Blog Posts
Multiple Intelligences Newsletter, Vol 26, No 5
February 6, 2018
Greetings! I hope that the beginning of 2018 has started in fine fashion for you. As you think about your classroom and school, remember that life-long learning begins with student engagement and student success. None of us want to continue to beat our head against the wall. With that in mind, I often talk about a school’s “smile quotient.” When I visit a school, I hope to see kids and […]
Multiple Intelligences Newsletter, Vol 26, No 4
January 12, 2018
Happy New Year, MI Fans, The question posed in the last issue, “Who was the smartest person in your high school graduation class?” generated some fun discussions. Too often we view intelligence as an abstraction, a two- or three-digit number that indicates one’s ability to solve problems. It’s understandable that we might think like that; after all, the curriculum, instruction, and assessments in most educational institutions are designed around that […]
Springfield Guidance Counselors
January 10, 2018
Last year, Tom presented The Formative Five to all of the school guidance counselors in the Springfield, MO public schools. Can you identify him in the picture?
PEAC Conference in Manila
January 5, 2018
In October, Tom spoke at the PEAC Conference in Manila and presented a keynote address to 3,300 educators. The conference was primarily for non-public teachers and principals, and they were very eager to hear how the Formative Five could be included in a school’s curriculum and classroom instruction. In the afternoon, he continued the focus on the Formative Five with a two-hour workshop that included specific strategies and thoughts on […]
Huffington Post: Grit Isn’t Enough!
December 11, 2017
“Who you are is more important than what you know.” The notion of grit has been getting lots of attention lately. Propelled by the work of McArthur Genius Grant winner Angela Duckworth, there’s a growing realization that parents and educators need to teach children to persevere, to hang in, and to not give up. Thomas Edison’s statement, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they […]
St. Louis On the Air: Is ‘Grit’ Enough?
December 1, 2017
In June of this year, Tom sharee insights from his recent book “The Formative Five: Fostering Grit, Empathy and Other Success Skills Every Student Needs,” with St. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh. Listen Now About the Show “Grit” is a word we often hear that students should possess. But how is such a quality instilled in young people? And is that enough to make them successful? On […]
Multiple Intelligences Newsletter, Vol 26, No 3
November 1, 2017
Greetings MI Fans, “Who was the smartest person in your high school graduation class?” [Before you read any further, take a moment to consider the question.] I often begin my presentations – whether they are about MI or The Formative Five (which inhere in the intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences) – by asking the audience that question. I pause to allow them to reflect, and then ask whether it was an […]
MENA Teacher Summit Conference in Dubai
October 11, 2017
Tom spoke at the MENA Teacher Summit Conference in Dubai in early October. He was a keynote speaker on The Formative Five and also presented a pre-conference session on school culture. The conference was attended by hundreds of educators from UAE, Egypt, Qatar, Singapore, Shanghai, and Iran. Tom notes that from talking with teachers and principals, he was struck by how much in common. The number one complaint of educators […]
Multiple Intelligences Newsletter, Vol 26, No 2
October 1, 2017
Greetings MI Fans, Written around the time of the American holiday of Halloween, I see a connection between the theory of multiple intelligences (MI) and some of the costumes worn by the kids who troll our neighborhood seeking candy. You see, like many of the undead vampires and villains, similar to the costumed creatures from the crypts, MI won’t die. That’s a powerful statement. MI was conceived by Dr. Howard […]
Multiple Intelligences Newsletter, Vol 26, No 1
July 1, 2017
Greetings Multiple Intelligence Fans, I hope that your summer is going well, and that you are finding some time to relax and refresh. As teachers and administrators know, being an educator – touching the future through our students – is a remarkably rewarding experience, but it comes with a cost. That cost is more than the out-of-pocket expense that teachers typically spend each year (estimated at $500 per year by […]