Thinking Foundation Blog

I am in merry ol' England this week working with educators from around the country, and having a great time! Each day I am in a different part of the country where Thinking Maps are spreading-- now in over 100 schools. On one of my past trips I had some eye opening experiences. The teachers here are very well versed in standards, but over the past years they are shifting toward a focus on developing thinking abilities. Thinking Foundation has been collaborating with the Thinking Schools initiative based at Exeter University. Check out their criteria for a "thinking school"... maybe this will help us all reflect on the work we do.

View the video clips from my last trip here...

I especially like the young high school guy who, when he found out I was the developer of the maps exclaimed "BRILLIANT!" funny... like out of a Guinness commercial I love!

More upon return!

And I hope you consider submitting a grant for the 2008-09 RFP on assessment!

jolly good!
David

Posted by think at 04:45 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Hello!

The leaves are falling off the trees her in New Hampshire, and so is a new RFP.

Over the past few weeks I have been receiving extraordinary video clips, results, and insights from the 2007-08 Thinking Foundation grant recipients. And they are all expressing to me how meaningful their experience is as they look at leadership and learning about how they work together using Thinking Maps. In the next few months you will get a look at the results as well.

But for now, I hope you consider putting together a short proposal for the 2008-09 request for proposal centered on assessment. How do we assess student learning? Thinking? and, as Art Costa and Bena Kallick ask us: How do help students become self-assessing? Check out the new RFP, due in mid-November.. plenty of time!

An overview of the 2008-2009 Request for Proposal is available online including the description, steps for completion, proposal preparation and submission instructions, forms and instruction, and other support materials. Download the Request for Proposals 2008-2009 – Assessing Thinking and Learning overview. Also read more on the Thinking Foundation "funding" web-page.

take care,
David

Posted by think at 04:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Last week I sent out the Thinking Maps Election Guide… and the election is now twisted by the “bail out-rescue.” Maybe I should mock up some application ideas to help students and Secretary Paulsen think through the economic crisis! I’d love to find out if you have tried out the Election Guide or have any suggestions for improvement.

I’ll be sending out weekly posts on the blog and this week—as my new book Visual Tools for Transforming Information Into Knowledge came off the presses—I got a timely email from a friend in Canada (yes, a foreign country next to Alaska) who was questioning how Thinking Maps might work with severely cognitively disabled children. I realized that a big part of the answer is right there in the book! There are so many people who wrote pieces for the book, but probably the most groundbreaking is the last chapter written by Cynthia Manning from Learning Prep School—an all special education school K-12. Her chapter is AMAZING as it details how Thinking Maps have become a foundation for thinking, learning and significant changes in student performance over the past five years. I know that the work at Learning Prep is a window into the possibilities of using visual tools for all children... deeply… over time… over a lifetime.

You can check out the video of Cynthia below and a dozen more video clips on Learning Prep School, and I invite you to write back on the blog about what you see and hear.
Go to the Learning Prep School Case Study to learn including video clips.

Posted by think at 10:22 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)