An educator for more than 45 years, Kathy Minardi has become known for her expertise in wholehearted school leadership and the building of emotionally intelligent communities. Now senior consultant and owner of Whole School Leadership, Kathy Minardi comes to her work with an executive certificate in transformational leadership from Georgetown University. Transformational leadership is a style of leading that involves inspiring others to advance to the next level of thinking and acting. The concept of transformational leadership comes from presidential biographer James MacGregor Burns, who identifies the transformational leader as someone who has the energy and persona to inspire others to commit to a common goal. Burns believed that one could identify the transformational leader as one who is viewed by followers with respect, trust, and admiration. The leader earns this high regard by setting ambitious goals and expectations while enlisting the cooperation of followers by inspiring them on an emotional level. The leader must be able to sustain not only this emotional commitment but also an enduring work ethic that can persist until the vision is realized. The transformational leader knows that this is only possible in the presence of a trusting and connected relationship. The leader must help followers to understand that he or she believes in them and is there to encourage and support them as they work toward their common goal. Only then can a leader be truly transformative.
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After 17 years as the head of Aidan Montessori School in Washington, DC, Kathy Minardi launched a new educational consulting firm in July 2016. Her company, Whole School Leadership, promotes advanced leadership education for school administrators and staff. A 45-year veteran of education, Kathy Minardi is actively interested in strong leadership, organizational systems, and systems thinking at all levels. Systems thinking, or the practice of holistically evaluating things that work together, is an increasingly in-demand skill in today's schools and workplaces. Children can be taught about systems thinking by identifying systems that exist around them and that they live in. Even very young students can easily understand familiar systems such as their family system or school community they encounter in daily life. Once children have a basic understanding of what makes a system exist and function, they can begin to understand how to evolve and impact a system in a healthy way. Lifelong educator Kathy Minardi recently left Aidan Montessori School to begin Whole School Leadership, an educational consulting service based in the nation's capital. Kathy Minardi's work centers on providing advanced leadership training for school administrators and fostering healthy leaders. She is also a supporter of the Center for Ethical Leadership. The Center for Ethical Leadership is a nonprofit dedicated to advancing social change. It promotes community leadership at the grassroots level, and works to support the people and groups who push for positive change in their own communities. In order to facilitate constructive dialogue in a variety of settings, the Center for Ethical Leadership developed Gracious Space, a method for holding safe and productive conversations. Gracious Space focuses on welcoming strangers and learning in public. Welcoming the stranger means accepting differences and including people with perspectives outside one's own. Learning in public requires participants to let go of previously held notions to make room for the ideas and solutions offered by others. Gracious Space programming is free to use, and the Center for Ethical Leadership encourages its widespread distribution. To learn more about the program or how to become a Gracious Space facilitator, review the Gracious Space Toolkit online at: www.ethicalleadership.org/gracious-space-toolkit.html. A senior consultant with Whole School Leadership, LLC, in Washington, DC, Kathy Minardi has led training programs for North American Montessori Association’s Whole-School Management course. Kathy Minardi is also credentialed as a facilitator and trainer for Barry Oshry's Organization Workshop. Focused on organizational power and systems dynamics, the Organization Workshop provides participants with an immersive learning environment. Focusing on presenting a practical framework for examining the ingredients of effective leadership and moving beyond career roadblocks, the program offers exercises in which participants take on the roles of C-level executives, customers, and middle managers, interacting within fast-paced environments that replicate real-life decisions and consequences. The Organization Workshop is unique in bringing attention to systemic conditions that exist in any business. Professionals are given tools to quickly identify dysfunctional patterns as they emerge. This in turn enables them to address root issues proactively, rather than waiting for situations to emerge as full-blown crises. The workshop also offers insight into how successful partnerships benefit the entire organization. Based in Washington, DC, Kathy Minardi serves as a consultant who works with companies in instilling best organizational practices. Kathy Minardi also has experience training Montessori school administrators, recently conducting a weeklong training program on strategic leadership for Montessori Whole-School Management’s Tier One Plus program, offered by the North American Montessori Association (NAMTA). NAMTA Montessori Whole-School Management offered a number of retreats, conferences, and trainings across the country in 2016, such as the Peacemaking Circle Process Keeper Training at the Center for Ethical Leadership in Seattle, Washington. This course reflects the lifelong advocacy efforts that Maria Montessori made on behalf of ideals of peace. In the early 1930s, the rise of fascism in Italy placed intense pressure on Dr. Montessori to politicize her schools, resulting in the closing of all Italian Montessori schools as well as her exile. This foundational experience led to Dr. Montessori’s dedicated efforts over subsequent decades to create a positive social construct that would actively promote and foster peace. Rather than simply rewarding competitive instincts, she viewed moral qualities such as caring for others and cooperation as essential in deepening creativity and the potential for constructive technological innovation. This core message of peaceful, productive human interaction resonates to this day throughout the Montessori educational community. A Montessori educator based in Maryland, Kathy Minardi operates an education consulting firm known as Whole School Leadership, LLC. Kathy Minardi completed extensive training FOR the Whole School Management Course at the North American Montessori Teachers’ Association (NAMTA).
Held every year in November, the NAMTA Whole School Management Course offers four conferences at its Tier One Plus program. Designed for Montessori administrators and teachers who recently assumed administrative positions, the Tier One Plus program provides professional development and a diverse elective curriculum. For participants with no administrative experience or Montessori training, the Montessori Pedagogy for Untrained Administrators course covers topics such as the prepared environment, integration across planes, and talking to parents. Administrators with significant experience and Montessori training typically enroll in the Leadership and Strategic Planning session, where they learn about whole school leadership, a systems approach, advanced strategic thinking, and more. The Tier One Plus program also includes course offerings for individuals in the public and charter sectors. The head of Aidan Montessori School in Washington, D.C., for the past 17 years, Kathy Minardi is preparing to launch a consulting service for schools and educators known as Whole School Leadership, LLC. Professionally, Kathy Minardi maintains membership in organizations such as the North American Montessori Teachers Association.
An organization dedicated to upholding the Montessori tradition and leading innovation in education, the North American Montessori Teachers Association (NAMTA) offers a variety of professional development opportunities. These opportunities include conferences held throughout the year in locations ranging from California to Sweden. In 2016, NAMTA will offer a conference on Finding the “Hook”: Montessori Strategies to Support Concentration October 6-9 in Columbia, Maryland; and a conference titled Loving Literacy: Truth and Beauty Through Words in San Jose, California, November 10-13. Conferences in 2017 include Children on the Edge: Creating a Path for Happy, Healthy Development in New Orleans, Louisiana, January 12-15; and from February 17-20, the organization will host an Adolescent Event at the AMI/USA Refresher Course in Austin, Texas. For further details about upcoming NAMTA conferences or to register for any of these events, visit www.montessori-namta.org. Head of Aidan Montessori School in Washington, D.C., Kathy Minardi brings more than 40 years of experience in wholehearted leadership to her work. Kathy Minardi also consults with schools to help build healthy communities, teaching emotional intelligence skills to teachers and students. Montessori schools are named for Italian educator Dr. Maria Montessori, whose methodology and philosophy was characterized by child-led learning. Montessori teachers serve as facilitators who encourage students’ growth in social responsibility, independence, inclusiveness, curiosity, self-esteem, and confidence. Montessori education by nature features a respect for different modalities of learning. Instead of solely focusing on reading and writing as a way to learn new information, a Montessori lesson emphasizes many ways in which students can absorb their lessons. For example, using concepts from Howard Gardener’s theory of multiple intelligences, a Montessori lesson on geometric solids will include many different modalities, as the student: • Feels the forms of the solids. (Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence) • Examines the solids by sight. (Visual/Spatial Intelligence) • Estimates relationships between solids. (Logical/Mathematical Intelligence) • Observes and classifies the solids. (Naturalistic Intelligence) • Labels the solids. (Linguistic Intelligence) • Works together with other students. (Interpersonal Intelligence) This method helps to ensure the success of students, no matter which learning styles come most easily to them. As owner of Whole School Leadership LLC, Kathy Minardi helps educators to cultivate learning environments that emphasize social and emotional awareness. Kathy Minardi comes to this role backed by 40 years of experience in education, as well as formal training in transformational leadership and emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence plays a key role not only in a child's social success, but also in his or her academic performance. A child who can manage his or her emotions tends to have a higher level of confidence and a sense of security, which in turn supports academic competencies such as focus, motivation, and group participation. As a result of these skills, children who participate in school-based emotional learning perform up to 11 percent better on academic examinations. A successful emotional intelligence program teaches children how to cope with emotions that might otherwise cause them to act out. In most cases, this process begins with teaching children to recognize emotions as they present themselves. Children can then begin to learn skills that can help them proactively manage those emotions so that they can feel calm, safe, and in control. One key element of a successful program is the sharing of a set of tools that children can use to soothe themselves when they are feeling stress or other strong emotions. This helps children to gain control over their emotional brains and engage their thought centers, which in turn supports the ability to take ownership of one's own actions. Such ownership, experts say, is key to helping a child choose adaptive behaviors and feel successful as a social being. |
AuthorSince 1999, Kathy Minardi has served as the head of school at Aidan Montessori School in Washington, D.C. Utilizing her 37 years of experience in independent schools. Archives
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