Find The Controversy

Help my students remember these confusing terms!

If you want students to memorize, you can’t aim for memorize. You have to aim higher – and then memorization comes along for free.

How *Not* To Ask Questions About A Novel

These “discussion questions” highlight so many of the problems we’ve been looking at.

Two Questions I Won’t Ask About A Famous Quote

Let’s do more than ask, “What did this person mean?”

Healthy Donuts!? Framing a Math Project with a Big Idea

Instead of jumping straight to calculations, what if we framed this math concept with a big idea?

Universal Themes and… Punctuation!?

Here’s how can we move a punctuation lesson beyond mere memorization and towards actually interesting thinking.

Which is longer: a Ray or a Line?

Let’s move beyond memorizing definitions and get kids grappling with the fascinating concept of infinity!

What could we do with this Wax Museum event?

How one might revamp a “Wax Museum” project into something that focuses more on thinking than product.

The Surprises Within a Triangle’s Angles

Discovering what is interesting and unexpected about a triangle’s angles. What twists have I unintentionally spoiled for my students over the years?

Make A *Better* Calendar!

The calendar is a source of fantastic factoring problems with many social studies add-ons. Why 12 months? Why 30 (or 31 or 28) days? Why are weeks 7 days long? Why don’t they fit into the months (or the year!)? Why did we do this to ourselves!?

Running A Curiosity Project

Merlin Mann stated that employees’ motivation increases when they get to “build a robot” once in a while. That is, do something creative beyond regular work. Can we do this at school? Offices have “casual Fridays,” can we have “curiosity Fridays?”