By Mary-Dean Barringer, CEO, All Kinds of Minds There’s a critical meeting in Washington, D.C this Friday, September 17th, on the “Future of the Profession: New Learning Ecology for Teachers and Students.” Billed as “a discussion about the emerging realities facing the nation—the funding crisis, the teacher shortage, and new technologies—that will reshape learning environments and expectations for the teaching … Read More
How to guarantee “learning”? Understand the learner AND the content
By Mary-Dean Barringer, CEO, All Kinds of Minds For several years, many of my colleagues have been urging me to pick a fight with Daniel Willingham, a well respected cognitive scientist: “He doesn’t believe in learning variation!” That may be, but having read his book Why Don’t Students Like School?, I find much in common with his recommendations and nine … Read More
Facebook Back-to-School Question of the Week #2
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
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
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
Summer Blog Series Post #8: The Role of Social Cognition in Talking to Different Audiences
By the time children and adolescents arrive at school, chances are that they’ve already interacted socially with a number of different people: their parents/caregivers, siblings, friends, school acquaintances, and bus driver, to name a few. And once they’re in school, they assume the role of student. As students, they also interact with teachers, administrators, and other support staff around the … Read More
Summer Blog Series Post #7: The Role of Graphomotor Function in Handwriting
In last week’s post, we discussed the demands of revising written work. Today, we’re going to focus on a different aspect of writing: handwriting. Many people, adults and children alike, struggle with penmanship. The ability to use computers to convey ideas can help minimize the need for handwriting and relieve handwriting-challenged individuals from the frustration of writing in some cases. … Read More
Summer Blog Series Post #6: The Role of Higher Order Cognition in Revising Written Work
Adding content and new ideas to a story, essay, or report can be difficult, but it is also very important. Students may stop at the end of a sentence, reread what they have written, and decide there is a better word to express what they want to say. They may find places where they need to add more description or … Read More
Summer Blog Series Post #5: The Role of Spatial Ordering in Understanding Math Symbols
The results of our recent poll are in! You, our readers, expressed a strong interest in hearing about learning challenges related to math … so in response, this week’s blog is about the spatial ordering demands involved in understanding math symbols. Thank you to everyone who participated in our poll. We love the feedback. In developing an understanding of mathematical … Read More
Summer Blog Series Post #2: The Role of Memory in Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is one of the most complex academic skills. Skilled readers construct meaning by synchronizing a bottom-up approach to reading (decoding words fluently and accurately) with a top-down approach (using prior knowledge and experience during reading). Neurodevelopmental factors: Reading comprehension involves a variety of neurodevelopmental functions, including attention, memory, language, and higher order cognition. In this post, we’re going … Read More