Franny McAleer—Educator/Six Thinking Hats®
Instructor/de Bono School Program Consultant

“Franny McAleer has been providing staff development for teachers in the Berwick Area School District for the last four years, including whole staff workshops with the Six Thinking Hats as well as focused workshops detailing best practices with instructional strategies for gifted and honors students. Many of our teachers know that when Franny comes to do in-service, they will go home tired, but it will have been a productive day. She challenges their beliefs and has helped them raise their level of higher order thinking within their classrooms. It's also difficult not to have a good time when Franny comes to town!”
 —Holly Morrison, Director of Curriculum, Berwick Area School District

Expert educator, Franny McAleer gladly shares her wealth of experience—over 30 years as a classroom teacher, supervisor, coordinator, staff development instructor, and college instructor with every school group she works with. She has a deep understanding of what it takes to become a teacher in today’s challenging environment. She was awarded Teacher of the Year for her work with gifted children.

Six Thinking Hats® is an important tool that ignites her passion—preparing children for a meaningful life in a global society. As president of the Pennsylvania Association for Gifted Education she promotes educational practices that teach students to use their minds well and talents effectively and creatively. Six Thinking Hats® is one of the tools. She is also an instructor for Chapman University teaching “Catch Them Thinking” a very popular course which offers graduate elective credits.

Franny has written twenty books on differentiating instruction which are used by teachers and parents to develop the gifts and talents of our young people. She is noted for her expertise at critical and creative thinking as a writer for eight magazines and three journals.

Her degrees in education, curriculum, supervision, and instruction are the building blocks that helped her develop and manage national education programs for: restructuring America’s high schools, effective teaching, gifted and talented education, creativity, language arts, and career planning.

Franny is a frequent presenter at student and teacher conferences throughout the United States. Her enthusiasm is contagious and motivates many teachers and principals to apply the practical tools and strategies she shares with them right away.

Testimonials from administrators, principals and teachers

"Our work with de Bono's SIX HATS® has been a great base for improving our work with higher level thinking. I often hear references to those darn "White Hat questions", so deadly in large numbers. The awareness created from the SIX HATS® has been valuable.”
 —Suzanne Herr, Principal, Solanco School District, PA

“Applying the SIX HATS® is a natural for the classroom. Franny presents the information in a clear, usable, and valuable fashion. Move over Bloom - a great new way of teaching thinking!”
 —Susan Holzer

“I am using the SIX HATS® daily. I refer to them to get the children thinking in a certain direction. What I like about this program is that it gives the students a direction to think towards by the questions on the hats. In the primary grades especially, the students need to develop specific thinking areas. I did an activity where they had to pick a wish and then use white and black hat thinking about the wish. They did a great job. This is the first program I have used that starts students in the direction of thinking critically. They loved the activities especially the green hat. I'm happy with where I'm going especially as I use this with PSSA (state assessment) preparation.”
—Debbie Miller, Wilkes Barre School District

"We love the hats. Tara and I introduced our students to them right away on Friday. Our Academic/Honors students were skeptical. My Applied Communications class LOVED them. Since then, with a little encouragement, we have had nothing but success with the hats. Tara’s Journalism class is attacking the school magazine all with hats. My Applied class designed and implemented a new independent novel unit utilizing the hats. My Honors Speech and Debate class has implemented a new peer comment format that revolves around yellow, black, and green hat ideas. My Honors III class is exploring The Red Badge of Courage with the hats. The red hat is especially helpful because they are putting themselves in a few of the characters’ shoes. They also linked the current Jessica Lynch debate (hero or not) to the novel with the hats.”

”I’ll admit, although your talk was informative and fun, I had doubts about getting the students to use it. After one day, my Applied students were correcting each other during a green hat session with, 'We’re wearing our green hats now. Save the black hat comments for later.' Amazingly no one was offended and the class continued working. I just wanted you to know how excited we are to share in this great method and how much we appreciate your instruction in it.”
—Renee Sorensen, Teacher at Tunkhannock High School

AWESOME! Invigorating, realistic and practical! Franny makes the workshops easy to understand and comes with practical ideas for accomplishing her goals. The teachers are engaged throughout the workshops and Franny sets high, but attainable, expectations for the people involved in the trainings.
—Monique Mawhinney, Director of Student Services, Hampton Township School District

“After attending the workshop, I was excited about going back to my classroom and trying out the Six Thinking Hats with my ESL students. I found it easy to simplify and adapt to their proficiency levels and they responded with enthusiasm to the visual and tactile presentation of the hats. They were motivated to answer questions and were able to demonstrate increased comprehension of the story. Even my most reluctant student was more responsive to questions. Though many of us are already doing some of the things Franny spoke about in the workshop, The Six Thinking Hats® provides a way for us to create a more muiltisensory learning environment, giving our students a greater chance for success. I found the SIX HATS workshop to be dynamic and inspiring. The Six Thinking Hats® concept is a valuable teaching tool that can be adapted to many areas of learning.”
—Karen Lau, ESL Teacher, Luzerne Intermediate Unit

“I have learned so much about using the SIX HATS® in my classroom. I have already started using it in my class and it has been very successful.”
—Dana Dubyak

“SIX HATS® has provided me with a whole new channel of thinking - pulling my mind into new directions.”
 —Carrie Mathias

“I attended this workshop with little knowledge of thinking skills and how to develop this concept in the classroom. This seminar introduced skills, developed those skills, and gave me new ideas to work "thinking" into my classroom, and daily life. Franny was a refreshing change of pace to other presenters. She was lively, creative, willing to share ideas and activities, and over FUN! Great workshop; wonderful presenter.”