Keeping Special Education Students Motivated: Tips and Tricks
Daniel Vollrath is a special education teacher, and a United States Professional Development Trainer for the Institute for Habits of Mind. As a current educational leader within the classroom, Daniel’s best practices, strategies, goals, classroom culture, and interactions with students with a learning disability are centred around the Habits of Mind. Read more from Daniel […]
Does Your Feedback Help or Hinder Learning? An Inquiry into Effective Feedback
“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.” -Bill Gates talking to business leaders Initial thoughts There are two basic forms of feedback. Numerical or letter grades rank a student’s relative standing among classmates. The student feels good with a high grade or poorly with a low grade, but it […]
Coaching Learners to Bolster Engagement and Action
By Scott Wright As many of us so often do while reflecting on the people and conditions we interact with, questions often lead us to new learning and motivation. This is one that I have been repeatedly asking myself as my role continues to change. How might teachers and parents provide feedback that […]
Helping Your Child to Persist
By Angela Iadavaia-Cox On yet another long afternoon at home during the coronavirus, I was trying to set up a new bath toy with my four-year old granddaughter. It was not working. She called it a “dud.” I suggested an alternative, “time for persistence.” We pretended to be scientists, attempting different ways to position […]
A Note to the Habits of Mind Community
By Bena Kallick, Art Costa, and Allison Zmuda This is not the way any of us would have imagined the last weeks of school. Shuttering schools has caused families all around the world tremendous hardship as we all are doing our best to protect health, manage finances, balance schedules, and grieve loss of events/milestones/face-to-face interactions as well […]
Learning at Home: Tips, Tricks and Opportunities for Critical and Creative Thinking
By Aixa Perez-Prado Although home learning may not have been your choice, it may provide an opportunity to encourage your children to nourish their personal interests and passions and help them thrive during this crisis. You, as the parent, can provide guidance, resources, and encouragement. However, you do not need to provide all of […]
Creating, Imagining and Innovating
by Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick Creativity is a survival skill! The brain is always looking for something that it didn’t know before, that’s not being taught to it, and to find a way to figure something out: that’s creative. Creative thinking has always been essential for human survival. According to Charles Limb, […]
Thinking and Communicating with Clarity and Precision
by Arthur L. Costa, Ed.D. and Bena Kallick, Ph.D. “Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.” Frank Outlaw Do you ever hear your friends, siblings or adults in your life […]
Applying Past Knowledge to New Situations
by Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick “Learning is the ability to make sense out of something you observe based on your past experience and being able to take that observation and associate it with meaning.” Ruth and Art Winter Intelligent human beings learn from reflecting on and making sense of their experiences. When […]
Questioning and Problem Posing
By Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick Co-Founders, Institute for Habits of Mind International “The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination […]
Managing Impulsivity
By Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick Co-Founders, Institute for Habits of Mind “The sign of intelligent people is their ability to control emotions by the application of reason.” Marya Mannes Do you ever find yourself just blurting out what comes to mind? After you say it, do you regret it? Do you find […]
Small Wins for Growing Habits and Skills with Diverse Learners
Daniel Vollrath, Ed.D. (@HabitsofMindInc) is a special education teacher at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in New Jersey, and a United States Professional Development Trainer for the Habits of Mind Institute. Daniel will be presenting on select topics in Special Education, Executive Functioning, & Habits of Mind. Please feel free to email any questions […]
Individuals First, Learners Second
Daniel Vollrath, Ed.D. (@HabitsofMindInc) is a special education teacher at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in New Jersey, and a United States Professional Development Trainer for the Habits of Mind Institute. Daniel will be presenting on select topics in Special Education, Executive Functioning, & Habits of Mind. Please feel free to email any questions […]
Striving for Accuracy and Precision
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job […]
Four Steps Down The Road for Success with CCSS
by Bena Kallick and Arthur Costa Rather than step backwards into the abyss of a “do your own thing” system in which questions of equality are left to the moment, let’s see if we can use the new Common Core State Standards as a way to move in a new direction. At the core […]
