The Myth of Average

Kim CarterAffinities, Differentiated Instruction, Differentiated Learning, Learning, Learning about Learning, Learning Challenges, Research, School Culture, Strategies for teachers, Teacher Effectiveness, Whole Child

Todd Rose’s brilliant talk at TEDxSonoma expands on a startlingly simple point: When you design for the average, you design for no-one. He suggests instead we to need design for the extremes. For anyone who has worked with students, it is an intuitive enough concept, in theory. Yet in application, it has proven challenging, especially in a climate fixated on norm reference test … Read More

One Story About Embracing Diversity and Empowering Students

Kim CarterAffinities, Classroom Culture, Learning Challenges, School Culture, Teacher Effectiveness, Whole Child

In this powerful and inspiring TEDxManhattan talk, teacher Stephen Ritz shares a program he started with his students called Green Bronx Machine. More important than the program itself, though, is how the experiences have transformed and empowered his students — their present and their future. Jackie Gerstein describes his work in her post “Learners as Entrepreneurs,” Stephen Ritz’s Bronx classroom features … Read More

Words that Ignite Learning

Kim CarterClassroom Culture, Learning, Learning about Learning, Social Emotional Learning, Strategies for teachers, Teacher Effectiveness

Below is a guest post by Kevin Washburn, Ed.D., author of “Architecture of Learning” and Executive Director of Clerestory Learning. His most recent recording at a Learning and Brain Conference can be found here.  It seems like a ridiculous question: Can a teacher’s words influence student learning?  Of course, we’d respond, how well a teacher explains new ideas naturally influences … Read More

Tipping the Balance in Students’ Favor

Kim CarterClassroom Culture, Learning, Teacher Effectiveness, Teachers, Testing

By AKOM Guest Blogger Sally Hunter   I am struck by the reality that schools today require teachers to become skilled performers in an increasingly complex and critical balancing act.  In more and more public classrooms, elementary teachers are asked to spend the bulk of their day following impersonal lesson plans, preparing students for mandated tests, and completing layers of … Read More

One School’s Faculty-wide Exploration of Schools for All Kinds of Minds

Kim CarterClassroom Culture, Differentiated Instruction, Differentiated Learning, Learning, Learning about Learning, Learning Challenges, Learning Specialists, Private School, School Culture, Strategies for teachers, Teacher Effectiveness, Teachers, Uncategorized

By Mary Mannix, Guest Blogger Last spring, administrators at Indian Creek School, an All Kinds of Minds School of Distinction, searched for a book for summer reading for the faculty that would be meaningful and relevant to teachers across all three divisions of the school, from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade. Why Schools for All Kinds of Minds? Administrators chose Schools … Read More

Embrace What’s Going Right to Pave a Better Road to Learning

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

By Michele Robinson, Director of Special Projects at All Kinds of Minds and co-author of Schools for All Kinds of Minds Grab a pen or pencil. Off the top of your head, list 3-4 of your strengths – those things you do well with relative ease. Now list 3-4 affinities – those activities or topics you love to do or … Read More

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

Teachers: What’s Your Framework?

Kim CarterAttention, Classroom Culture, Differentiated Instruction, Differentiated Learning, Higher Order Thinking, Language, Learning, Learning Challenges, Research, School Culture, Strategies for teachers, Teacher Effectiveness, Teachers, Uncategorized

By Craig Pohlman, Ph.D., Co-author of Schools for All Kinds of Minds and Director of MindMatters at Southeast Psych, a learning program in Charlotte, NC In some circles, All Kinds of Minds has become equated with the neurodevelopmental framework it uses, but this framework is only one aspect of their approach to understand learning and learners.  All Kinds of Minds is … 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