Why Earth Day Matters Earth Day is sneaking up on us (April 22nd is right around the corner) and if you’re anything like me, you’re juggling a million things as testing season looms (sorry to remind you!). But here’s the thing: our students deserve a celebration of our planet that’s
Teaching Greek philosophers to 5th and 6th graders can feel like a challenge. How do you take the abstract ideas of Socrates, Plato, or Hypatia and make them meaningful for students who might still struggle to remember what they had for lunch? If you’ve ever seen eyes glaze over at
If you teach littles and have wondered what Depth and Complexity looks like with Kindergarten, First, or Second Grades, I’ve got a list of question stems to get you started. Depth and Complexity is about what students are thinking, not what they’re doing, so focusing on questions is the best
Recently, a teacher emailed me if the nine Marzano instructional strategies integrate with the Depth and Complexity framework. As co-author of the book on Depth and Complexity, she assumed I would know. The short answer is yes, they do. Before I explain exactly how they connect and how teachers can
Haiku in the Classroom How can you use haiku do in your classroom? A quick list includes: It’s no secret that I love poetry. I love teaching it, reading it, and even writing it. In second grade, my classmates accused me of cheating when I wrote my first haiku. Their
Recently, I was a guest on the They’ll be Fine podcast, a fabulous podcast for those interested in gifted education done by the North Carolina Association for the Gifted and Talented. The super cool and sparkly Stephanie Higgs, better known on the ‘Gram as her alter ego, Little Miss Gifted,
In this article: Find out how to optimize the back-to-school time for your class to get your year off to an amazing start. Get practical tips and a free download! Back-to-School time is a time of great opportunity, and that means it’s a vulnerable time. A lot is riding on
There are entire books written about misdiagnosis of gifted kids. Why? Because in a number of children, giftedness looks like an alphabet soup of issues and disorders. And the list goes on. And on. Of course, it’s not always misdiagnosis. Giftedness can coexist with many conditions. However, it’s very, very
Recently, I interviewed a truly delightful sixth-grade student. At one point in the conversation, I ended up interrupting regularly scheduled programming to give her a micro-lecture. (You can read that interview here.) In the course of that, I decided that there was a message in it that more gifted students
ASL has a place in every classroom. Because I specialize in the education of gifted and talented students, I often cross paths with students who have atypical learning needs. ASL is a great fit for students with learning disabilities, for students with amazing learning abilities, and for those who are
Recently I hosted three other teachers at my home for dinner. We’d all taught together, and we have about 100 years of combined teaching experience. While we had different teaching styles, different strengths, and different weaknesses, what we shared was exceptional proficiency as educators. After journaling and thinking about the
When teachers are working with Depth and Complexity, one of the challenges they face is how to adapt already-existing content to the framework. It can seem harder to take what you have and infuse it with high-level thinking than to just start from scratch. In addition to the articles on
