fun in the gt classroom meredith austin austinm@pearlandisd.org

Fun in the GT ClassroomMeredith Austinaustinm@pearlandisd.orgwww.austinGTfun.weebly.com

Today’s Goals

•Creativity and relationship building exercise

•Teaching kids to think!•Six Thinking Hats Method for Problem

Solving•Game

Your life + a dot

You have been given a sheet of paper with a dot. Find a way to incorporate the dot and represent something about you and your life on the rest of paper. Try to use the dot in a way that no one else will think of. Fill up the paper… no white space!

Why Life+Dot Works?

•Do this at the beginning of the year•You get to see early on where the

students creativity lies•When the students present their life+dot,

you get to know more about them•Relationship building

Multiple Perspectives

•develops students’ critical thinking skills

•"If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking." —George Patton

•“Those who know how to think need no teachers.” —Mahatma Gandhi

How Can We Teach Thinking?

•Six Thinking Hats Method▫Developed by Edward DeBono for use in

the business world. Can be used in many situations.

•Six colors of hats for six types of thinking▫Each hat identifies a type of thinking▫Hats are directions of thinking

•Hats help a group use parallel thinking▫You can “put on” and “take off” a hat

Hints

•Direction, not description▫Set out to think in a certain direction▫“Let’s have some black hat thinking…”

•Not categories of people▫Not: “He’s a black hat thinker.”▫Everyone can and should use all the hats

•A constructive form of showing off▫Show off by being a better thinker▫Not destructive right vs. wrong argument

•Use in whole or in part

Six Colors for Thinking

•White: objective facts & figures•Red: emotions & feelings•Black: cautious & careful•Yellow: hope, positive & speculative•Green: creativity, ideas & lateral thinking•Blue: control & organization of thinking

Six Colors for Thinking

The blue hat

•Thinking about thinking• Instructions for thinking•The organization of thinking•Control of the other hats•Discipline and focus

The blue hat role•Control of thinking & the process•Begin & end session with blue hat•Facilitator, session leader’s role•Choreography

▫open, sequence, close▫Focus: what should we be thinking about▫Asking the right questions▫Defining & clarifying the problem▫Setting the thinking tasks

Open with the blue hat…•Why we are here•what we are thinking about•definition of the situation or problem•alternative definitions•what we want to achieve•where we want to end up• the background to the thinking•a plan for the sequence of hats

…and close with the blue hat

•What we have achieved•Outcome•Conclusion•Design•Solution•Next steps

White Hat Thinking• Neutral, objective information• Facts & figures • Questions: what do we know, what don’t

we know, what do we need to know• Excludes opinions, hunches, judgements• Removes feelings & impressions• Two tiers of facts

▫ Believed Facts▫ Checked Facts

Red Hat Thinking

• Emotions & feelings• Hunches, intuitions, impressions• Doesn’t have to be logical or consistent• No justifications, reasons or basis• All decisions are emotional in the end

Yellow Hat Thinking

• Positive & speculative• Positive thinking, optimism, opportunity• Benefits• Best-case scenarios• Exploration

Green Hat Thinking

• New ideas, concepts, perceptions• Deliberate creation of new ideas• Alternatives and more alternatives• New approaches to problems• Creative & lateral thinking

Black Hat Thinking

• Cautious and careful• Logical negative – why it won’t work• Critical judgement, pessimistic view• Separates logical negative from

emotional• Focus on errors, evidence, conclusions• Logical & truthful, but not necessarily

fair

Six hats summary

Blue: control & organization of thinking

White: objective facts & figures

Red: emotions & feelings

Yellow: hope, positive & speculative

Green: creativity, ideas & lateral thinking

Black: cautious & careful

How can you use it?

•Groups of six▫Each student “wearing” a different hat

solving the same problem•Small Groups

▫“Draw” a hat and ask questions from that perspective

•Individually▫Everyone thinks about a problem using just

a single hat

Example

•Students Talking While Others Are Talking Or Teaching

Let’s Play a Game

Want to learn more? •Paul Reali

▫www.cyberskills.com or www.omniskills.com

▫preali@cyberskills.com•Lateral Thinking, deBono’s Thinking

Course, and other books by Edward deBono