Hexagonal Thinking with Brave New Teaching (Bonus Episode)

In today’s bonus episode of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, I’m happy to share a conversation on hexagonal thinking with my friend Amanda Cardenas, from the Brave New Teaching podcast. And for a fun twist, she’s the one interviewing me! This conversation originally aired on her podcast, and she generously agreed to let me share it here as well. She brings a wealth of experience as an A.P. teacher, blogger, and curriculum designer in Chicago to the table, and I think you’re really going to appreciate her insight. Join us for hexagonal thinking with Brave New Teaching!

If you don’t know Brave New Teaching, Amanda and her talented co-host Marie Morris bring so much creativity, honesty, and fun to the table in this down-to-earth podcast for English teachers. You’ll get to know Amanda in this episode, and then I’m sure you’ll want to subscribe!

Here are a few great places to start with Brave New Teaching, if you’re new to the pod.

16: To Find Supplementary Texts: This episode is full of ideas for helping you bring powerful short pieces in to complement your larger texts. Supplementary texts can help you bring more voices into your curriculum and easily connect literature to current events.

54: The Best Quiz You’ll Ever Give: Find out how to use Amanda’s stellar strategy, the Sesame Street quiz.

21: To Teach Social Justice Through Poetry: Learn from powerhouse guest Tanesha Forman.

OK, ready to dive into hexagonal thinking? You can listen to today’s episode below, or on your podcast player of choice.

You can see the original show notes from the episode right here at Brave New Teaching.

Check out this recent video over at Edutopia for a quick and powerful visual demonstration of how hexagonal thinking works.

Original Inventor of Hexagonal Thinking

A colleague recently shared with me that Anthony Hodgson was the original inventor of hexagonal thinking in the business world, a concept since remixed by many educators across the net. So I’d like to credit his original article, even though I couldn’t find it when an inspiring photo inside my Facebook group, Creative High School English, led me to learn about this fabulous strategy and remix it in my own way. I had always just found references to “someone in the business world” inventing the method, and thought the original creator’s name was not available.

Original article on hexagonal thinking: 

Hodgson, Anthony. “Hexagons for Systems Thinking.” European Journal of Operational Research: Volume 59, Volume 1, p.p. 220-230, ISSN 0377-2217, https://doi.org/10.1016/0377-2217(92)90019-6. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0377221792900196. Accessed April 2026.