Connecting Minds to Learning

From Chris Perakis Evloyia
Director, Stavros Niarchos Foundation

We are pleased to invite you to ACS Athens for the 5^th Annual Conference on Learning Differences, “Leading by Example:  Holistic, Meaningful and Harmonious Approaches to Teaching All Children”.

This conference run on the 14-15 May 2010, offers us, as a community of educators and parents, an opportunity to reaffirm our belief that as unique individuals, we learn in different ways.

Practitioners from around the world will share best practice and current research, acknowledging that these differences can be a source of richness in the classroom, and that instruction must address these differences so that all students can succeed.

This is a wonderful conference and I can highly recommend it!

>download the conference program…

>download the conference flyer…

>click here for more information…

Dear All,

We would like to wish you all of the very best for the New Year. At Foundations for Learning we have just moved into our new offices at Freiestrasse 175 and are preparing for our second practitioner meeting on Saturday, January 16th. The duration of the meeting will be from 10:00 to 12:00 followed by nibbles. Robin Hull of Hull’s School has very generously offered us a venue at Hull’s School, Falkenstrasse 28a CH-8008 Zürich.

On the agenda, a variety of items will be addressed:

10:00 Welcome

10:10 Update on the progress of the Foundation – where we are, what happens next

10:20 Review of upcoming courses hosted by Foundations for Learning:

- Paul Nichols: All kinds of Minds

- Vrenni Bollag: Sibling Jealousy

- Beatrice Lucas: Autistic Spectrum Disorder

- Teacher Assistants Course

- Opportunities for other courses and initiatives

10:30 Showcase of three of our practitioners – (each meeting we will have speaking slots for three practitioners to speak about their work.

11:00 FFL Special Educators Professional Development Forum

The forum will meet four times a year and aims to host guest speakers, share resources, review the latest assistive technology, extend the network of special educators, initiate and pursue research projects and much more.

11:30 Introduction to the Practitioner Community on our website where you can exchange, share and communicate within this group.

12:00. Nibbles – The photographer Philip Horn will be taking photographs of individual practitioners for our website during the break.

We look forward to meeting again. If you have not yet confirmed your attendance, please confirm with a reply email.

With warm regards and wishes for the season and beyond!

Sylvia and Allison

Learning Differences Conference
Harvard University Graduate School of Education
March 19 & 20, 2010

The program focuses on cutting-edge methods for individualizing the teaching process to address the needs of a wide range of learners. Within this context, the conference addresses the recent work on motivation, effort, persistence, resilience and executive function. Novel approaches are discussed for assessing and teaching students with learning and attention problems across different grade-levels and content areas.
>more information…

As Europe looks for examples of innovation in education, all eyes are focused on the British School Bern in Switzerland.  The British School Bern has been selected as one of the Schools of Distinction by the All Kinds of Minds Institute, a not-for-profit organization based in North Carolina, U.S.A.  This prestigious award recognises schools around the world who have embraced the organisation’s vision that when schools teach to how minds are wired to learn, every student can find success in school and life.

The British School Bern has worked with All Kinds of Minds since 2003 to embed the science of learning into the art of teaching throughout the school.  The British School’s mission has long supported the philosophy of All Kinds of Minds.  All Kinds of Minds bestows this award on schools around the world that have a relentless focus on applying the latest scientific research on learning and its variations to ensure that every child finds success.

In Schools of Distinction, at least fifty percent of their faculty have acquired and are applying expertise on the brain and learning through the programmes offered by All Kinds of Minds.  These educators use new knowledge and tools for understanding the learning struggles encountered by students, integrating strategies for how each student learns and identifying unique strengths and talents. 

Many curriculum changes have occurred at the British School Bern as a result of Schools Attuned to All Kinds of Minds training.  Teachers now have a common language to discuss strengths, weakness and accommodations for a student.  In addition, parents have participated in workshops and programmes to help them better understand the way their students learn.

“The British School Bern is remarkable, not only because they’ve invested resources in acquiring new programs, but because they make this new research on learning work for students and in doing so, demonstrate how you can transform education so all students are on a path to success in school and life,” says Mary-Dean Barringer, CEO of All Kinds of Minds.  She added, “Schools are looking to teach students in ways compatible with how their minds are wired to learn.  This results in a strong academic foundation while nurturing the innovative and creative minds that the 21^st century requires.”

For more information on the Schools of Distinction programme click here.