Hello, friends!
The past two weeks have taken me from Confratute to Edufest, with a whole lot of curiosity, connection, and airport time in between.
This week, I am at home in Wilmington, NC recharging before heading back out for two days with Gallia-Vinton ESC in Jackson, Ohio, followed by two days in State College, Pennsylvania, for GiftEDventures.
Apparently, this is what I call summer vacation.
The Department of Curious Things
On my travels, I accidentally started a new photo project.
Longtime followers may remember that airports used to be all about #carpetdiem. Unfortunately, there are very few new and interesting airport carpets these days. It is mostly epoxy terrazzo now.
Cleaner? Yes.
More interesting? Only sometimes.
Hashtag-worthy? I am currently considering #FloorensicEvidence.
Anywho, I spotted a scene involving spilled Froot Loops and an unplugged power cord. I immediately thought:
We are always told not to cry over spilt milk, but spilt Froot Loops are a different story.
Because there was clearly a story here. What happened? Who was involved? Is the unplugged cord connected to the cereal incident? Was this an accident, an escape, or evidence of something far more sinister?
That photograph became Field Report #001 from the newly formed Department of Curious Things.
I have been posting additional Field Reports on Instagram and Facebook, each featuring something found in the wild that made me stop, look again, and wonder. I plan to gather a collection of them with question prompts and release it somewhere during the new school year.
The project is an homage to The New York Times series “What’s Going On in This Picture?” They recently released a new compilation of 25 intriguing photographs designed to make students think, and it is absolutely worth exploring.
More Field Reports are coming. The Department is always watching.
Put Your Handprint on AI
At Confratute and Edufest, I spent a lot of time talking about AI and sharing some of the GPTs and agents I have been testing.
But I also kept returning to a bigger question:
How do we make sure the human is still present in work created with AI?
The Human Handprint Protocol is a reflection tool for examining where your thinking, judgment, experience, taste, and choices appear in the final product. AI can help us generate, organize, revise, and explore, but we still need to leave evidence that a human mind was here.
I would genuinely love to hear what you think about it.
HEY! SEED Is 30% Off!
File this under: Amazon is kind of weird.
Leslie Kerner, Chris Ryan, and I published SEED: Silverquicken Episodes for Enrichment and Diagnosis through Amazon’s KDP platform. The marketplace has all sorts of hidden rules, and Amazon occasionally puts books on sale without telling the authors.
Right now, SEED is 30% off.
We have no idea why. We have no idea how long it will last. Our revenue remains the same, and you save money. I like that for all of us.
SEED contains 17 story-based learning episodes filled with puzzles, challenges, strategic games, and intriguing problems designed to develop convergent, divergent, cooperative, and reflective thinking. Each episode takes about 30 to 45 minutes and is ready to use with learners in grades 3–8.
This is some of the best work I have ever been part of creating, and I absolutely love hearing how much educators and students are enjoying it.
If you have been waiting for a sign to buy the book, this is it.
Five Minutes. One Great Idea. SPEED GEEKING!
Are you going to be at NAGC26 in Milwaukee this November?
Are you staying through Sunday morning?
Do you have an idea, strategy, or resource involving technology that you would love to share?
The NAGC Computers & Technology Network has opened its call for SPEED GEEKING presenters.
You get five minutes to share one useful idea during a fast-paced, fun-filled lightning round. This is not the place for a 47-slide theoretical framework. It is a chance to put something practical into the hands of other educators.
The proposal asks for:
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A presentation title
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Your name and email address
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A one-sentence description
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A 150–250 word proposal describing your idea, the specific takeaway, and its relevance to gifted learners
Proposal deadline: August 15, 2026
Presenters notified: September 1, 2026
Final slides due: October 12, 2026
SUBMIT A SPEED GEEKING PROPOSAL
Questions can be directed to Computers & Technology Network Chair Kathryn Fishman-Weaver at [email protected].
Come geek out with us.
A Free NAGC Webinar
Speaking of NAGC, I will be presenting a free webinar on September 17 at 6:00 PM Eastern:
Building Brains That Build Things:
Engineering Habits of Mind for Gifted Innovators
For some reason, my name is not currently listed on the page. I am checking on that. But I promise it is me.
The session grows out of the opening chapter I wrote for Engineering Ingenuity, edited by Debbie Dailey and Alicia Cotabish. It is somewhat about engineering, but it is mostly about how we prepare minds for innovation.
We will explore six habits that help curious thinkers become capable builders: persistence, creativity, systems thinking, collaboration, conscientiousness, and optimism.
Great Teacher Alliance: Season Four
Andi McNair and I are also preparing for Season Four of the Great Teacher Alliance.
This year’s theme is:
BUILT DIFFERENT
Notice. Stretch. Matter. Sustain.
Beginning September 28, we will gather four times across the school year to think deeply about what makes great teaching meaningful, responsive, and sustainable.
GTA is not about collecting more strategies simply for the sake of having more strategies. It is a space for thoughtful educators to notice what matters, stretch their thinking, learn alongside one another, and build practices that can actually last.
Andi and I are doing some of our best planning right now, and I am very excited about where this season is headed.
LEARN MORE ABOUT GTA SEASON FOUR
That is more than enough from inside my brain for today.
I am heading back to recharging, which may or may not involve staring at strange airport photographs and inventing increasingly implausible explanations for them.
I will be back in touch soon.
Stay curious,
Brian
P.S. I am serious about the hashtag. Is #FloorensicEvidence the worthy successor to #carpetdiem?
Responses