Seeing – and Nurturing – the Genius in our Students

Kim CarterAffinities, Classroom Culture, Differentiated Learning, School Culture, Student Strengths, Student Weaknesses, Teacher Effectiveness, Teachers

By Rick Ackerly, Guest Blogger In the foreword to Schools for All Kinds of Minds, Paul Orfalea, founder of Kinko’s, writes: More than ever, America needs the kinds of minds that generate new perspectives, seek solutions, and discover emerging opportunities. Those are the minds of many of the students in your schools today who, at first glance, look a lot … Read More

The Boy No One Could See

Kim CarterAffinities, Classroom Culture, Learning, Student Strengths, Student Weaknesses, Teacher Effectiveness, Teachers

By Mary-Dean Barringer, CEO of All Kinds of Minds and co-author of Schools for All Kinds of Minds When writing Schools for All Kinds of Minds, I had multiple insights I wanted to share.  Many of these insights were supported by social science research.  For example, Malcolm Gladwell and Karl Weick show us how “small wins” can be tipping points … Read More

Building Schools for All Kinds of Minds

Kim CarterAffinities, Classroom Culture, Differentiated Instruction, Learning, Learning about Learning, Learning Challenges, Learning Specialists, School Culture, Strategies for teachers, Student Strengths, Student Weaknesses, Teacher Effectiveness, Teachers, Uncategorized

In our recently-published book, Schools for All Kinds of Minds: Boosting Student Success by Embracing Learning Variation, our CEO Mary-Dean Barringer makes the point that “Educators, school leaders and policymakers … talk around learning but not about learning,” and she notes that equipping educators with current knowledge from science about how we are wired to learn is essential to the … Read More

Facebook Back-to-School Question of the Week #2

Kim CarterAffinities, Classroom Culture, Learning, Strategies for teachers, Student Strengths, Student Weaknesses, Teacher Effectiveness, Teachers, Uncategorized

To help get you in the back-to-school spirit – and maybe pick up some great ideas along the way – we recently started a Back-to-School Question of the Week series on Facebook.  This is an opportunity for you to share your thoughts with your virtual colleagues around some key back-to-school questions. We wanted to share some of these responses with … Read More

Pursuing Passionate Interests Can “Spark” Success for Students

Kim CarterAffinities, Differentiated Learning, Strategies for teachers, Teacher Effectiveness, Teachers

Search Institute recently released Teen Voice 2010, a national survey of 1,860 15-year-olds and in-depth interviews with 30 teens, sponsored by the Best Buy Children’s Foundation.  This report caught our attention because it highlights the positive effect of “sparks” – similar to what we at All Kinds of Minds call “affinities” – on teens’ well-being and success in school and … Read More

Facebook Back-to-School Question of the Week

Kim CarterAffinities, Learning, Strategies for teachers, Student Strengths, Student Weaknesses, Teacher Effectiveness, Teachers

To help get you in the back-to-school spirit – and maybe pick up some great ideas along the way – we recently started a Back-to-School Question of the Week series on Facebook.  This is an opportunity for you to share your thoughts with your virtual colleagues around some key back-to-school questions.  Our first question of the series, “How do you … Read More