Abstract

This paper outlines the experience of a first-year teacher consultant as she learns about, shares, and implements Dr. Mel Levine's philosophy of educating students.

The corresponding shift in her own philosophy is outlined in her descriptions of her first year in her new position. The benefits for the system are evident in the warm reception to her workshops and the comments from teachers beginning to implement Dr. Levine's philosophy.

Background

When I was first persuaded to undertake an Action Research project I confess that I agreed reluctantly. I was in my first week as a Special Education Teacher Consultant and wasn't quite sure what I'd gotten myself into. I was apprehensive of carrying the burden of a research project on my journey up the steep learning curve of a new job. But you know how it goes: anxious to please, when asked directly by Dr. Jacqueline Delong, Superintendent, if I would participate in this year's Action Research Group, which was to be focused on Special Education, I nodded my head up and down like one of those bobble head dolls. During the ten-month process, however, my wariness and skepticism somehow changed to a deepened appreciation of a more structured reflective process. I now know that if I hadn't been gently forced--er, "encouraged"-- I never would have taken the time to reflect on my first year in a new role or on what I've been able to accomplish. I also wouldn't have been able to recognize as clearly as I do now that my beliefs as an educator have undergone a profound alteration in the course of this past year. What follows is a description of what has changed about what I believe and why...and what I've tried to do this year as a Teacher Consultant to share those beliefs with others.

Finding My Question

Although in early September I was reluctantly agreeing to undertake an Action Research project, in the back of my mind I knew there was something I had become involved in, as part of my new role, that I felt would be a perfect fit for just such a project. In August I had attended a week-long training session at the University of Toronto campus in Mississauga for Schools Attuned, a professional development model of learning for teachers based on Dr. Mel Levine's work. I hadn't really heard of Levine before, but was convinced by Laurie Pearson, a Brant Family of Schools (FOS) Psychological Consultant, to join her on the training.

Those five days in Mississauga were mind expanding and dislodged several preconceived ideas I had about how to help students who struggle. My perspective on teaching and learning had shifted in that brief amount of time, and I was anxious to share this perspective with others. I knew I was on the right track to formulating my question when I read the following excerpt from Jean McNiff's "Concise Advice for New Action Researchers":

Ask yourself: "What is particularly high in my mind at the moment in regard to my work? What is claiming a lot of my attention?" ... Very often what you might wish to investigate is a concern, or even a problem, but this is not necessarily so. It could be argued that even if you are looking at something you want to celebrate, just asking yourself how you might set about that constitutes a concern. This is rather splitting hairs. The main thing is to identify an area that you want to investigate, and to make sure that the area you choose is one that you can do something about. (McNiff, Jean:"Action Research for Professional Development" p. 14)

The process of sharing Levine's work, I told myself, was the ideal Action Research project. It wasn't an add-on, it was something I was going to do anyway, since I had been given the lead in the Special Education area of focus on Learning Disabilities. Most importantly, it was something I wanted to celebrate, because it had made an impact on my own beliefs about teaching and learning. The question I hammered out, after numerous re-drafts, over several months, eventually became this:

How can I support teachers to improve student learning through my practice as a Teacher Consultant, by sharing the educational philosophy of Dr. Mel Levine?

A Summary of the Educational Philosophy of Dr. Mel Levine

We are making a plea for the understanding of diversity, for greater flexibility in education and parenting, so that every child can find success in his or her own way. (Levine, Dr. Mel, A Mind at a Time)

Dr. Mel Levine, a Rhodes scholar, is a graduate from Harvard Medical School and a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina Medical School. He is the director of the university's Clinical Centre for the Study of Development and Learning, and the co-founder and co-chair of All Kinds of Minds, a non-profit institute that develops programs to help educators, parents and children address learning differences. In A Mind at a Time, Levine describes the eight neurodevelopmental constructs, based on research on brain functioning, that govern all learning:

Levine asserts that we all possess unique neurodevelopmental profiles-- much like our own set of fingerprints-- based on the eight systems or constructs, and these profiles are comprised of a malleable range of strengths and weaknesses. Levine argues that there are no right or wrong ways of learning, only different ways of learning, and that learning "disabilities" are really learning "differences". A Mind at a Time, popularized on an episode of the Oprah Winfrey show, has been embraced by parents seeking answers to the heartbreaking roots of their child's failure in school. Of particular importance to educators, however, is the understanding it imparts about how learning happens. By thoroughly consolidating, through his eight constructs, the findings of years of studies on the human brain, Levine has made weighty research on learning accessible to classroom teachers. His detailed framework provides educators with a concise language so that they can describe their observations of the learning that's occurring in their classrooms. This common language helps teachers to describe the specific breakdowns that occur in learning as well.

This last point on the chart, the assertion that learning differences are normal--not deviant-- resonated with many of those who attended the Schools Attuned training. We were asked to reflect aloud on our own experiences as students and I was surprised at the memories-- most of them negative-- that came flooding back from participants:

One woman shared a revelation she had with us . We were all remembering experiences we had in school, and connecting them to what we're learning about our own unique neurodevelopmental profiles. She talked about the realization she'd just had that the way she'd felt when called on by the teacher to perform a gross motor activity in Phys. Ed.-- awkward, clumsy, self-conscious, stupid-- was exactly the way that some students felt when called on by the teacher to read aloud. She then contrasted the ease with which she'd been able to avoid Phys. Ed. after Grade 9 to the impossible task of trying to avoid reading in high school. She said this understanding would forever transform the way she saw the struggling readers in her classroom. (Recollection of a Colleague's Reflection during Schools Attuned Training, Aug. 23rd, 2002)

I now know my own experience was not unique but I remember at the time feeling very different-- and not in a good way-- from the other students in my classes. I was somewhat of a loner, with only one friend in high school. As a film buff, I spent most of my leisure time watching and discussing movies with the friends I'd made through my work as a candy girl and cashier at the Odeon York Theatre. I excelled in English and Art, but faltered in Phys. Ed.-- never electing to take it again after Grade 9. Math was a complete blow-out. I got 16 % in Grade 11 Math, but my teacher, Mr. Patterson (aka "Stoneface" due to the metal plate replacing part of his face after it had been shattered by a shell in World War II), let me read Gone With the Wind during class without interruption. He seemed to be in agreement with me that I couldn't "do" math. I was to never take another math course, and all of my future course selections in high school and in university were governed by the question, "Does it involve math?" Any course that did, no matter how interesting it sounded, I dismissed as being impossibly difficult.

As part of the process of sharing Levine's work, I have told the story of my struggle with math to teachers, parents, administrators and trustees. Each time, I've seen nods of empathy and acknowledgement in the audience. I realize now that everyone has their own unique strengths and weaknesses in learning or in social engagement in school. And I know that those same differences have carried through to adulthood. As adults, however, we are able to pursue our strengths and interests and (usually) are able to avoid those areas that present challenges. For example, I now avoid wearing blue bloomers while standing next to petite gymnastic types who can do backflips. But the emotions around my deficiencies in school still linger, so many years later, just under the surface. To this day, when confronted with mathematical symbols and language, I feel anxious, deficient and like an outsider-- one who has been denied entry to an exclusive club for those lucky people who "get" math.

Even though my own experiences as a student who struggled in some areas allowed me to empathise with the special needs students I worked with, my pre-August 2002 mind set had me focussing almost exclusively on their weaknesses in order to remediate them-- again, an inheritance from Bill 82. Levine believes that we need to build on students' strengths and leverage their affinities just as much as we need to remediate weaknesses. Instead of seeing the solution for a child only in terms of "fixing" his or her problem, Levine's approach relegates this view to being merely one third of the answer. As an optimist, I embraced this philosophy that encourages teachers to help students recognize and build on what they're good at, and what they love to do.

Another part of Levine's philosophy that had an impact on me was the concept that teachers are the experts when it comes to understanding how the students in their class learn. This is an empowering notion--it frees teachers who feel they need to wait months for testing to determine what needs to be done to help the boy or girl struggling to learn in their classroom. Laurie Pearson, one of the "official testers" that teachers wait for, wrote about the impact of this shift in her Schools Attuned Reflective Journal:

I truly believe that helping teachers to be better observers of kids and having in their hands the strategies for helping them will greatly reduce the referrals we receive and make it more likely that the ones we do get are appropriate.
By empowering teachers to trust their own expertise and give kids what they need we are far more effective than waiting for the all powerful psych assessment to tell the teacher about a child's learning. (Excerpt from Laurie Pearson's Schools Attuned Reflective Journal, May 3rd, 2003)

Levine says that teachers need to "attune" their students who struggle by using their power of observation in order to describe (not label) students' learning difficulties. The child is closely involved, and "demystified" about his or her own unique learning profile in order to be able to begin to use metacognitive strategies to understand their own unique learning strengths and challenges as different but normal. I came back from those five days in August determined to try this attuning approach to see what kind of impact it could have: on the student, parent and teacher.

Finally, the most valuable aspect of this new approach for me was the "infusion of optimism" it brings to the way educators view the futures of children who struggle. The shift from old to new thinking can be encapsulated into the one shining vision that allows me to see children who I previously saw as being "at risk" as now being "at hope". Our schools present many challenges to the children whose learning profiles include weaknesses in those areas valued above all else-- language, memory, and higher order cognition. But the shift to accepting their learning profiles as being different rather than disabled, and the acknowledgement and fostering of their strengths and abilities could mean that these children will survive their journey through school and come out the other side intact and buoyant about their futures.

My own buoyancy about being able to be a messenger of this optimism is evident in this excerpt from my journal:

I am getting in deeper...Just offered for Laurie and I to do a workshop for parents on Levine for the Working Together Symposium March 1st. This is a Saturday...the fact I volunteered us must be a testament to the way I'm feeling about this guy's work. It seems that there is a hunger for new approaches to learning that leaves kids' dignities intact. It also empowers school personnel to DO something instead of feeling helpless and frustrated waiting for big wig testing. The BEST part though is its optimistic approach which is a natural fit about how I feel about kids. (Excerpt from my Reflective Journal, Sept. 23, 2002)

Laurie Pearson shared this enthusiasm for what we'd learned together during that intense week:

It may sound weird but I feel that what draws us to work with kids, to be drawn to this approach is the underlying belief that we can be a key link to some solution for the children of Earth. I feel more proactive, more hopeful and more enthusiastic about the future of the kids with whom I work and the other adults trying to guide them through their school years. (Excerpt from Laurie Pearson's Schools Attuned Reflective Journal May 3rd, 2003)

Sharing Levine: Building Awareness Within the Board of the Constructs and Principles

During the August training, Laurie and I had an opportunity to brainstorm a preliminary action plan for sharing what we'd learned. We decided that our first step was to get the message out about Dr. Levine's philosophy:

We need to...work together to develop and present in-service sessions... to build awareness of the constructs among classroom teachers, LRTs and administrators. (Excerpt from my Reflective Journal, August 23rd, 2002)

We knew that any in-service presentations we could craft would not be able to replicate the five day Schools Attuned experience, so our second goal was to encourage others to get the training that had such an impact on both of us. When Laurie and I met in early September, we developed a three-pronged plan to share the information:

1. The Broad Approach;
2. Going Deeper; and
3. Attuning a Student. We hoped that out of this plan, we would spark enough interest so that a few of our participants would go on to take the full training.

The "Broad Approach" was a PowerPoint presentation designed to provide the audience with an overview of the principles and the constructs we'd learned during our training and which are detailed in A Mind at a Time. When we presented this information to an audience of classroom teachers, we also wanted to help them understand the construct of Attention in depth, as well as deliver practical methods to nurture students' strengths and affinities in that construct area. We chose attention because, as we'd learned in August, and in our own experience, it seemed to be the area with the most potential to impact on learning in the classroom. Levine, in A Mind at a Time, writes:

The conducting of a child's mind is assigned to a team of brain functions I and my colleagues call the attention controls. From resisting the temptation to stare out the window while your teacher is talking to making sure you've zipped up your fly before heading to the bus, attention manages so much, from life's little details to its major priorities. Therefore, weaknesses of attention, or inadequate brain leadership, can have widespread unfortunate, embarrassing and troublesome effects. (A Mind at a Time p. 52)

As well, Laurie and I reasoned, attention is an area particularly fraught with anti-Levine practices: the judgmental generalities many parents and teachers make about children who "can't pay attention"; the attaching of a simplistic label like Attention Defecit Disorder (ADD) to a complex problem; the one shot medication solution which targets the weakness without addressing the strengths or interests. By sharing the Attention construct in our Broad Approach presentation, Laurie and I wanted to show our audience what a marvellously detailed and fresh perspective Levine brings to the topic.

The second prong of our plan was the "Going Deeper Approach", a four-session follow-up offered to those teachers who had attended one of our "Broad Approach" presentations, were excited about our message and who wanted more. A PowerPoint presentation and selected videos from the set of twenty-three videos from The Developing Minds Video Library (ordered by Peggy Blair, Program Co-ordinator for Special Education) would be used for these in-depth sessions.

The third prong, "Attuning a Student" was to be the deepest approach of all. The plan was that Laurie and I would link up with teachers who had attended both the overview and in-depth presentations, and we would work directly with them in their schools to intensively "attune" individual students. In the early months of 2003, Laurie would go on to work with Learning Resource Teacher (LRT) Diane Zaranyik at Banbury, while I collaborated in the attuning process with LRTs Shelley Gaudet and Karen Jamont at King George.

The first official opportunity Laurie and I had to present our "Broad Approach" overview of Levine's work was at the September 13th meeting in Simcoe of Teacher Consultants and Student Support Services Staff. I remember being nervous, and re-reading my Action Research journal nine months later reminds me that my first presentation as a teacher consultant did not go off without a hitch:

There were technical problems when the lightbulb blew on the projector just as we were about to start our PowerPoint presentation. I had to get another machine set up quickly as Laurie ad-libbed. Overall, I think things went well, though (there's that Levine-like optimism again.) People asked a number of questions, and seemed genuinely interested in what we had to say about Levine's work. (Excerpt from my Reflective Journal, Sept. 13th, 2002)

Our next opportunity to share the overview was at an all day Professional Development (PD) session for elementary teachers on October 18th, 2002. That audience of twenty-five teachers from across the board would combine with the audience of Special Services Support Staff and the twenty-two who participated in our two session "Broad Approach" Winter Institute in January and February to become our pool of over fifty educators who'd had the initial overview presentation. From that group, a core group of twenty would go on to sign up for our four part Going Deeper Spring Institute. Laurie and I were pleased with this result, since it represented a considerable commitment of after school hours on the part of those twenty teachers and support staff. We saw it as a positive sign that our overview left so many wanting to know more. It meant that we'd been able to pass on some of our own passion to others.

On Saturday, March 1st, we adapted our overview and presented to twenty-five parents and community agency personnel at the Working Together Symposium at North Park Collegiate in Brantford. What follows are quotes from the feedback about our presentation, collated from the written evaluation forms:

• very informative and thought provoking
• great information
• very well presented
• videos were a great asset to understanding
• good handouts
• lots to think about!
• I want to hear more!

(Selected quotes from Working Together Symposium evaluation sheets)

Because we had compacted a two hour presentation into a single hour, the criticism we received understandably focussed on the fact that we had run out of time:

• a little rushed
• too bad we didn't have a longer session
• ran out of time
• excellent but not long enough

(Selected quotes from Working Together Symposium evaluation sheets)

My optimistic view of this feedback was that audience members rarely complain that irrelevant, tedious presentations aren't long enough. What we learned from this experience was that sharing Levine shouldn't be rushed. However, when we again presented our overview, it was to thirty-five administrators at the Grand Erie Administrative Team (GrEAT) Conference at the end of March, and we again had only an hour. We adapted our overview to appeal to a principal's perspective, including a slide entitled "How to Make Your School More Mel-Like or: What You Can Do on Monday." One suggestion we gave was for principals to ask teachers who had concerns about students to complete a form that Laurie had adapted from Schools Attuned. The "Noticing a Student" form requires teachers to put several Levine principles into practice: objective observations of student behaviours, the use of specific language when describing breakdowns in learning, the recognition of strengths, the valuing of affinities: (See Appendix 1)

Although we were excited about bringing our message to an audience of school leaders, Laurie and I were beginning to feel like we'd repeated the message so often that it was starting to lose its cutting edge newness. By March, it seemed to us to be common sense, even common place. I remember we had this conversation the night before in our hotel room in Niagara Falls as we ran through our presentation:

Laurie: We've done this so many times for so many people now that I'm starting to ask myself, "Is this new? Does it really represent anything that's different?"

Carol: I know what you mean. The audience is there, just staring at you, while you're talking to them about stuff which seems so obvious to you and you're not really sure if they're thinking about how cutting edge it is or what they're going to have for lunch. (Recollection of a conversation with Laurie Pearson, Thursday, Mar. 30th, 2003)

The written evaluative feedback from our presentation to principals echoed the refrain, "Not enough time" but was, overall, very positive. The sixty-minute time constraint had again left people wanting more. The feedback from GrEAT that I will treasure the most came in the form of three comments delivered personally after our presentation by three separate principals of schools that I serve as Teacher Consultant. Fred Gladding, Principal of Onondaga Brant, whose LRT, Sheryl Cartwright, was among the core of teachers who attended our "Going Deeper" Spring Institute, came up and thanked me for the presentation, commenting that it was the only truly original and new information he'd heard at the conference-- good to hear, in light of the concern Laurie and I had voiced to each other the night before.

Dan Mattka, Principal at Princess Elizabeth, came up to say that he would love to have Laurie and I bring this message to his staff, but he was concerned that they might already being feeling overwhelmed because of the intense three year Ministry Literacy Project they were a part of. We both agreed that it was probably too much to add on another new thing next year. "But I wish I could!" Dan said sincerely. Later, his LRT, Shirley Coburn, a "Broad Approach" participant, shared an essay with me that told how Princess Elizabeth had adopted a quote from Levine as their guiding principle. In her essay she went on to describe a teacher whose marvellous approach embodies Levine's philosophy:

"To treat everyone the same is to treat them unequally." Dr. Mel Levine

It's the quote on our staffroom wall and at the top of our daily staff events book and on our school newsletter stationery......Margaret recognizes that her students may have difficulty coping with school rules and routines in less-structured situations. An avid runner, she meets her students at the bus and runs with them until bell time. At lunch she arranges for the supervision of an alternate activity so her students have a shorter length of time on yards. Michael says, "She's nice. She helps us when we're stuck. She gives us hard spelling words so we have to practice more...." Brodie says, "She treats me fair. She gives us another chance. We do cool work..." I say, "To treat everyone the same is to treat them unequally." Amen

(Excerpt from an essay from the Princess Elizabeth school newsletter by Shirley Coburn, LRT)

In a happy twist of circumstance, the teacher Shirley refers to in her essay, Margaret MacLeod, would later be hired by Janice Muir, Principal of Banbury Heights, to teach the Learning Disabilities (LD) Pilot class at her school for the coming year. Janice also approached us after the session at GrEAT. (The LRT at Banbury, Diane Zaranyik, was a "Going Deeper" participant..) Janice spoke to Laurie and me about her commitment to include what she'd heard at our session about Levine's philosophy in her school plan for the coming year. Later, she emailed us with the following request:

As I mentioned to you at the GrEAT retreat in March, the Banbury Heights staff would like to include the sessions that you offer...as part of our School Plan for Growth. We feel that this is an area of learning for all our teaching staff but we would also like to be able to provide support and understanding for the new Junior LD class that will be in our school next September. We have a Staff Development Session each month...that would 'be a total of about 8 hours. I should mention too that we share our staff development with the Branlyn staff. Dave Pyper tells me he would like to have his staff receive this in-service as well...The Banbury staff are keen and hold both of you in high regard for the support that you have both offered our school. (Excerpt from an email from Janice Muir, Principal of Banbury Heights, May 5th, 2003)

This request had Laurie and I both feeling slightly exhilarated. We had already planned to infuse next year's LD Pilot class at Banbury with Levine's approach. The Banbury and Branlyn staffs combined represented an audience of over fifty teachers. It felt like our goal to build awareness about Levine's message was finally taking wing.

Our four part "Going Deeper" session in May and June, attended by twenty teachers and support staff, focussed on the constructs of Memory, Neuromotor Functions, Social Cognition and on Written and Behavioural Output. From the start, it was plagued by collective bargaining turmoil. Laurie went solo on the first session on the construct of Memory, when, as member of Ontario Secondary Schools Teachers' Federation (OSSTF), I was unable to participate because of work to rule. Our final session, on Written and Behavioural Output, had to be cancelled when elementary teachers began their own work to rule campaign. When she heard of the cancellation, one of the participants, Marlene Dayman, a teacher at Lansdowne, emailed Laurie and me:

I'm sorry that we cannot complete the fourth in the series but perhaps September is a more appropriate time for it anyway in light of its topic. We'll be ready to implement what we learn more immediately. I am currently reading A Mind at a Time and really enjoying it. I was actually reading the chapter which pertained to each workshop before I came to each session. It is a very interesting, informative and entertaining read. I know the other book (The Myth of Laziness) is in our library and hope to read it this summer. Thanks to both of you for sharing your experiences with this programme with us. I has certainly opened my mind up to new possibilities. Have a great summer. See you in the fall. (Emailed message from Marlene Dayman, June 3rd, 2003)

I asked Karen Jamont, a "Going Deeper" participant, to reflect on the impact of our presentations. I felt comfortable asking Karen to do this, because she and I had been working together "attuning" a student at King George. I knew she shared many of the new beliefs, courtesy of Dr. Levine, that I now held about teaching and learning. Karen wrote:

The October workshop...and the three Going Deeper workshops...have provided me with many ideas to reflect on as well as many strategies to implement with students and to share with teachers. In fact, I hope I will have opportunities to share much of what I have learned through our school's professional development times, informal discussions with staff and in our Team meetings...When I first began reading A Mind at a Time I was feeling confused and as if what I was reading was definitely valid but not sure if I would continue with the reading and if so, what I would do with it. Then Laurie and Carol presented the first(Developing Minds) presentation. What they shared made so much sense! I knew I wanted to learn more. Thank you... you have unwaveringly shared and modelled Mel Levine's philosophy that we need to "demystify" learning differences for students and differentiate our instruction to accommodate their learning differences...(Excerpt from a written reflection by Karen Jamont, LRT at King George, June 3, 2003)

Conclusions

It is now mid June as I finish writing this. For the sake of brevity (a principle which I abandoned somewhere after page 6) I am unable to share with you the experience I have had this year at King George working with staff and parents on the deepest approach of all, "attuning" two students. Given the apprehension I felt in September when I agreed to take on this project, it is ironic that in June I am seriously considering writing about the attuning experience at King George in Part Two: Modelling Levine. (Well, maybe semi-seriously ...)

I have come to appreciate that the merit of Action Research is that it provides a systematic approach to self-reflection. I know myself well enough to realize that if I hadn't been persuaded to participate in Action Research, I wouldn't now be taking the time to look back on the last ten months. I also wouldn't have recognized the significance that sharing Levine has had on my new beliefs about teaching and learning. I understand now that the simple process of sharing the transforming message I first heard in August has deepened my own understanding of Levine's constructs and philosophy. My new beliefs have firmly taken root through the process of sharing his work so many times this year with so many people.

I have come to the point in my research where I must answer the question that I asked at the outset:

How can I support teachers to improve student learning through my practice as a Teacher Consultant, by sharing the educational philosophy of Dr. Mel Levine?

Looking back, I feel confident that Laurie and I have at the very least accomplished our initial goal, which was simply to build awareness. Laurie wrote about the scope of our audiences in her Schools Attuned Reflective Journal:

On reflection we have been able to reach a remarkable cross section of the school system and community as well. We have been able to communicate with parents, teachers, principals, students, administrators, trustees and the press to get the message "out there" about celebrating diversity. The information has also been embraced at a supervisor level and we have had both superintendents we work with attend sessions as well as our principal leader who have then integrated the information in their teachings. (Excerpt from Laurie Pearson's Schools Attuned Reflective Journal, May 3rd, 2003)

Next Steps:

The other goal Laurie and I had set-- to encourage others to get the full training-- has come about through the support of Superintendent Jacqueline Delong and Mary Lou Mackie, Principal Leader of Special Education and Student Support Services. This summer, five more people are being sent to experience the week long Schools Attuned training. These five represent a cross section of individuals with different roles from across Grand Erie: Karin Mertins and Dale McManis, Psychological Consultants at the Simcoe Support Centre; Bob Radoja, LRT at Cayuga Secondary School, Sue Hysert, Behaviour Counsellor working out of the Cayuga Support Centre, and Mike McDonald, Principal at Tollgate Technological Skills Centre in Brantford. In addition, Germaine Glaves, LRT at Bethel/Queens Ward and a "Going Deeper" participant, is demonstrating her commitment to Dr. Levine's approach by registering for the summer session with her own money. This core group will join with Laurie and me to form Team Levine, to continue the work of sharing the constructs and philosophy, and to encourage others in our Board to get the full training.

As well as continuing to share the "Broad Approach" with new audiences of teachers, administrators and parents, and to explore the constructs described in A Mind at a Time in greater depth, there are two more books by Dr. Levine that Team Levine will want to bring to light next year: The Myth of Laziness, which examines how teachers and parents can help children with output failure to be more productive, and Jarvis Clutch -- Social Spy, a book written for Junior and Intermediate students struggling with weaknesses in the construct of Social Cognition.

Next year, I will have the opportunity to not only share my new beliefs, but to put them into practice, as I work closely with staff and parents at Banbury Heights and James Hillier schools, on a self-contained program being piloted for junior age students who have, up until now, struggled with their learning differences. This time-limited, intensive program will be infused with the philosophy and practices of Dr. Levine, as sixteen students come to understand their own unique neuro-developmental profiles. They will be provided with intervention at the breakdown points that are occurring in their learning, as well as strategies to accommodate for their weaknesses. Most importantly, they will learn how to build on their strengths and affinities so that when they return to regular classrooms in two years, they will take with them an optimistic view of the wonderful possibilities that lie ahead, in schools that value and nurture all kinds of minds.

Endnote

Thank you, Laurie Pearson, for your wisdom, commitment and friendship. Thank you for your patience with my neuro-developmental weaknesses. Most importantly, thank you for recognizing in the first place that Levine's message was profoundly important and needed to be shared. It has been my privilege to join you on the journey of learning and sharing.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Noticing a Student form

Bibliography

Levine, Mel Dr., A Mind at a Time, Simon and Schuster, New York, 2002.

Levine, Mel Dr., The Myth of Laziness, Simon and Schuster, New York, 2003.

McNiff, Jean, "Action Research for Professional Development", Ontario Public School Teachers' federation, Mississauga, 1998 available at: www.jeanmcniff.com