In this episode I interview Sutter Smith a Lake City High School Senior who is involved in many different clubs and activities, namely Speech and Debate and DECA. He describes some interesting details about how he organizes his thinking prior to competitions. Sutter is an amazing human being as you will soon learn, and one who is dedicated to practicing not only thoughtful preparation, but empathy for his fellow competitors and coaches. Hey Sutter! Where's the DECA Brownies and Lemon Bars?

The That "Think" You Do podcast is a podcast dedicated to that big word, "metacognition." We all use different thinking processes as we prepare to do the "thing" it is we do. I'm here to explore with a variety of community members and students, the thinking that goes on as we prepare to do those big things. 

I am Shelly Blank and I am a fellow thinker...a thinking partner, if you will, that does a lot of thinking. I am a teacher. An author. A wife. A mom. A Grandmom. A friend, daughter, sister. A conference planner. An instructional coach. And in all of that I do a lot of thinking. So, it was my idea, after listening to a fellow thinker, artist and Grammy award winner, named Brandon Lake describe his thought processes leading up to his performance, that thinking is an important process in our work. In fact it’s a research based fact that specific thinking helps us to become “experts” according to Anders Ericsonn and Robert Pool in their book, PEAK: The New Science of Expertise. I use specific thinking strategies to help engage the students in my class, and I use thinking in all the work I do as a teacher. I use thinking in my interactions with others…hence, the podcast, That Think You Do!