessons - differentiation isn't about making 30 lessons plans for 30 students. It is about determining the various levels of understanding in your classroom and making sure you meet the needs of those students. This should be deliberate and planned and that's where tiered lessons come in. These are about designing a lesson keeping in mind the needs of those on expected level, those...

What are some good books to read about raising gifted children? - as a parent of a gifted child you are probably discovering there are some different behaviors than might be in a typical child that parent books don't discuss. Luckily there are plenty of parenting books on how to raise a well-adjusted gifted child too. But how do you know which ones are worth reading? This Todd Talk discusses s...

5 Things Never to Say to Your Gifted Child - sometimes as parents we say things to our children that we wish we hadn't. Things such as "I wish you were more like..." or "why were you ever born". We can do this with our gifted children as well and the expectations we hold for their gifts. Here are 5 of the things you should avoid saying to your gifted child and the reason yo...

5 Ways to Work With Your Gifted Child's Teacher - for parents of gifted children, teachers should have the same goal about a child which is ensure he or she is growing as a learner. This would seemingly put both of them on the same page but there are times parents and teachers find themselves at odds with one another. This can especially happen with a child that the teacher does not fully unde...

5 things every administrator should know about gifted - like a lot of people in education, many administrators have not had a lot of training in working with gifted students so have some preconceived notions about them. After all, we don't know what we don't know. This Todd Talk discusses 5 things that every administrator should be aware of when working with this population of students.

Metacognition (Executive Functioning Skills) - metacognition is an awareness of your own thoughts. But how do you teach students to be aware of this? You provide them structure to be able to think about their thinking. This is anything from gaining a greater awareness of oneself by figuring out how you learn best, to seeing your thought process by showing your work, reflecting upon work you have a...

Perseverance/Grit (Executive Functioning Skills) - perseverance is the ability to follow through or to push through when faced with obstacles. This is something we would like all of our students to have when coming to the classroom, but how deliberate are we about teaching such skills. This tutorial provides some very specific strategies or activities on how to be purposeful in creating a classroo...

Planning (Executive Functioning Skills) - We always expect students to have a plan, but do we always show them how to do it? What if we were more deliberate about teaching students how you plan out a long term project, or a study schedule for an upcoming test, or even their workload for the current day? Tools and strategies are shared here for teaching to help students understand what goes into pl...

Organization (Executive Functioning Skills) - there are many aspects to organization for a student at school. There is their schoolwork, their materials, their personal belongings, their time, and their thoughts. We explore several strategies for how a students might go about organizing these things so that they can effectively work on what it is there are supposed to be which is learning.

Task initiation (Executive Functioning Skills) - you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. Similarly, you can give a student a task, but it doesn't mean they are going to get started on it. How do we teach kids to avoid procrastination and to get started on their work in a timely manner? These ten strategies are ways you might consider deliberately teaching this skill to...

Time Management (Executive Functioning Skills) - you can plan and organize yourself all you want, but if you are unable to manage the time you are allotted, nothing is going to get done. Teachers either micromanage a student's time so much that the students do not learn to do this for themselves, or we give them a big block of time with no guidance for how to manage it. What if instead we gave...

Focus (Executive Functioning Skills) - none of the other executive functioning skills work effectively if a student is not able to focus. Developing this skill through setting the environment, having teacher clarity, and being aware of mindfulness are just some of the strategies shared in order to build the focus endurance of your students.

Self Control/Regulation (Executive Functioning Skills) - are you unable to keep your emotions in check? Can you not resist the urge to do something when it tempts you? Do you find yourself blurting out answers the second they pop into your head? If the answer is yes to any of these you might have a self-control/self-regulation issues. This is either not giving in when something distracts your focu...

Flexibility (Executive Functioning Skills) - all of the other executive functioning skills do not really work if you are not flexible with your thinking. Your plans change, the time management is wrecked by an assembly, and trying to keep your focus might be affected by circumstances beyond your control. You have to adapt and be flexible when things do not go how you intended them to. This is not...

Overview of Executive Functioning Skills - Executive functioning skills are the things that successful people do on a daily basis which leads to their achievement. It includes skills such as task initiation, planning, attention, and time management. These are skills we expect many of our students to possess, but how deliberately do we teach them? This will give you a basic overview of 10 executive...

Overview of Executive Functioning Skills - Executive functioning skills are the things that successful people do on a daily basis which leads to their achievement. It includes skills such as task initiation, planning, attention, and time management. These are skills we expect many of our students to possess, but how deliberately do we teach them? This will give you a basic overview of 10 executive...