Blog Posts
Multiple Intelligences Newsletter, Vol 28, No 5
December 1, 2018
Greetings, MI Fans! Will you be using your Naturalist Intelligence in the near future? Howard Gardner states that intelligence is the ability to solve problems or to create products that are valued within one or more cultural settings, and my experience is that today people give less attention to the Naturalist than other intelligences. This lack of cultural recognition is a reflection of the times in which we live. After […]
Multiple Intelligences Newsletter, Vol 28, No 4
November 1, 2018
Hi to MI Fans, What are your strongest intelligences??? A few folks contacted me after the last Intelligence Connections issue when I initially raised the question, and shared their strongest intelligences. The lingustic, logical-mathematical, and interpersonal intelligences were mentioned most often. (Perhaps that is logical since most of the readers are educators?!?) L to R: Armstrong, Hoerr, Shearer, Gardner. Some folks said that they don’t know because they’ve not had […]
Multiple Intelligences Newsletter, Vol 28, No 3
October 1, 2018
Greetings MI Fans, What’s your strongest intelligence? If you’re like most people, two or three possibilities come to mind. You may even say, “Well, there are a couple that are equally strong.” While we each have a unique MI profile – some of our intelligences are stronger than others – we all have a few areas of MI strengths. The fact that we possesses strengths in different intelligences has implications […]
Multiple Intelligences Newsletter, Vol 28, No 2
September 1, 2018
Greetings MI Fans, I hope your school year has started off well and that you’ve been creating opportunities for your students to learn through all of their intelligences. “All” is a big word, so perhaps you begin by working to fit one non-scholastic intelligence into your teaching. How might you incorporate the spatial intelligence – art, drawing, maps, design – into your curriculum and instruction, for example? Or what about […]
Multiple Intelligences Newsletter, Vol 28, No 1
August 1, 2018
Greetings, MI Fans! Welcome back! What happened to U.S. schools starting after Labor Day?!? On the chance that you are looking for an amazing book to read, I highly, highly recommend Educated by Tara Westover. It is a gripping story! Westover recounts being raised by fundamentalist Mormons in Idaho,with no birth certificate, never seeing a doctor, and not attending school until age 18. Her journey is fascinating and frustrating, and […]
Looking for ‘Solutions’ in the Face of Staff Conflict
July 9, 2018
Tom was featured as a response in this EdWeek Blog post called “Response: Looking for ‘Solutions’ in the Face of Conflict” by Larry Ferlazzo. Read Tom’s response below. What are your suggestions on how to resolve teacher-to-teacher and/or principal-to-teacher conflicts? I led schools for 37 years and taught for years before that, so let me begin by sharing my bias: conflicts are inevitable when people come together. That’s true at […]
Multiple Intelligences Newsletter, Vol 26, No 7
June 1, 2018
Greetings MI Fans, These are exciting times! More and more, the traditional and regimented approach to intelligence – that there is ONE intelligence and it can be assessed on a paper & pencil test – is being questioned. Howard Gardner exploded this notion in 1983 when he wrote Frames of Mind, and his insight has continued to echo. To be fair, an appreciation of Multiple Intelligences fell upon hard times […]
Multiple Intelligences Newsletter, Vol 26, No 6
May 21, 2018
Hi MI Fans, Last month featured a really interesting presentation at the ASCD Annual Conference, “MI After 35 Years.” Yes, it’s been 35 years since Howard Gardner’s book, Frames Of Mind, changed how we view intelligence. Recognizing that intelligence is problem-solving, Garner identified the many different ways – the multiple intelligences – that people use to solve problems. Real-world problems, Gardner knew, are not limited to multiple-choice questions. Philosophically, understanding […]
Transformative Principal Podcast: Who You Are is More Important
April 29, 2018
In April, Tom was on the podcast Transformative Principal with Jethro Jones. Listen Now Here are some bullet points from the interview: 14 years principal connection column in Educational Leadership. The principal job is so hard. There’s always more to be done, no matter how good we do it. Who you are is more important than what you know. Prepare kids for success in life, not just success in […]
Grace-St. Luke’s School Visit
February 12, 2018
Tom visited Grace-St.Luke’s School in Memphis, Tennessee in September to give an initial presentation on The Formative Five and meet with administrators. In February, he returned to meet the faculty and facilitated a sharing session, met with administrators, and presented an evening parent session. Tom believes the school is doing some very impressive activities on character development and The Formative Five. In this photo, Tom is sharing with faculty members […]