Advantages of learning public speaking - public speaking is one of those skills that is very important to possess.

Creating a safe space for public speaking - In order to give students the reassurance that they should not be scared of public speaking, it is imperative that you make your classroom a place where they can take risks and make mistakes and it be OK to do so.

The importance of the throughline in your speech - a throughline is the heart of your speech. Similar to a thesis in an essay, it is the main idea and/or focus of your speech.

Basic structure of a speech - a speech needs to have a structure in order to be strong. This structure is very similar to that of the five paragraph essay.

Reading vs. Presenting in a Speech - when we have text in front of us, we sometimes read it in a very monotone manner, coming off sounding very robotic and without any emotion. When giving a speech, even from a written document, you need to be sure to present the words with feeling and thus be more engaging.

5 Things to Consider in Regard to Your Speaking Voice - there is more to speaking than just the words you say. How you say them is really important.

How to Not Sound Like a Robot When Giving a Speech - there are a lot of aspects that go into a speech but one of the main deliverers of information is your voice. It is not the words you say necessarily, but how you say them that matters. So it is important when you are speaking to sound interesting.

Strategies for Overcoming Stage Fright - For this Todd Talk, we have a guest speaker who comes all of the way from China. This is Verlin, one of the students to whom I teach public speaking. She is sharing 3 strategies that she uses to overcome stage fright.

How to be more focused on your confidence while giving a speech - public speaking is supposed to build your confidence but a lot of this is done before the speech is actually given. Not only that, how can you be confidence if you don't feel confident?

How to Get Students to Dig Deeper - when we ask students to do this, how intentional are we being about showing them how to do this whether it be asking the right questions or giving them a process to use?

Going Above Grade Level - we can challenge students through enrichment and going deeper, but we can also accelerate their learning and expose them to content and learning that is above what is expected of them. One simple way to do this is to present students who have shown mastery above grade level content.

Removing the Ceiling on Learning - when we teach a lesson, we can either put a ceiling on the learning by asking students to provide a definite answer, one that stops the learning once they find it. Or we can remove the ceiling by asking them to do something that has multiple possibilities, each of which can be explored and expanded upon.

How to Handle Pace in the Classroom - we have those students who seem to process and understand things a lot quicker than the rest of the class. They move at a very fast pace. The question is what to do with these students?

Mentors/Mentorships - Even though teachers are expected to be the experts in their subject area, often times there are things that we don't know. This is especially true with gifted students who might come with a lot of prior understanding and need to be challenged at a level the teacher cannot provide.

Student Choice - One way you can certainly challenge students and differentiate up in the classroom is to provide them with choices. This could be a choice in topics learned, choice in how this is learned, choice with who you learn it with, and choice in how you are going to determine mastery.

Pre-Assessment - this an excellent method for determining what a student does and does not know. Often times though, we use this information to close gaps and provide intervention, but how often do teachers use it to figure out ways to challenge students, especially our gifted ones, and differentiate up?

Performance Assessment - When it comes to measuring what students have learned and differentiating up, there are more choices than the traditional assessments of multiple choice. There are performance assessments which include but are not limited to oral presentations, journals, exhibitions, role playing, debates/speeches, essays, interviews, and research papers.

Bloom's Taxonomy - Benjamin Bloom created a taxonomy for the various levels of questioning and thinking back in 1953. Now, 70 years later his taxonomy still very much resonates in the classrooms of the 21st century. Learn how to use the various levels of Bloom's and the advantage to doing so in order to differentiate up.

Steps to Project-Based Learning - Projects put students in a real-world setting and ask them to complete a task meeting the requirements as laid out by the project. Projects teach students how to learn for themselves and helps to differentiate up.

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.

Perseverance/Grit (Executive Functioning Skills) - perseverance is the ability to follow through or to push through when faced with obstacles.

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.

Working Memory (Executive Functioning Skills) - in order to learn, we have to hold something in our minds at least long enough for us to apply it.

Focus (Executive Functioning Skills) - none of the other executive functioning skills work effectively if a student is not able to focus.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

Creating a Culture for Higher-Level Questioning in the Classroom: if you want to challenge students with higher-level questioning in your classroom, you have to set the proper culture.

Bloom's Taxonomy - Benjamin Bloom created a taxonomy for the various levels of questioning and thinking back in 1953. Now, 70 years later his taxonomy still very much resonates in the classrooms of the 21st century.

Four Corners Projects - Good teaching means using all parts of your room to teach and enrich your students, including the corners. Four corners projects are high-interest projects in each of the corners of your classroom that students can go to when they finish early or want to be enriched.

Introduction to Depth and Complexity Framework - this is a learning platform designed to push the thinking of students to the next level.

Performance Assessment - When it comes to measuring what students have learned and differentiating up, there are more choices than the traditional assessments of multiple choice. There are performance assessments which include but are not limited to oral presentations, journals, exhibitions, role playing, debates/speeches, essays, interviews, and research papers.

Creative Thinking - We ask students to be creative all of the time but are we explicitly teaching our students how to be creative by giving them assignments that lets them access their creative thinking?

Mentors/Mentorships - Even though teachers are expected to be the experts in their subject area, often times there are things that we don't know. This is especially true with gifted students who might come with a lot of prior understanding…

Differentiated Centers - Learning centers are various stations set up around the classroom that gives students specific tasks or skills to work on i...

Independent Projects - when you have a student who already knows the material you are going to be covering, why make them sit through something th...

Students as Teachers - What can make an assessment meaningful? By having students involved in the process. The more you include them in the learning process, such as having them act as the teachers of what is to be learned, the better change students will reach an enduring understanding.

Inquiry-Based Learning - What if we let the students be responsible for most of the learning in class? That is the basic premise behind inquiry-based learning where the content is not given to the kids by the teacher but rather generated and discovered on their own.

Classroom Makerspace - a lot of people define makerspace differently, but in relation with gifted students its most simplest terms it is a designated space to allow students to challenge and enrich themselves with provided supplies and tools. How you set up your makerspace…

Bulletin Board Options for Enrichment - You can have simple in-class options for students to use in order to enrich themselves. Having a problem of the week on a bulletin board, housing a maker space or in-class library, or having high-interest projects available for students to engage in once their complete their regular schoolwork is going to challenge students as well as enrich their learning.

Problem-Based Learning - One of the strategies under the inquiry-based learning umbrella, problem-based learning seeks to make the learning authentic for students and to help them see the context of what it is they are learning.

Case-Based Learning - Concluding the theme of inquiry learning, this Todd Talk looks at case-based learning, a method used widely in the medical and law professions but not used very commonly in US primary schools.

Steps to Project-Based Learning - Projects put students in a real-world setting and ask them to complete a task meeting the requirements as laid out by the project. Projects teach students how to learn for themselves.

Self/Peer Evaluations - How can you get a better idea of a student's contributions to his group when collaborating? Ask those who are working with him to tell you.

Teachers provide you with a rubric and you tuck it away in your folder never to see the light of day. You are missing a prime opportunity because the teacher has given you a blueprint for how to be successful. All you have to do is the answer the rubric.

Teaching is a lot of work and sometimes we want to take the easy way out. This usually does not result in quality learning. Same goes when making rubrics. You should not rely on an on-line program such as Rubistar if you want to have meaningful, personalized, objective rubrics.

Creating Rubrics - Rubrics are a valuable way for teachers to assess students in non-traditional, performance-based assessments, many of which require students to employ 21st century skills.

Measure What Matters with your WEPs - in the state of Ohio we are required to write Written Education Plans (WEPs) for any student receiving gifted services. Part of this plan is setting goals. But how do you measure skills? This is possible and this video shows you how you can write WEP goals that allow you to measure what matters.

Acceleration versus Enrichment - these are two terms you will often hear in relation to gifted students and how we challenge them. Acceleration is about pace and moving through the material more quickly because the understanding is happening faster. Enrichment is the about depth.

Asynchronous development means that a child's academic levels are moving at a different pace than his maturity levels. This happens often with gifted children who can think of a complex solution but don't know how to hold the pencil to write down the idea.

Differentiation in Gifted - differentiation is one of those educational terms we throw around and believe it to be the solution to all of our problems. If we have students of varying abilities in our classroom, simply differentiate.

Raising the rigor of your tests, worksheets, and homework - This Todd Talk will provide tips, examples, and ideas for taking assessments, worksheets, homework, or virtual tasks, and raising the rigor of the questions by adapting them to higher order thinking.

Often times we know how to differentiate down to meet the needs of a student who is struggling, but what about differentiating up for a student who needs challenged?

Grading the Process - We traditionally grade students at the end of learning, usually in a summative assessment designed to determine whether students have mastered what it is we wanted them to have learned.

Students as Teachers - What can make an assessment meaningful? By having students involved in the process. The more you include them in the learning process the better change students will reach an enduring understanding.

Performance Assessment - When it comes to measuring what students have learned, there are more choices than the traditional assessments of multiple choice.

Capstones - Capstones are an excellent way to assess students meaningfully by reflecting on what they have learned. They can be set up various ways but are typically long-term projects that encapsulate what was learned.

Magnet Programs - There are lots of different ways to group gifted students. One of these is through a magnet program where students are pulled from all over to one location.

Developing Grit in Gifted Children - Grit is the ability for someone to push through when things get difficult or challenging. This can be a skill that is particularly difficult to develop in gifted students because early in their lives, things aren't that difficult.

Teaching Leadership - With many 21st century skills, we provide students with engaging lessons and hope for the best. We need to be more purposeful about the teaching of 21st century skills.

Teaching Creativity - We ask students to be creative all of the time but are we explicitly teaching our students how to be creative by giving them assignments that lets them access their creative thinking?

Teaching Public Speaking - A valuable 21st century skill for any student to possess. How do you teach public speaking though? 1) You provide exemplar speeches to learn from as well as poor ones. 2) You provide students with the space.

Underachievement - Underachievement is when a student is not working to their potential. This affects 10 to 50% of our gifted students, the ones with the highest potential, and can have long-term affects on their lives.

Academic Extra-Curricular Competitions - Athletes are not the only group of students who can compete using their skills. There are academic extra-curricular competitions where students use their academic skills.

Model United Nations - A great academic extra curricular activity, Model United Nations involves taking part in a simulation where you represent a country and discuss and debate global issues.

Invention League - this Todd Talk discusses Invention League (also known as Invention Convention). In this, a student takes a problem and tries to invent something that will help with it.

Destination Imagination - Academic extra-curriculars allows students to not only display their cognitive abilities, but their creativity as well. One such program is Destination Imagination.

Student contracts - Student contracts can be useful for a few reasons. It keeps students organized, it makes them part of the learning process, and it helps them to maintain focus, especially on long-term projects.

Graphic Organizers - if you are seeking to focus your students, look no further than a good graphic organizer. As its name states, this is a graphic that helps students to organize their thoughts as well as helping them see connections and relationships.

What is Intelligence and Does It Matter? - How do we determine a person's intelligence? For better or worse we give someone a test and assign them a number. These tests attempt to determine how well a person reasons or thinks logically.

Zone of Proximal Development - just like Goldilocks, there are things that are too easy to learn and others that are too hard. And you want students where things are just right, where they need a little guidance because they are learning something that is challenging. This is known as the zone of proximal development.

We often talk about changing our mindsets, but what exactly does that mean? What is the difference between a fixed and growth mindset? How do you encourage students to have a growth mindset in the classroom?

Classroom setup - Are you being purposeful about the way you physically set up your classroom? Is this setup conducive to your students being able to best learn?

Reflection in the Classroom - The traditional method of teaching is introduce something, have students practice it, and assess whether they have gotten it. What is missing here is the additional layer or step of reflecting upon what was learned.