Northstar Habits Of Mind
The Northstar Habits of Mind (HoM) consist of 12 skills, or dispositions, that will help students deal with challenges and thrive both academically and in life beyond school. The understanding and application of these 12 Habits of Mind enable students to work through real life situations with intentional strategies to lead a positive and fulfilling life.
Forming habits take time and effort. The Northstar School’s exploratory project-based approach to education provides rich opportunities for students to expand not only their knowledge and repertoire of technical skills but also to hone their thinking tools and strategies in the process. By exercising the Habits of Mind across a variety of contexts and problem areas, students build and strengthen these mental resources and experience their usefulness in different settings. Students learn how to be sensitive to contextual cues in order to select the most appropriate habit for any given situation.
The Habits of Mind are crucial to a person’s development and at The Northstar School we value them as much as we value subject-specific learning and grading. This is evident from the progress reports where HoMs figure prominently. Parents are involved as partners in achieving our mission of equipping all students with the capacity to confront and deal with complex real life conditions and uncertainties with intentionality, insightfulness and resourcefulness.
The Northstar Habits of Mind support the development of the Northstar Learner Attributes – six attributes we believe our learners need in order to thrive in an ever-changing, interconnected global community. By practicing the Habits of Mind, we aim for every student to embody the following attributes once they graduate from our learning community:
