MI Chapter 4

This chapter about the various practical ways that a teacher can explain multiple intelligences to their students was very helpful and informative. I think makng students aware of their different intelligences can have an extremely positive benefit in the classroom, because it encourages kids to focus on their strenghts instead of their weaknesses. The quote on page 45 that says, “What did we do in the intervening years to convince children that they’re not intelligent?” really had an impact on me, and the meaning behind that is something I want to keep in mind when I am teaching. Based on numerous factors – peer pressure, society and the media, personal difficulties – by the time kids reach high school, a good portion of them have a relatively low opinion of themselves. This can affect their education by giving them less motivation to work through adademic challenges and by making them less likely to appreciate their own success. As teachers, we need to try to reverse those notions and teach students to value their own differences and talents, and teaching them about multiple intelligences is a good way to start doing that. I learned a lot about the different ways that teachers can adapt their lessons to the different intelligences of their students. In some ways, it can be as simple as planning a variety of activities for them as opposed to doing the same thing over and over again. I also learned that students are a lot more aware of their own academic strengths and weaknesses than we might think, especially younger students. Teachers need to remember that students are the best experts on themselves, so we need to start trusting their instincts about what they need to learn effectively.

MI Chapter 3

I think the chapter’s suggestions on how to identify students’ intelligence strengths is something that is extremely useful and important in the classroom. Kids aren’t going to come right out and tell you what the need in order to learn effectively, mostly because they themselves do not know for sure. But as teachers, one of our most important jobs is to figure out ways to communicate with our students when they can’t or won’t be direct with us. Understanding nonverbal actions, uncovering the reason behind poor behavior, and picking up on social cues are all essential to both effective classroom management and successful instruction. Those are all things that I will try to do once I’m with my students. I think paying attention to mulitple intelligences is a good way to be an involved and considerate teacher, too. Getting to know your students that well can only benefit them, because not only are you aware of their specific learning strengths and weaknesses, but they also know that their teacher really cares about them succeeding, and research has shown that this does very positive things for classroom performance. Learning so much about multiple intelligences has taught me a lot about myself too, and being self-aware will help me become a better teacher. Im learning to be more patient with myself and to focus on the things that I am good at instead of getting caught up in the things I naturally struggle with. Being a good teacher means modeling self-respect to your students, and appreciating my own strengths while developing my weaknesses in a healthy way will encourage confidence in my students. 

UbD Chapter 4

I really liked the part of the chapter where the authors reminded us that we are teaching people, not just empty heads waiting for content. I think teachers sometimes forget to think of their pupils as kids instead of just students; we need to remember that they have problems, goals, and challenges just like we do, and all of those things affect their education. The curriculum should serve the students, not the other way around. Knowing myself like I do, I think I could end up having the tendency to focus a little bit more on the instruction portion of teaching, because I really want to connect with my students and make their classroom a safe, happy environment. But now that I know that there must be a perfect balance between the two, I can prepare myself to make the content the foundation of my safe and happy classroom. I also think that what the chapter says about embracing the different learning styles and levels of students is definitely something that I want to make a part of my classroom. In order to effectively teach our students, we need to stop thinking of their differences as something to be bothered by. Even students who have some form of disability are not lacking as learners; they simply bring a different kind of intelligence into the classroom, and instead of bemoaning the difficulties that this can sometimes bring to teachers, we should be celebrating the way we and our students can learn from each other’s differences. 

UbD Chapter 3

Having only learned a basic overview of backward design in Chapter 9, reading a whole chapter about it was very informative. I learned a lot about the very intricate specifics that go into planning a lesson, and I think backward design is something that would be very useful in my future classroom, because it puts the focus on what the student needs to learn instead of what the teacher wants to get accomplished. Hearing about the problems that teachers encounter when they are trying to cover all of the required content was a little daunting. I know that as a student, I have a tendency to get too in depth with a certain topic and miss out on other important topics because my mind is so focused on what interests me. Now that I know that I will likely have trouble fitting everything I need to teach into the curriculum as it is, I will have to be aware of my tendency to skip some things in favor of others and adjust my curriculum planning accordingly. I liked the part of the chapter where the author said that backward design allows for different methods of assessment to be used to measure the same results. This takes into account the varied learning styles of students and prevents students from doing poorly on assessments just because they are not particularly strong in a certain intelligence. This is something I definitely want to bring into my classroom someday; I want my students to be assessed fairly, and I want to find ways to measure success that are based on a student’s strengths, not their weaknesses.  

MI Chapter 2

I was unaware that Multiple Intelligences could be affected by so many external factors; I thought they were simply something that was hardwired into a person’s brain throughout their whole life. It is sad to think that a child’s potential for knowledge could be halted by something completely out of their control, such as socioeconomic factors or the influence of parents, but those are just challenges that a teacher must overcome. I think that one of the most important jobs of a teacher is to draw out knowledge in the face of various forms of resistance. The chapter’s ideas for how teachers can make up for lacking in a particular intelligence were very interesting too. I would really like to have the opportunity to team teach at some point in my career, so keeping in mind the different intelligences and learning styles when doing so will be very helpful. It was valuable to learn about the different ways that teachers can collaborate with their minds and different strengths, and that idea is definitely something I will take into the classroom with me. I also like how the author suggested having students use their own intelligence strengths to help out a teacher when their strengths don’t match up. This would create a very collaborative, inventive classroom environment that would allow students a chance to take on leadership positions in the classroom and to explore their individual talents in a way that benefits the classroom as a whole. These are all important things to remember once I am a teacher.

MI Chapter 1

I barely knew anything about multiple intelligences before talking about it in class, and reading this first chapter helped me learn a lot more. It is very fascinating to learn about the ways that different intelligences affect the way a student learns, and in turn the way a classroom runs. The fact that people can innately lack in a certain intelligence tells me a lot about my future students. If a child is struggling with a particular task or concept, it could be because their mind simply doesn’t have as much strength in one area of intelligence as they do in another. It is never about them being stupid or unmotivated, teachers just need to realize that every student’s brain is structured differently. This is why it is important for teachers to be willing to try different methods of teaching, so that they can accommodate for the different styles of learning that are born into a student’s physiology and therefore should never be changed or stifled. It was also helpful to learn that most people are on the same level with being strong in some intelligences but lacking in others. I think the whole idea of Multiple Intelligences is a big step in the right direction in the field of education. It encourages creative, independent thought and denounces the notion that all students must learn the same way. In order to successfully reach our students, we need to start thinking about how they learn instead of how someone else says they should learn.

UbD Chapter 2

The accounts of the four students who faced difficulties in the classroom were really eye-opening for me. It was inspiring to read about the ways in which their teachers were able to successfully adapt their curriculum structure or instruction methods to suit the needs of their student. It really is sad when a student’s ability to learn is compromised by the rigid structures imposed by the traditional classroom setting, and I think the job of a teacher is to find ways to draw out that ability when something is blocking it. Elise’s story in particular made an impact on me because I know what it feels like to have family problems affect your schoolwork. Knowing how that experience feels is something I will definitely take into the classroom with me. I learned a lot from the section on responsive teaching, too. Everything the authors said about teachers developing relationships with their students goes along with how I plan to operate when I’m a teacher. I think one of the most valuable things a teacher can do for a student’s education is to allow them to walk into the classroom every day knowing that their teacher cares about them and is willing to do what needs to be done in order to help them succeed. Something else that really stuck out to me was the quote, “learning happens within students, not to them” (22). Teaching and learning are active processes with both parties being involved at the same level, as opposed to the teacher simply handing over knowledge to their students. This quote also reminds us that students are always active participants in their education, and as such they deserve to be taken into account when it comes to planning instruction, which goes back to responsive teaching.

UbD Chapter 1

I was not very familiar with the concept of Understanding by Design, so I learned a lot about it from the first chapter. Listing off the four “who, where, what, how” elements of teaching was a really good way to put in simple terms what the important parts of teaching are. It was interesting to learn about how the two ways of thinking are both dependant on and strengthened by each other; that interchangability is essential to teaching as a whole, and it was really valuable to learn about how those two major concepts come together to create an ideal framework for instruction. I really liked the part where the authors specified that differentiated instruction is not a formula or magic solution where you simply plug your students and content area into place and everything works well. I think it can be easy to want to use educational methods in this way, but as the authors stated, differentiated instruction is meant to guide teachers through their own methods of instruction and give them a foundation for how they should seek to educated fairly and effectively. Understanding by Design and differentiated instruction are both things that will definitely impact my future classroom. A ‘one size fits all’ method of instruction has no place in modern teaching, and it is essential that, when I am a teacher, I find ways to embrace my students’ differences and adapt my instruction to best fit their varied needs. I also think that the idea of formulating a curriculum around the needs of my students is very important to ensuring that they are successful, and I will definitely keep in mind the ways that appreciating the differences in their learning levels and styles can have a positive impact on our classroom.