Enrichment with the Gifted Guy are videos that can be used with students to challenge them and to enrich their learning. These are not so much based on content as they are on skills designed to made students better thinkers.
LEARNING PUBLIC SPEAKING
EXPLORING IDEAS
Self-Reflection - if you are going to learn from your successes and your mistakes it is important to reflect upon your previous actions and results.
Appropriate use of humor - humor can be a powerful way to engage and connect to people. But it can also divide people if it is offensive. How do you know if your humor is offensive or is crossing the line?
Taking the Abstract and Making It Concrete - ideas can be very abstract. Love, freedom, time, thinking. All of these are ideas that we cannot necessary touch or see. And yet when we want to express these ideas, we have to come up with concrete ways to do so.
Are your visuals communicating what you want them to? - a picture is worth a 1000 words so they say. But is it communicating the 1000 words you want it to?
STUDENT SKILLS
Taking notes - this is an important skill if you want to learn how to remember information. The average person remembers about 10% of what they hear so how do you remember the rest?
Details Matter - your teacher has probably said a thousand times to you, give me more detail, show your work, or explain more clearly. Details are the little things that paint the entire picture. If we focus only on the answer or the big picture, we are not seeing the entire story.
What makes a good citizen? - when someone says to be a good citizen, what exactly does that mean? This video will explore what it means to be a good citizen using the book "What can a citizen do?".
Advantages of Learning Public Speaking - public speaking is one of those skills that is very important to possess. The reason being that people who can speak in public are sought after by employers because of their ability to communicate ideas.
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.
Answering the Rubric - Teachers provide you with a rubric and you tuck it away in your folder never to see the light of day.
Details Matter - your teacher has probably said a thousand times to you, give me more detail, show your work, or explain more clearly. Details are the little things that paint the entire picture.
Logos, pathos, and ethos - sounds like a folk group from the 60s but in reality, it stands for logic, emotion, and credibility. These are all tools you need to appeal to when speaking in public, especially if you are trying to persuade an audience.
Using transitions in your speech - in order for your audience to be able to follow where you are going in your speech you have to provide them with signposts that they can follow.
Appropriate Eye Contact in Public Speaking - Public speaking is more than just saying words. You have to make a connection with your audience and there is no better way to do that than making eye contact with them.
The Opening of Your Speech - how you begin your speech is very important. You want to start things out on the right foot.
Your Movement While Giving a Speech - when an audience listens to a speech, they are in a very passive position, typically seated and not able to to move anywhere.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Are your visuals communicating what you want them to? - a picture is worth a 1000 words so they say. But is it communicating the 1000 words you want it to?
Using counterarguments to strengthen your points - one way to make your argument even stronger is to offer the opposing sides and then refute what they might say against you.
Communicating with Your Hands - there is much more to communicating with your audience in public speaking than just your words.
How to Close Your Speech - do you want to finish your speech with a whimper, or go out with a bang? Obviously you want the former but how exactly does one do that?
Answering an Essay Question - writing an essay question is one thing, writing an essay that clearly answers the question and provides enough supporting detail is another.
What Does Valid Research Look Like? - the good news is that there is a lot of information out there on the internet. The bad news is that there is a lot of information out there on the internet. The question becomes, what is good information and what is not so good?
December Holidays - we often associate the month of December with Christmas. However, there are other holidays that are celebrated in that month depending on your culture and/or religion.
HOW TO PLAY BOARD GAMES/PUZZLES
Learning to Play Solitaire - Want to play a game but there isn't anyone else around to play with? The good news is that you can still play solitaire, a card game that only requires one person.
How to Play Wordle - Wordle is a word game in which there are five blank boxes. You must figure out the letters that make-up this five letter word.
Codenames - is a game where there are players on opposite sides of a 5x5 field of cards with single word terms on them. One player has the indicator card which lets them know which cards are theirs, either blue or red.
Logic Grid Puzzles - these are grid puzzles where you are given a number of clues that help you either to determine an answer or eliminate others. The difficulty of the puzzles can be raised by adding more grids, having less clues, or having clues that do not share much information.
“HOW TO” VIDEOS
How to Get Started in Minecraft - With a guest teacher for this episode, my daughter, a Minecraft expert, takes folks through the basics of how to get tools, how to mine for materials, and how to make a simple house.
Creating Your Own Schoolhouse Rock - Schoolhouse Rock were catchy songs that appeared during breaks between Saturday morning cartoons during the 1970s and 80s.
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS/READ ALOUDS
Read-Along for Younger Students