About School Certification

CERTIFICATION OF MINDFUL SCHOOLS

The aim of becoming a Mindful School is to encourage greater mindfulness around the world by offering an Institute for Habits of Mind Award to schools that have a proven level of mindfulness across their community and a commitment to further mindful developments.

WHAT IS A MINDFUL SCHOOL? 

A Mindful School is a place where all inhabitants value, display and seek to deepen the Habits of Mind. Evidence of mindfulness may be found in classroom instruction, curriculum design and throughout the school’s physical environment and culture. Parents staff and everybody involved in the school community will use the language of the habits, be committed to the deepening, advocating and sustaining Habits of Mind over the long term. In a Mindful School we will expect a clear commitment from the school leadership to model the habits in their own work.

HANDBOOK

A handbook to guide the commitment building process will be available soon. It will describe the steps to be taken by a school staff \ that leads to certification as an International Mindful School by the Institute for Habits of Mind. Working with a representative of the Institute for Habits of Mind, it will provide suggestions for mileposts along the journey, criteria and rubrics for making judgments about progress, examples of what other schools have done, suggestions for self-assessment, and invitations to plan growth strategies for continual improvement.

THE PROCESS OF BECOMING:

This award is not intended for those new to the HOM. Rather, each school will be expected to have developed, embedded and sustained the Habits of Mind for at least one year. Entering the process of becoming a Mindful School assumes that your school staff is familiar with the Habits of Mind either through reading one or more books listed in the bibliography, or that you have experienced a staff development conducted by a certified Professional Developer and/or that your school has embraced and infused the Habits of Mind into your curriculum and instructional program and the culture of your school and community.

Having knowledge of your school staff’s commitment to the Habits of Mind, an approved Professional Developer or an Associate Director of the Institute for Habits of Mind might suggest that your school become a Mindful School. Or, if you are interested in having your school become a Mindful School, you are invited to contact the Associate Director for the Institute for Habits of Mind in or nearest your region. If your school is located outside any of the regions served by the Institute, please contact one of the Co-Directors. Contact information is provided in the "Who are We" section of this website.