Ambassadors

Richard is an experienced teacher, school leader and researcher. He has a particular interest in organizational learning, the development of professional learning communities and the teaching of thinking, including presenting on these topics in a variety of national and international forums. Richard has been working with the Habits of Mind since 2002 and has successfully led their implementation in a number of schools.

My role is as the Head of the Junior School at Wilderness School. Wilderness School is an independent non-denominational, years Early Learning Centre 3yrs- Year 12, girls school in Adelaide, Australia. Our school has eight guiding Principles of Learning, one being "Students are encouraged to be active learners who use thinking skills, strategies, routines and habits of mind to achieve success". Our school has embraced the Habits of Mind for the past 10 years and many of our staff have undertaken training with Art Costa and James Anderson.

I have been Head of English at St Mark's Anglican Community School for the past 6 years. My interests in the Habits of Mind were first sparked by a visit to Brisbane Grammar School in 2006, were I saw the excellent work that the staff and students were undertaking. I have attended many workshops run by Art Costa, Karen Boyes and James Anderson and have initiated a range of Habits of Mind initiatives at my school. My work has been showcased at a number of local, national and international conferences and I look forward to continuing the Habits journey in the future.

I have been working at Saint Lawrence's Primary school as a middle primary teacher for the past 13 years. During that time, I have also served on the Curriculum Leadership team and lectured at Curtin University in Curriculum Studies. I have been involved in the Habits of MInd for the past year. I attended the HOM conference held in Melbourne last November and have completed 4 of the 5 workshop days to date this year. All of which have been most rewarding on both a professional and personal level.

My role is as the Head of Learning and Teaching at Wilderness School. Wilderness School is an independent non-denominational, girls’ school, Early Learning Centre - Year 12 in Adelaide, Australia. Our school has eight guiding Principles of Learning, one being "Students are encouraged to be active learners who use thinking skills, strategies, routines and habits of mind to achieve success". My role is to assist staff to incorporate the Habits of Mind into curriculum.

Angela has been working at infusing the Habits of Mind into the curriculum, culture and community of St Margaret's College since 2004.  She works with a Professional Learning Community who's goal is to embed the Habits seamlessly through the Junior, Middle and Senior College.  She has attended various Mindful by Design conferences and workshops and have presented the St Margaret's College journey at the International Habits of Mind conference and the 14th International Thinking conference 2009.  

I am currently the Assistant Rector (Principal) Middle School (Years 7 - 10) at Lindisfarne Collge in Hastings.  For the past 6 years I have, along with other collegues designed, taught, presented and endeavoured to live out the Habits of Mind.  I have been fortunate to work alongside some inspirational people in that time.  In 2006 I presented with Barry Musson at the HOM Expo in Melbourne and Auckland and this year I have presented at the HOM Bootcamps in Christchurch (NZ) and Sydney (AUS).  I am a true enthusiast for the Habits of Mind, always looking at new

My role is as the Head of the Middle school at Wilderness School. Wilderness School is a non-denominational, years R-12, girls school in Adelaide, Australia. Our school has eight guiding Principles of Learning, one being "Students are encouraged to be active learners who use thinking skills, strategies, routines and habits of mind to achieve success". Our school has embraced the Habits of Mind for the past 10 years and many of our staff have undertaken training with Art Costa and James Anderson.

I have taught at Presbyterian Ladies’ College across the Junior School years and now teach in the Middle School. PLC is a Distinguished Apple School, with a laptop programme from Year 5. Habits of Mind is a strong component of the school’s thinking skills programme and I have helped enable staff in its implementation. I lecture at the University of Notre Dame Australia and share Habits of Mind with pre and post graduate students.

Sandra Christensen-Brace holds a Master's of Arts and Bachelor's of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has taught extensively in the Performing Arts and Language Arts subject areas at all levels of Education; and is U.S. licensed in Primary and Secondary Education, in both General and Special Education.

I was a guidance teacher before in my last school. I designed and organised various activities to promote HOM in school. I made use of different artifacts:stickers, flash cards, posters, mural and keychains to aroused the awareness of HOM in students. With various kinds of activities, such as slogan design competition, HOM pledge writing, short talks and games, we have implemented HOM in school. After one and half year, both teachers and students in the school understand HOM. So far we have used a harmonous and caring mean to promote HOM.

I attended a teacher workshop for HOM which was facilitated by Professor Costa and his team, Sue Presler, Anson and Ricky in December 2007, and another advanced workshop in 2008, since then I applied HOM in my daily teaching.  My students found the lessons more fun and stimulating.  I am a Biology teacher.  In particular, I try to put more emphasis on Persisting, Metacognition, Responding with Wonderment and Awe, Questioning and Posing Problems in planning the learning processes.