Whenever I speak about Impostor Syndrome, I’m always amazed by how many people stop to tell me that they have experienced it themselves or have seen it in their children.

Many people have pointed me towards Carol Dweck‘s work with fixed and growth mindsets, noting a strong connection to impostor syndrome. I purchased and read her book, Mindset, and highly recommended it, especially if you work with gifted students.

Fixed vs Growth

In short, depending on the type of praise we receive, we develop either the growth or the fixed mindset.

Those with the growth mindset believe that their abilities are flexible and can improve through work and persistence. They see challenges as opportunities to overcome.

Those with the fixed mindset believe that their abilities are set and cannot be improved. When they encounter difficult problems, they think that they’ve overstepped their abilities and should retreat. Challenges are obstacles to avoid.

Just like impostor syndrome, the fixed mindset leads people to avoid challenging situations out of a belief that if something can’t be aced, then it shouldn’t be attempted

Careful Encouragement

What’s most amazing to me is that Dr. Dweck found, with carefully worded praise, that we can change peoples’ mindsets.

Praise that emphasizes work and improvement leads to a growth mindset. An example might be: “I saw how you struggled through that last part but still managed to complete it. Great work.”

Praise that is worded to emphasize innate skill or ability reinforces a fixed mindset. If we say, “You’re so smart. Another amazing project” we’re contributing to the fixed mindset.

Preschoolers and Puzzles

Dweck shares a fascinating anecdote about preschoolers and jigsaw puzzles. Students who were given “fixed” praise for solving a simple puzzle would then choose to resolve the same puzzle rather than trying a new, more challenging puzzle.

Students who were given “growth” praise reached for the new challenges and had little interest in the old puzzles. These new puzzles were opportunities to receive more praise for struggling and improving.

Obviously, we want our students to reach for the new challenges.

Gifted Kids at Risk

Our gifted kids receive lots of well-intentioned “you’re so smart” praise. But, this leads directly to a fear of straying beyond their safety zone. In college or the workplace, where they face challenges for the first time, the impostor syndrome rears its terrifying head.

“Why is this so difficult? Maybe I shouldn’t be here.”

We accidentally condition our brightest students to see challenges as risks that threaten their perfect streaks and “smart” status.

Takeaways

1. Know that praise has unexpected effects: reinforce the importance of work, not just the end result.
2. Challenge students early: don’t let them keep solving the same easy puzzle. Identify mastery, and then move them along to something slightly difficult.
3. Address it directly: especially with older students, I think it’s important to tell them that just because they stumble doesn’t mean that they’re in the wrong race.

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Related: 3 Ways Teachers Battle Students’ Giftedness How easy is it to forget that our gifted learners...

Photo by Sham Hardy

School is often, quite strangely, not a place where students feel comfortable being curious. But you can change that with a determined and consistent effort.

I knew that my students were incredibly curious, but if I asked them, “Hey, what are you interested in? What do you have questions about?” they just blinked at me in confusion.

Let’s intentionally promote curiosity as a classroom habit.

Step One: The Book

Create a Book of Unanswered Questions. This can be as simple as a binder filled with blank pages. We’re going to encourage students to write questions in here, whether random and off-topic, or directly related to curriculum.

We want them to:

• Be actively curious
• Be aware that they don’t know everything (yet)
• Understand some answers are findable and some are currently unknown

But, if you just say, “Write your questions in this book,” it’s dead in the water. Like anything complex, we’ve got to scaffold it through modeling and structured participation.

Step Two: Scaffold

Start by demonstrating curiosity. Bring in an image, video, song, or object that truly interests you. Have some authentic questions ready.

Monday

Here’s a video you might use to tickle your kids’ curiosity.

Kina Grannis – In Your Arms from Greg Jardin on Vimeo.

Take your kids beyond just saying “that’s cool.” Move them towards a questioning mind by sharing your own questions:

Wasn’t that amazing! When I watched it, I had three big questions:

1. How long did this take?
2. What else has director created? I really liked his style.
3. I wondered what tools were used to make this video.

Then give them a chance: did you guys have any questions?

Write all questions into The Book of Unanswered Questions.

Now, don’t ask them to look for the answers. Let’s see if anyone satisfies their curiosity on their own.

Tuesday

In the morning, ask if anyone learned how long it took to make the video. I’ll bet at least one person went home and did some research. The others will say, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” But they’ll see that you care a bit about asking and answering questions.

Even if no one found answers, show that you answered your own questions (using this video or this audio interview):

1. It took more than a year (and she had to wear the same outfit). Wow!
2. The director also made this commercial and this music video, both of which are also stop motion.
3. They used a regular old laptop, a digital camera, and a spare bedroom.

Now write the answers into The Book of Unanswered Questions.

Of course, when we teach long-division, we don’t just do one example! So cue up your next curiosity tickler, courtesy of National Geographic, a fascinating photo from Robert B. Goodman:

Ask your (genuine) questions:

Isn’t this weird? I wondered: Where is this? What shaped this wall? When was this picture taken? What questions do you guys have about this?

Again, don’t remind them about it at the end of the day, but see if anyone remembers tomorrow.

Wednesday

You guessed it, see if anyone found information about the image of the Australian rock from 1963. Write them into the book. If not, that’s fine. The book is supposed to be filled with unanswered questions.

Share a third curiosity tickler. If you need inspiration, here are some awesome hot air balloons, here’s a mantis that looks like an orchid, and here are surreal images built up from multiple photos. Encourage specific questions.

And the questions can be about anything! In the balloon image, maybe kids are interested in how hot air balloons stay afloat or maybe they’re interested in the structures. Let their curiosity roam freely (and keep encouraging this with your own questions).

Thursday

On Thursday, instead of sharing your own cool thing, tell your students, “Hey, if you see anything cool on the internet tonight, shoot me an email (my upper grade bias is coming through here)”. This lets you preview it and possibly figure out how to get around the dreaded district network filter.

Remind them when they leave to keep their eye out for something interesting online.

Friday

Even if you only get one example of a curiosity tickler: show it on Friday morning. Let your kids ask questions and, of course, write them in the book.

Now, set up a repeating schedule for this activity. Pick a day (not Monday!) where you schedule five minutes for sharing a cool thing. Yes, it’s a bit like Show-And-Tell, but keep the focus on objects or images that inspire curiosity.

• If it’s very successful, you might need to start a calendar so kids can sign up in advance.
• If it’s very unpopular, you might have to keep sharing your own cool things for a while.

Keep that book updated, too!

Step Three: Curriculum Connections

Now, start connecting The Book Of Unanswered Questions to your curriculum.

• Did you just finish learning about Abe Lincoln? Ask your kids what they still don’t know about him.
• Done with the unit on Ancient Egypt? What didn’t we learn.
• Finished the water cycle? How would it work with less gravity? More gravity? Freezing temperatures?

Keep asking your students! Ask them everyday! Write their questions in The Book Of Unanswered Questions.

Step Four: Using the Book

After a few weeks, take a trip back in time and remind students that no one figured out where that mantis that looks like an orchid lives. Use the book to keep your students pondering their own unanswered questions.

Eventually, you can use it to fuel curiosity based research.

Resources

Here are five places to find these curiosity ticklers:

• Check Dan Meyer’s “show and tell” category. This one is particularly striking.
• Sharing intriguing links is my main use of Twitter. Follow me there.
• Jason Kottke’s website is a treasure trove of fascinating clips, articles, and images.
• Jim Coudal keeps a constant flood of interesting links flowing (if anything, there’s too much).
• Google Earth Pics is an awesome Twitter account that simply shares amazing pictures.

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Related: Curiosity Fridays – Part I Merlin Mann stated that employees’ motivation increases when they get...

I have several exciting announcements for Byrdseed.TV:

Downloads

Based on last month’s survey, you can now download movie files from Byrdseed.TV. All videos are available to download, and, for most videos, Powerpoint slides are also online. This is all included at $7 per month. Everyone with an existing account was automatically upgraded at no extra charge.

And, if you don’t care about downloading, the $5 plan is back with access to streaming videos, but no downloads.

Guest Star!

In even more exciting news, the incredible Joelle Trayers from Not Just Child’s Play has created a video focused on young students for ByrdseedTV. You can expect more from her in the near future!

The Latest Videos

These last videos pushed the library over the 4 hour mark! There’s a new one every Friday:

• Ethics In The Young Elementary Classroom – Get the young ones debating right and wrong.
• Students’ Brains and Hearts – Do our students have only brain needs, or are their hearts in even more need of attention?
• Organize Lessons With Deductive Thinking – Encourage your students to get abstract! Connect your curriculum in ways that used to seem impossible.
• iTunes as an Educational Resource – Peek at the potential of college classes from iTunes U.
• Graphs Beyond Math – Use graphs to analyze characters and make interesting evaluations.

Sign up over at Byrdseed.TV.

Thanks for reading Byrdseed.com. Here are some free resources to download.

In need of some nice word puzzles that will keep your gifted kids busy? Ask them to find as many words as they can within another word.

• They must use only the letters within the words.
• The letters can be in any order.
• They can use as few letters as they need.

Snowy

For example: can you find five words within “snowy?” How about ten?

1. snow
2. no
3. nosy
4. won
5. so
6. son
7. sow
8. now
9. own
10. owns

There’s even more, including: soy, sown, and on.

Mermaid

Can you find ten words within “mermaid?”

1. maid
2. aid
3. air
4. mad
5. ear
6. ram
7. raid
8. dim
9. dam
10. red

Too easy? What about 20? 30? There are actually more than 50 words within “mermaid!”

Develop An Algorithm

Go beyond a simple word problem by asking students to develop a set of steps, or an algorithm, to find as many words as possible. Rather than randomly grabbing letters, what pattern can be employed? Get kids thinking about the most efficient way to solve the problem.

A True Challenge

I had students who ate these puzzles up. They’d end up with a dictionary in hand, double-checking words and even finding new words to use! Kids loved to collaborate and figure out which words they were missing.

71 Sets

I’ve put together a PDF with 71 sets of these “Words Within Words” challenges. They range from simple examples like “sugar” all the way up to “general,” with over a hundred words listed.

I’ve eliminated “inappropriate” words and have tried to keep the words within reasonable expectations. I didn’t include any rare plant names, archaic terms, or names of exotic chemicals, for example.

Since I did some pruning, the sets are not exhaustive, and students may come up with examples that don’t appear on the lists. As long as they can prove it’s a word, that’s fine. It’s also helpful to define up front what you consider a word: no proper nouns, no slang terms, etc.

• 71 Sets
• From 8 to 100+ words per set
• Inappropriate, slang, and obscure words removed

Purchase the PDf for $5

Thanks for reading Byrdseed.com. Here are some free resources to download.

Related: Puzzle: Word Ladders One of my favorite tricks in the classroom was having...

Photo by Ian Sane

In a 1982 survey, Kathnelson and Colley asked gifted students of all ages what they wanted in a teacher. The most common responses:

• someone who understands them
• someone who has a sense of humor
• someone who makes learning fun
• someone who is cheerful

Gifted students want a teacher who is fun, happy, humorous, and understanding.

It’s The Little Things

When I asked my own students about teachers they loved, it was always some tiny detail that delighted them: a silly saying, a funny way of erasing the board, or a unique way of lining up.

Good teachers know how to surprise students with delightful details. They cost no money, take no time, and set the stage for successful learning.

Mr. Key

As a kid, this delightful detail stands out from 5th grade: Mrs. Williams had a plastic piggy bank shaped like Mr. T’s head. She kept the classroom keys in the coin slot on top. Naturally, she called it Mr. Key. Boy was it an honor to grab the keys for her.

From Room 20

Here are five details that delighted my students:

• We’d form groups, and then I’d call one student up to get supplies based on some silly attribute. My go-to was shortest hair. I loved watching guys try to measure each other’s hair to determine who should come up.
• Squeaking a plush dog toy shaped like a hot dog to get the class to quiet down. During open house, I’d see students go to my desk and show it to their parents!
• Giving out classroom currency for finding errors in my tests or other handouts. A gifted kid’s dream!
• Opening my classroom fifteen minutes before school started. Rather than going to recess, some students loved to hang out indoors. Even kids who weren’t in my class would stop by. I wrote more about this here.
• I had a classroom job called “Mr. Byrd’s Brain.” This student was responsible for writing down reminders for tasks I needed to do during recess, lunch, or before the next day. Everyone wanted to be my brain.

Rick Morris

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing Rick Morris present, he is chock full of delightful details! If not, grab one of his books: Tools and Toys, Eight Great Ideas, or a free pdf.

Your Delightful Details

Now I know you’ve got some delightful details to share. Please fill us in on your favorites below (or if you’re too humble, share a delightful detail you’ve seen from a colleague).

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Related: From Apathy To Flow It's our job to draw out the excited learner inside...

I get so many great emails from teachers out there building on the ideas shared here at Byrdseed. It’s amazing how a kindergarten teacher and a high school english teacher can take the same idea and adapt it for their students.

I want you all to see these great ideas, so I’m starting a new feature called “Remix This.” If you’ve adapted an idea (or have a hypothetical adaptation), please write it up to share with the crowd. Or, if you have your own site, write your idea there and just post a link.

The first idea open for Remix This is the Academic Tournament. I got a handful of awesome ideas via email and twitter, so here’s your chance to share it with everyone. The form’s at the bottom of the page.

Thanks for reading Byrdseed.com. Here are some free resources to download.

Related: Remixing Ideas With Gifted Students One of my favorite ways to differentiate for gifted students...

This month’s field trip around the web features ten resources to inspire you and your students: from giant LEGO buildings, to portraits made in coffee, to words that are their own opposites.

1. Contact 1: A 200,000 Piece LEGO Masterwork, now on Kickstarter
2. Sandwich Art: Dad decorates kids’ sandwich bags everyday.
3. Love it: Painting Like Michelangelo with kindergarteners. My 6th grade colleagues did this with oil pastels to simulate cave painting.
4. Incredible video: separating the water from Coke using a water filter!
5. Watch an astronaut wring out water in zero gravity!
6. Yes! The evolution of video game controllers.
7. This has been the highlight of my week: Why Kids Mess Up Exponents
8. In case you are asked: What would happen if the Sun just… disappeared?
9. 14 words that are their own antonyms.
10. Would you like room for… your face? The fine art of coffee pßortraiture

Thanks for reading Byrdseed.com. Here are some free resources to download.

Related: Seven Fascinating Links Moon animation, difficulties falling asleep, Bugs Bunny tutorial, art ideas,...

There’s a type of gifted kid who is simply filled to the brim with “did you know” trivia. If you know a student like this, then have I got a book recommendation for you!

The Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things explains how objects, customs, and sayings got their start. Used correctly, you might finally be able to out-trivia some of your students.

I buy most books on the Kindle now, but this is a book that must be held in one’s hands. It’s a massive reference book, divided into sixteen chapters, including: customs, games, and medicine. Here’s part of the table of contents:

Here’s an idea of what’s inside. Dense!

It’s not a “children’s book,” so you might want to flip through it a bit before letting a youngster dig in.

Pick it up on Amazon with this link and I’ll get a few cents towards a gift card. Or click here and I won’t

Thanks for reading Byrdseed.com. Here are some free resources to download.

Related: Review: Orientation "Orientation" is a unique sci-fi novel specifically written for gifted...

One year, I had an especially chess-obsessed class. As the chess champion of my second grade class (yes, I peaked early), I loved teaching, playing with, and losing to my students.

One year, as an art project, students even designed their own chess sets. Their imaginations were incredible.

So when I saw a series of interesting chess design articles pop up recently, I thought I’d share them with you all.

Chess Design

First, from Smithsonian Magazine: How The Chess Set Got Its Look and Feel:

Prior to 1849, there was no such thing as a “normal chess set.” At least not like we think of it today.

Then, Jason Kottke takes us on a visual journey of the standardization of chess sets. I have to say, I’m partial to that skinny German set!

Back to Smithsonian Magazine, and a look at modern art-influenced chess sets.

The largely minimalist chess pieces… represent an attempt to strip down each piece to its most essential components: what is the absolute least a knight can be to still be read as a knight?

Finally, take a look at the Lewis Chessmen. These middle-age era chess pieces, were uncovered some 700 years later in 1831. They are made from walrus ivory and whales’ teeth and are rather hilarious looking, although this was not the initial intent.

It is believed, however, that the comic or sad expressions were not intended or perceived as such by the makers, to whom these images instead displayed strength or ferocity. From Wikipedia

Some Amazing Chess Sets

To wrap up, here’s an assorted list of interesting chess sets:

• Chessbot!
• Typographic Chess Set
• Keys Chess Set
• Pinterest Board of Unique Sets
• MOMA’s archive of chess sets

Thanks for reading Byrdseed.com. Here are some free resources to download.

What better way to learn about gifted students’ needs than by talking to gifted adults? Here’s a tour of some of the resources I found online.

Challenges

Paula Prober reports on the main challenges adults said they faced as gifted kids:

The main challenges include: painful schooling experiences, high levels of sensitivity and intensity, existential depression/advanced empathy, perfectionism, multipotentiality, and difficulties with relationships. From Counseling Gifted Adults: A Case Study

Deborah Ruf picks up on a recurring theme of feeling out of place, notably when kids did not have their giftedness specifically explained to them:

…the theme of, “I thought something was wrong with me,” was prevalent among those who did not receive some form of explanation or confirmation of their intelligence. From Social Emotional Issues: What Gifted Adults Say About Their Childhoods

Deirdre Lovecky notes the ongoing conflict, even into adulthood, of reaching one’s full potential versus fitting in socially:

Unless they learn to value self and find support from others, these adults will experience identity crises whenever the conflict resurfaces. From Can You Hear The Flowers Sing?

What We Can Do

Felice Kaufman identifies the need to explicitly teach gifted students about more than academics:

Gifted students need to experience many facets of themselves, not just their academic abilities. Over-emphasis on intellectual prowess and competition for awards can have serious long term consequences. From: What Educators Can Learn From Gifted Adults

And Barbara Kerr extends this multifaceted approach to specifically helping students plan their careers, an idea that fits nicely with avoiding Impostor’s Syndrome:

Although parents and teachers may be concerned about academic planning for gifted and talented young people, they often assume that career planning will take care of itself. From Career Planning For Gifted And Talented Youth

Finally, let’s make sure we’re not one of the people identified by Deborah Ruf:

People around them seemed to assume the gifted children knew how smart and capable they were. From Social Emotional Issues: What Gifted Adults Say About Their Childhoods

We shouldn’t assume that kids understand their own unique abilities and needs, no matter how high their test scores are.

Next Steps

Make an effort to talk to gifted students about their multifaceted needs:

• Personality Types
• Introversion and Intuitiveness
• Impostor’s Syndrome

Further Reading

Articles:

• Counseling Gifted Adults: A Case Study
• Can You Hear The Flowers Sing?
• What Educators Can Learn From Gifted Adults
• Career Planning For Gifted And Talented Youth

And a few books:

• Gifted Grownups
• The Gifted Adult
• Living With Intensity

Thanks for reading Byrdseed.com. Here are some free resources to download.

Related: Failures! One sad side-effect of gifted students' success is that it...