Author: Terri Eichholz

Terri is a curriculum and tech integration specialist, speaker, and author with a passion for engaging and empowering learners. She delivers engaging professional learning, consultations on a variety of educational needs, and professional articles for various outlets . Find out more about Terri on the About page in the site menu.
3-12, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Research, Student Products, Teaching Tools

The Big Fib Podcast Planner

Terri Eichholz

One of my most recent workshop additions is one on using podcasting in the classroom. The title is, “From Script to Sound: Engaging Student Learning Through Podcasting.” During this three hour PD, participants learn how to use podcasts as a tool to help with reading and listening comprehension as well as to develop critical thinking skills. In the second half, they learn how to create podcasts using Canva (yes, it can be done!).

One of my favorite ways to start students off with creating in any kind of media is to use a “mentor” piece, whether it’s text, songs, poetry, video, or podcasts. In this case, we use a podcast called, “The Big Fib.” This is one of many productions suitable for kids that you can find on the GZM classroom site, an excellent resource which I blogged about earlier this year.

Choose an episode of the podcast that has a format your students can emulate for a topic you’re teaching. I chose “The Big Fib” because the premise of the show is that two people are being questioned, an expert and a fibber. The listener is supposed to be able to discern from their responses who is the expert and who is the fibber. There is a different topic each time, such as Ancient Egypt. The structure of the show not only supports critical thinking skills, but also easily allows for students to make their own similar podcast on any topic they are studying in class. (Though it’s not part of the GZM family of podcasts, another great “mentor podcast” is, “Smash, Boom, Best,” which you can read more about in this post.)

During the latest workshop, the teachers got to try out using the podcast planner which I’ve made based on “The Big Fib,” and to spend time working in Canva to make their podcasts. We didn’t have time to finish, but they got a good understanding of the steps, and I was completely floored by their creativity! One group chose the show, “Bluey” as their topic (which is apparently an extremely moving show despite being for pre-school kids), another was doing Edgar Allan Poe, and a third group — composed of an art teacher and two language teachers — had come up with a podcast they called, “Just Say It,” where they would ask a question and the two guests were supposed to respond in Spanish (but one would not be responding correctly).

The variety of topics from the teachers made it clear that this is something that could be done as a great assessment tool in most subjects because you could pretty much have students “show what they know” about anything with this activity.

If you’d like to make your own copy of the planning document they used (I made some modifications based on their feedback), click on this link. And, if you’d like to have me do this workshop with a group of teachers in your district, virtually or in-person, drop me a line at terrieichholz@engagetheirminds.com!

brother and sister sitting together on podium and reading from digital pad
K-12, Language Arts, Reading

Young Mensan Magazine

Terri Eichholz

Young Mensan Magazine is a digital magazine for students that is free and available online. Though the target audience is children who are part of Mensa, a non-profit organization open to people who score in the 98th %ile or above on certain IQ tests, the magazine is not restricted to members, and should appeal to students with a variety of interests. It has jokes (the latest edition includes a Mad-Lib type of activity), puzzles, and human interest stores that are contributed by children who are members of Mensa around the world. There are also contests, such as the “Create a Cryptid Contest” (deadline September 30), as well as poems and well-written articles.

Though Young Mensan is a quarterly magazine, you can also access the archive online — dozens of previous issues that go all of the way back to 2009 when the magazine was originally titled, Fred. Some of the themes you’ll find are: “Numbers Game,” “Time Tales,” “2E,” and, “Zombies.”

Whether you assign an article or poem to be read, offer this as an option for “first finishers,” or recommend it to parents of children who are always hungry for new things to read, definitely keep the Young Mensan Magazine in mind as a great option for students searching for engaging and relevant reading material.

crop african american student studying craters of moon on tablet at observatory
Photo by RF._.studio on Pexels.com
Artificial Intelligence, K-12

What Do Students Think About AI?

Terri Eichholz

Since I’m no longer in the classroom, I don’t get the valuable daily perspective of young students about education topics that impact them, such as AI (Artificial Intelligence). When I do get the opportunity to ask students of different ages about how the subject of AI is being handled at their schools, most of them tell me that it’s either being banned or largely ignored. So, I was curious to see a video made by some students at a Code Ninjas location in College Station run by David Hendrawirawan. The students participated in a camp in which the teacher, Julia Weiss, helped them to learn more about Artificial Intelligence.

As these astute young people have concluded, there are some troubling ethical issues surrounding AI, but there are also some very exciting uses that can dramatically improve people’s lives. I would argue that it’s imperative for us to face the reality that AI will be ubiquitous in a short matter of time and that we will be doing our students a huge disservice by ignoring its potential impact.

In a recent presentation that I gave about AI, I included this quote:

We cannot stop AI. What we can do is teach our children what it is and how to use it ethically to solve problems. The good news is that there are lots of resources to help you do this that I’ve been collecting here, including a new page from Code.org specifically for teachers. And, there are some tools that can improve your life as educators right now by saving you time, such as Curipod. While we need to be wary of privacy and safety with AI, as with any technology tool, banning its use completely from schools is definitely not the answer.

K-12, Teaching Tools

How Can I Help?

Terri Eichholz

My big binge this summer was the series, “New Amsterdam.” Set in a fictional public hospital in New York City, the medical director, Dr. Max Goodwin, is exactly the kind of person I would like to work for: empathetic, hands-on, innovative, smart, and determined. There were so many parallels to public education that I saw in this show– the awful parts and the great parts. The character of Max Goodwin completely inspired me, but also sadly reinforces the stereotype that you can only be great in your job by sacrificing a healthy personal life.

While I do believe that it’s impossible to keep your work and personal life perfectly balanced, I think that we can keep the scales from tipping completely over in one direction or the other. And the first thing we need to do as a society is to stop expecting someone in any profession, especially service ones like nursing and teaching, to be responsible for everything. Dr. Goodwin, though he certainly didn’t practice what he preached when it came to his own life, felt the same. And that is why he becomes known throughout the series for his simple response to anyone who approached him:

So, I’d like to ask you today the same question. I’ve had this website for 12 years, where I’ve shared resources that I think are great for engaging learners. I have my Gifts for the Gifted, my Wakelet collections, and Genius Hour materials (see under Resources in the top menu), in addition to the Downloads for Teachers. Most of these are free. I also have courses, both face-to-face and online (not free, but definitely not super-expensive).

What can I provide on this site to you that would be helpful? I do donate a lot of time to this website/blog/newsletter, but I would like to be better about making the time I am giving more worthwhile. I know your biggest priority is probably more physical presence “in the trenches” with you. But since I can’t be there with each and every one of you, what can I do from here? Please comment below.

3-12, Creative Thinking, Teaching Tools

“Hex-Blocks of Respect”: Creating a Social Contract using Hexagonal Thinking

Terri Eichholz

If you’ve been in education for any length of time, you’ve probably created, at one time or another, some sort of social contract, classroom constitution, classroom compact, etc…

I dread them.

The activity always felt repetitive, unoriginal, and seemed to involve a lot of wasted to time to arrive at a product that looked virtually the same every year. In addition, I felt the pain of my poor secondary students, who had to do it in every single teacher’s classroom at the beginning of the year — probably not the most interesting way to launch a new learning adventure.

However, there are some benefits to the social contract, of course. And many schools require them to be posted in the classroom, a signed reminder to the students of their agreement to contribute to a positive learning environment. It’s not a terrible idea, just inherently boring if you have to do it with each and every teacher throughout your entire school career.

I’m about to present my “Harnessing Hexagons” workshops next week for Northside (yay, NISD, can’t wait to see you!) and I was playing around with new, meaningful ways to use hexagonal thinking. I noticed there are currently a lot of visits to my page, “Getting to Know You Hexagons,” and it hit me that maybe there was a way to use hexagonal thinking to create these social contracts, too. (Note: I’m not suggesting you do both of these activities on the first day, because that would be a bit redundant — something we are actually trying to avoid.)

Since I’ve been playing around with Chat GPT a lot, I decided to see what it thought about this idea. Here was the lesson it generated with my first prompt:

Title: Co-designing our Classroom Social Contract using Hexagonal Thinking Objective: Students will engage in the process of hexagonal thinking to collaboratively design a classroom social contract, embodying the values and behaviors they believe will create a respectful, engaging, and effective learning environment. Materials:

  1. Hexagonal cut-outs or sticky notes
  2. Markers
  3. Large poster paper/board for arranging hexagons
  4. Timer

Warm-Up (5 minutes): Begin by sharing the purpose of the social contract. Briefly discuss what a social contract is and why it’s important for a classroom environment. Ask students to think about their ideal classroom environment and the values and behaviors that would contribute to it.

Introduction to Hexagonal Thinking (10 minutes): Introduce Hexagonal Thinking as a strategy that visually represents connections between ideas or concepts. Explain that each hexagon will represent one word or phrase – a value or behavior they want to see in the classroom. Show an example of hexagonal thinking and how the connecting sides of the hexagon represent a relationship between the ideas.

Brainstorming (10 minutes): Hand out hexagonal cut-outs or sticky notes and markers to each student. Ask each student to write down one or more words or short phrases that represent values, behaviors, or norms they think should be part of the classroom social contract. Each word or phrase goes on a separate hexagon.

Hexagonal Thinking Activity (10 minutes): After they’ve written down their ideas, bring the students together around the poster paper/board. Invite students to place their hexagons on the board and explain why they chose those particular words or phrases, and how they connect to other ideas already on the board. Encourage them to actively rearrange and connect the hexagons as the discussion progresses.

Review and Reflect (5 minutes): Once all the hexagons are on the board and connected, take a step back and look at the web of ideas that the class has created. Invite students to reflect on the ideas on the board. Is there consensus? Are there surprising connections? Does this represent the kind of classroom environment they want? End the lesson by informing students that in the next class, you will collectively turn these ideas into a formal classroom social contract. The hexagonal thinking board will stay up as a reminder of the agreed values and behaviors. Note: Keep the pace brisk, transitions quick, and discussions focused to keep within the time limit. Adjustments might be needed depending on your students’ familiarity with these concepts and activities.

To be honest, this is not a ground-breaking lesson plan. I definitely could have generated this myself.

So I thought I would ask Chat GPT to spice it up a bit. I learned (from Nicole Leffer on TikTok) about an interesting sentence that you can add to your prompts in order to give an idea of the creativity level you’re looking for. “The temperature setting is …” Complete the sentence with a number from 0-1.9. Supposedly, 1.9 is asking for the most out-0f-the-box answer. I gave it a whirl. Here is the response:

Title: “Social Contract Design with Hexagonal Galaxy Creation” Objective: In this wild and space-themed adventure, students will employ hexagonal thinking to collaboratively fabricate a “Classroom Social Contract Galaxy”, symbolizing the values and behaviors that will power our starship classroom through the educational cosmos.

Materials:

  1. Hexagonal “Star” cut-outs or sticky notes
  2. “Cosmic” markers
  3. Large black poster paper/board for arranging the galaxy (stars)
  4. An epic space-themed playlist
  5. Star-shaped stickers

Pre-Launch Briefing (5 minutes): Begin by introducing the mission – to travel together through the vast cosmos of learning, and to successfully reach our destination, we need to establish our starship’s commandments (social contract). Briefly discuss the importance of these commandments for our exciting educational journey.

Hexagonal Galaxy Introduction (5 minutes): Reveal that each star (hexagonal cut-out) represents a cosmic law – a value or behavior they wish to establish in our spaceship. Show a prototype of a galaxy made from stars and how connecting sides signifies the gravitational pull between these cosmic laws.

Star Creation (10 minutes): Distribute star cut-outs and cosmic markers to each student. Ask each astronaut to etch one or more cosmic laws they believe should guide our voyage.

Galaxy Formation (15 minutes): Commence the galaxy formation by gathering the astronauts around the dark expanse of the poster board. One by one, students place their stars on the board, explaining why they chose those specific laws and how they relate to other stars in our galaxy. Encourage them to actively shift and connect stars as the cosmic discussions continue, and play an epic space-themed soundtrack to enhance the experience.

Reflection and Space Dance (5 minutes): Once all the stars have found their place in the cosmos, take a moment to admire the newly formed galaxy. Offer star-shaped stickers to students to place on the hexagons they resonate most with. Host a short “space dance” to celebrate the co-created galaxy. Conclude the class by saying, “This is our Classroom Galaxy, each star a beacon guiding our learning journey. Remember its constellation, for it is our shared responsibility to navigate the educational cosmos in harmony.” Note: Emphasize the importance of staying on-task and focused during the galaxy formation, ensuring all astronauts have their say in shaping the commandments of our shared journey. The space-themed elements should enhance the experience, not detract from the objective. Adjustments might be needed depending on your students’ familiarity with these concepts and activities.

Okay. So this might have been a bit too out-of-the-box. I kind of of like the theme idea, but A.) Hexagons look nothing like stars and B.) A SPACE DANCE?!!!! Ha! Try having middle school kids do that, especially on the first day of school.

So, last try. I ratcheted down my temperature setting to 1.0. We still got a theme, but it seemed more realistic. Not sure about the hard-hat idea, but that could work with some of the primary grades. (Also, I think the final notes, Chat GPT keeps giving me are hilarious — like I don’t know that I need to keep kids “focused and efficiently moving.”)

Title: “Classroom Constitution: Hexagonal Building Blocks of Respect”

Objective: Students will activate their inner architects and participate in an interactive construction project using hexagonal blocks, also known as the “Hex-Blocks of Respect.” These blocks symbolize various behaviors and values, which will contribute to our Classroom Constitution.

Materials:

  1. Hexagonal cardstock cut-outs or sticky notes, referred to as “Hex-Blocks”
  2. Markers
  3. A large display board or wall space for arranging the Hex-Blocks
  4. Timer
  5. Construction hats (for fun, if available)

Laying the Foundation (5 minutes):Begin with the rationale behind the Classroom Constitution. Explain how each “Hex-Block” represents a value or behavior essential for building a positive and productive learning environment. Encourage students to consider the values and behaviors they think are necessary for their classroom community.

Architects’ Training (5 minutes):Introduce Hexagonal Thinking as the blueprint of our Classroom Constitution. Explain that each Hex-Block represents a behavior or value. Show an example of a structure made of Hex-Blocks, explaining how connecting sides symbolize a relationship between the values or behaviors.

Construction Phase (15 minutes):Distribute Hex-Blocks and markers to students. Ask each student to inscribe a behavior or value they think should be included in the Classroom Constitution.

Building the Constitution (10 minutes):Now, gather the student-architects around the display board or wall. One by one, they’ll place their Hex-Blocks onto the board, explaining why they selected those values or behaviors and how they connect to others. Encourage students to actively rearrange and connect blocks as more blocks are added and more connections are formed.

Final Review (5 minutes):Once all blocks are in place, step back and reflect on the newly constructed Classroom Constitution. Discuss the interconnectedness of the values and behaviors. Does the Classroom Constitution reflect the kind of learning environment students want?

Conclude by informing students that they’ve laid the foundation for a supportive, respectful, and collaborative classroom community. The structure will remain visible throughout the year as a reminder of the constitution they co-created.

Note: It’s crucial to keep the class focused and efficiently moving through each phase of the lesson to stay within the allotted time frame. Depending on your students’ familiarity with the concepts and activities, adjustments might be needed.

I think I could actually use this one with a couple of tweaks. What about you?

If you are new to hexagonal thinking, I have a ton of previous posts on it. It’s, frankly, my favorite way to encourage group discussions. There are many, many ways to make your hexagons that I relate in my “Harnessing Hexagons” presentation, but one quick way is to use the HookED Solo Generator from Pam Hook (Queen of Hexagonal Thinking).

So, to sum up:

  • Try using hexagonal thinking to create your classroom compact.
  • Try using Chat GPT to help you think of lesson ideas (along with the temperature setting prompt).
  • Consider inviting me to present “Harnessing Hexagons” to your staff (terrieichholz@engagetheirminds.com).
  • And make sure you “keep the class focused and efficiently moving through each phase of the lesson” — because you probably prefer complete chaos in your classroom but, for some strange reason Chat GPT doesn’t advise that approach:)
3-5, 6-12, Art, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Math

AI Text to Image Mandalas

Terri Eichholz

I was listening to a podcast this week in which Steven Soderbergh, the famous director, stated, “I am not interesting; I am interested.” This is absolutely how I feel about myself. In fact, I responded, “Curious” to a recent Twitter post asking, “What’s Your Word?” I could spend all day learning new things, and I get really excited when any of those things happens to be something I think might be of interest to you.

On an AI thread in Twitter the other day, someone shared a bunch of images they created with Midjourney, an AI tool. The artwork involved something called, “knolling photography“, which reminded me of natural mandalas. As some of you may know, I used to do a unit on mathematical masterpieces with my 4th graders that included mandalas, and we used many methods to create some. You can see one of my posts about this here. I thought I would jump down this rabbit hole to see if I could create any decent mandalas with some free AI tools at my fingertips (Midjourney is not one of them), and I was pleasantly surprised with the results.

Since Canva is free to all teachers, I started with its “Text to Image” tool, and asked it to make a mandala of quilled flowers. Here is the result:

I also asked for one made with seashells.

Then I asked it to change the style to “watercolor” for another flower mandala. Here was the response:

Even though Canva is free for educators, there are some of you who don’t use it, so I decided to test out another AI chat tool, Bing, in case you wanted a different option. (By the way, if you have the Adobe Creative Suite subscription, you can also try Firefly to do this.)

When my students created mandalas, we worked a lot on symbolism and the meaning of colors, so I started by trying to ask Bing to create a mandala of sports equipment (because that’s invariably what some of my students do). That did not go well. The images were extremely abstract and not recognizable. I finally settled on one where I was able to request a specific type of mandala (spiral dot), the colors red, blue, and green, and a photo of a soccer ball in the middle.

Bing allows you to upload photos, but I didn’t have any success in it making mandalas out of the couple of photos that I tried in the limited time I experimented.

What would students learn from this activity? As I mentioned before, our previous mandala lessons included symbolism and the meaning of colors. We also learned about different types of symmetry and the history of mandalas in many cultures. Creating mandalas themselves helped them to delve more into their own values and creativity. And trying to make them with AI tools will not only bring up philosophical and ethical discussion, but also help them to refine their critical thinking skills to improve their “prompt engineering.”

As Steven Soderbergh also states in that podcast episode when asked about AI, that it’s an iterative tool, but, “It hasn’t experienced anything.” He quotes a Pixar motto, “Be wrong as fast as you can… Just get to the end. If this helps people get to the end of something, fine.” Maybe this is one more option you can give students to get to the vision they have for their mathematical masterpiece — or to create a new vision even better than they imagined.