Habits of Mind Professional Development
Friday 5th of March – Facilitators Notes

Session 1.

Sit back, relax and listen.

Session 2.

The aim of this session is to leave teachers with an understanding of what the Habits of Mind are. To achieve this I have planned some activities that I have used in classrooms so that teachers might choose to repeat them with their classes. However, please don’t view these activities as prescriptive. Your role as facilitator is not necessarily to complete the set activities, but rather to facilitate discussion and inquiry in to the Habits of Mind. It is perfectly alright to abandon an activity that isn’t working for your group, or spend extra time on one that is working well. Please feel free to explore – teachers don’t often get this sort of time.

There are several additional activities described below. These are intended to be used as needed; if you have spare time, or perhaps with a few members of your group as required. You might like to discuss these with your group and send individuals off to complete these tasks and report back to the group.

There are a lot of things that could be done in this session, and not a lot of time to do it in. Use cooperative strategies where appropriate to help maximize the use of time and ensure everyone is engaged at all times. You may find it helpful to:

  • Break your large group into smaller groups or pairs.
  • These groups may work on activity and then report back.
  • Small groups may work on one aspect of an activity and then rotate their work on to another small group. For example you have 4 focus Habits of Mind. You may choose to give one Habit of Mind to each small group and then pass it on for the next group to build on.
  • You might consider running two or more activities at the same time and then swapping. This would be practical if you found that the Habits of Mind card game wasn’t engaging everyone.
  • As a facilitator you might like to collect questions or comments that arise from the activities. There will be an opportunity to feedback to the group at the end. These may be recorded on butchers paper and displayed later
  • Practice the Habit of Mind of Thinking and Communicating with Clarity and Precision. Challenge teachers to be precise in their language that is recorded on the sheets. Avoid vague terms and generalizations. Look for specific examples and elaborate where appropriate.
  • There are other groups with the same focus Habits of Mind that you might want to collaborate with if necessary. Likewise there are other groups doing the same activities, but with different Habits of Mind that you might want to consult for ideas on how the activity is working

Other Activities to be used as appropriate

Poster Making: Using the butchers paper choose one of the focus habits for your group and create a poster that could be used in the staff room. (Personally I would consider leaving this activity for back at school, once teachers have developed a better understanding of what each of the Habits of Mind are.) Adopt the following Habits of Mind when creating the poster:

Managing Impulsivity – don’t rush in. Make a plan. Draft it up.

Thinking Flexibly. & Creating, Innovating and Imagining. – Discuss and generate new or novel ways of communicating what the Habit of Mind is about.

Thinking and Communicating with Clarity and Precision – Is the message clear and complete? Are there aspects of the Habit that you have omitted. Does the poster work as a graphic communication device?

Thinking Interdependently – Share ideas. Build on each others thoughts. Use each others strengths.

Quotes Game: On one of the break out tables are sets of cards with quotes that relate to the Habits of Mind on them. The object of the game is to match the quote to the correct Habit of Mind. On the table is some butchers paper to record you favorite quotes that we might share with the group.

Pooh Posters: On one of the break out tables is a set of Winnie the Poo posters. Each of these posters can be interpreted to represent one or more Habits of Mind. In pairs or small groups discuss which Habits of Mind are being depicted and then share this discussion with the rest of the group. (Kids really enjoy this).

Poetry of the Mind: On one of the break out tables is some poetry that can be used in a similar way to the Pooh posters.

Word Splashes: Generate slogans, lists of Synonyms and catch phrases that could be used as alternative representations of your focus Habits of Mind. Mind Maps, Graphic Organizers etc can also be very effective.

Student Generated Posters: On one of the break out tables is a collection of student posters. The ones in plastic pockets were created by year 7’s in the last few weeks. Browse and discuss.

Other Artifacts: On another break out table is a collection of artifacts that relate in various ways to the Habits of Mind work we have done at The Grange and other schools including work by Victoria Biggs at PLC in Perth and Cathy Marks of Balwyn PS in Victoria. Most of these artifacts can be found at

Cartoon Posters: On one of the break out tables is a set of posters generated by a school in the United States depicting Habits of Mind. You might like to look at these as stimulus for your own poster design.

Story Writing: Your group might like to generate a story that depicts one of your focus Habits of Mind. Students enjoy this type of activity and we often role play the results. Duplicating the story, once with the Habits of Mind being used and once without can be informative.