Tom Witjes

Tom is co-founder of Habits of Mind Netherlands. As a Dalton teacher Tom’s HoM journey started searching for answers to improve Dalton education in the Netherlands. Dalton education, started by an early American Montessori teacher Helen Parkhurst, has the mission to improve student ownership by supporting collaboration, self-directed learning, freedom/accountability and reflection. The lack of answers of how to do this thoughtfully made Tom look for answers elsewhere. After reading and studying the Habits of Mind, Tom got the opportunity to meet Art Costa in person. This meeting changed his life and made him even more dedicated to HoM than he already was. Besides improving his classroom practice with HoM, he went on learning the Habits of Mind at IHOM in 2014. Together with Rinke Huisman, Tom has embraced the goal of spreading the word of HoM in the Netherlands by writing articles, giving keynotes and workshops, using twitter/facebook and even by the launch of their own website: www.habitsofmind.nl Tom can be reached at: info@habitsofmind.nl