THE MIDAS™ REVIEWS
Experts say. .
"Assessment of Multiple Intelligences is difficult at best. Branton Shearer's MIDAS™ materials succeed further than anything else available at providing insight and understanding of a profile of an individual's intelligences." Bruce Campbell, author of Multiple Intelligences and Student Achievement.
"I can attest to the fact that the MIDAS™ battery is by far the most conceptually and psychometrically sound MI-based assessment tool available to educators today." Jonathan Plucker, Ph.D.
"People are curious and open to new insights about how one's intelligence can be identified across a wide spectrum of abilities. This is exactly where MIDAS™ fills a significnat gap between quantitative evaluation and qualitative assessment. The use of MIDAS™ as a diagnostic tools by qualified persons provides a bridge of understanding....Society will benefit when we recognize the rich diversity of abilties in our students and offers them education which builds on each student's strengths." Patricia J. Bolanos, Principal, Key Learning Community.
"The MIDAS™ can be a useful tool for children to gain insight into how they best learn. I hope that Dr. Shearer's book will find itself into the hands of many teachers across the country who are looking for new ways to approach curriculum and exciting ways to motivate children to learn." Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D., author, Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom.
Educators say. . .
"I highly recommend utilizing The MIDAS™ both with staff members and your students. The knowledge you will gain is immeasurable!" Heather Terrill, Principal, Savanna Oaks Elementary.
"Thank you again for an outstanding and more in depth look at the Multiple Intelligences theory. I enjoyed your class and also the evaluation of the MIDAS™ survey. I hope to use the MI information I learned from you in my future elementary education endeavors and also with the teacher and student activities I coordinate at NASA Glenn." Linda Little, Office of Educational Programs, NASA
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"We are thoroughly enjoying the results of our MIDAS™ assessment and are very grateful for the activities, worksheets, and supplemental materials that you have created. This is a wonderful measure that has been extremely useful in working with students with emotional needs who need a means to focus on their strengths rather than their perceived weaknesses. Thank you again for your work in this area and we hope to continue sharing your efforts with more students in the future."
Crystal Harms, Director of Special Projects, Arcadia University
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Teachers say. . .
"Personally The MIDAS™ was very informative being able to find out more about myself and my students. This has been a help since my school is MI. I thought I was using MI in my teaching and now I know that I am. I also learned more about all the different intelligences so that I can continue to expand my lessons."
"I felt that my own personal MIDAS™ assessment was important because by identifying my strengths and weaknesses, I can improve my weaknesses to become a better teacher. I can understand that I have avoided weak areas in the past and this assessment makes me aware of that. A valuable contribution is that I discovered that different intelligences allow me to incorporate new teaching methods that I would never have considered before. As an example, kinesthetics is a great way to teach a new idea in a setting where movement might not have been used previously."
"I thought this class was excellent in that it didn't just talk about MI, but demonstrated MI! It was refreshing and interesting. Personally, I see myself as more aware of my strengths & more nurturing of my weaknesses. I am more conscious of my movements & more perceptive of music and nature (my weaknesses). Professionally, see myself relating what I've learned to the interventionists & teacher with whom I work. I can now show them that it works! I think this class was great J no complaints!"
"Several aspects of this workshop were extremely meaningful to me. The opportunity to focus my project on a topic of importance to me. I can apply The MIDAS™ to my daughter as a parent was an unexpected bonus for me."
"I feel this assessment was personally meaningful to me. I know now the eight different intelligences and how to utilize each one effectively in my classroom. I learned that everyone does not learn in the same way. I will be more aware of utilizing MI in my classroom. It will be interesting to give the MIDAS™ to the class and chart their progress throughout the year!"
"It was valuable to take The MIDAS™ and receive information about my strengths and weaknesses."
"Taking the MIDAS™ has been valuable to know why and how I react or succeed in the categories we've studied. I will use all the strategies in my classroom and feel that will only foster growth for myself and the children. I may soon take a new position in supervision to pilot a gifted education program. The MIDAS™ knowledge will give me more and varied tools and ideas to support the students and teachers."
"Receiving my MIDAS™ assessment has been personally meaningful...I intend to incorporate my new awareness of multiple intelligences in my teaching...this has been the most rewarding workshop I've ever taken!"
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"One of the assignments for the students in the Career Course is to write a letter to their classmates as if they were 20 years into the future. It's composed of what they are now doing and how they got there. They have to integrate the activities and assignments of class and how the class has helped them in their career progress. Below is a portion of one of the letters from my class:
The career interest surveys that we took during class showed me that Nursing was the right job for me. There was one person whom I will always remember that motivated me. It was the guest speaker we had named Branton Shearer, Ph.D. He talked about how you can do whatever you set your mind to. Hearing his story about his life and the obstacles he crossed along his w really motivated me to stay in Nursing School. I graduated with my Bachelors of Science degree in Nursing from Kent State University in May of 2005."
Don Snyder, Career Services Center, Kent State University
