MI+B2+Chapter+2

Abstract:
Chapter two of Thomas Armstrong's //Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom// discusses the importance of educators becoming comfortable with their own "intelligences" and understanding where their weaknesses lie. Educators should be familiar with each of the eight intelligences; undoubtedly their classrooms will be occupied with living and breathing examples of the MI Theory. Armstrong advices that teachers seek out guidance when doubting their ability to integrate an intelligence or intelligences into their classrooms. Guidance can come from any aspect of the learning community, especially from colleagues and students. The same example that appeared in Armstrong's writing appeared in many of the following blog entries: if a teacher wants to incorporate music into his or her classroom, but is at a loss for ideas, he or she should discuss potential strategies with the school's music teacher. Any given teacher is an expert in his or her field; we as fellow educators should take advantage of other teachers' knowledge! Allowing a student to give input creates the notion that he or she does in fact play a significant role in his or her education. More likely than not, when we're certified educators, our students will have solutions to some our struggles; after all, a student knows how he or she learns best!

Synthesis Reflection:
Teachers will naturally want to revert back to their own intelligences, but should instead consider the following [|lesson plans] for their students' benefits. It appears as many of us have officially discovered which multiple intelligence(s) we best perform under. With this new discovery, we're faced with the fact that there are several more intelligences that we're not comfortable with, but that will suit our students. Everyone has certain intelligences that can be considered his or her weakness(es), teachers and students included. As teachers, we are responsible for giving our students the opportunity to strengthen their eight intelligences. With the help of their colleagues, students, and various other resources, teachers should be able to accomplish this task. Teachers should remember that any of the eight intelligences can develop at any point in a person's lifetime. Have students discover where their strengths lie by taking this online assessment: [|MI Assessment] toc = =

Danny K.
Chapter two also covers more about the Multiple Intelligences Theory and how to help develop the intelligences that you are not as developed in. The chapter stresses the importance of being able to teach in different ways to help reach the students that have different intelligences than you. The book gives some good examples of ways to help you accomplish this. Some of the ways to help you is by asking a colleague. The example they use in the book is if you have low musical intelligence then you can ask the music teacher for help on how to reach students in your class with high musical intelligences. Another example given is to ask students to help you come up with strategies to help them learn better. The last example was the suggestion of using available technology. In the classroom I would use these strategies to improve learning. This chapter also explains that the development of an intelligence depends upon three main factors (biological endowment, personal life history, cultural and historical background).

Tyler
This chapter talked a lot about exactly what I mentioned in my last paper. It can be difficult for a teacher to teach to students with intelligence types not similar to their own. It gives some suggestions on what you might do, even saying you could just go ask for help. For instance, the music teacher might have some ideas for teaching to musically inclined students. For someone like me who really has no idea about music, doing that might result in a great solution that I would never have thought of on my own. As a teacher, you aren’t alone, and the other teachers can be a great resource to use. The chapter also looks into how some of the intelligences might have developed, or how you can develop them further. Environmental factors in your life play a huge role in the development of certain types of intelligences. Someone who lived in a place close to nature might have a stronger naturalist type of intelligence than someone else. Someone who grew up in a family of musicians might be more musically inclined. This makes complete sense to me when I look at how I was raised. My two weakest intelligence types would be music and nature. I grew up in a family who not only didn’t play instruments, but didn’t even really listen to music very often. Music played almost no part in my life, unless it was something I heard on a television show. As far as nature goes, I grew up in California, my neighborhood almost always one of those in the newest developed areas. I was surrounded by houses and pavement, streets and sidewalks. If you wandered out of the development, you found yourself in basically a desert. Any land that had any part of nature on it was gone, torn up and flattened in preparation for the next round of houses to go up. I didn’t see what I could call a forest until I was about twelve. I didn’t see a lake, or even a pond until a few years after that, when I moved to Delaware. Nature to me meant the palm trees that we all put in our yards. My strongest types of intelligence would be the logic and linguistic ones. I developed them early. I began reading early and continued to read a lot for a while. The only reason I read less now is because I don’t have time to read due to school work (a bit ironic). From all my reading, mixed with my competitive nature, I developed strong language and strong logic skills. In a way I think these two categories complement each other. One allows me to get answers quickly and easily, while another allows me to express those answers in an intelligent sounding manner. I think it would be a good idea to look at some of my weaker intelligences and see if I could strengthen them some. It would definitely help me teach to kids with similar strengths if I was able to think that way myself. As I said before as well, other teachers in the school might also have different strengths as well, and I am assuming they wouldn’t mind me asking for suggestions in my weak areas. Even asking the students themselves if they had any opinions on how they would like to learn might be a good idea. Not only might they have good ideas, it would go a long way in making them feel as if they were a larger part of the decision making process.

Tiarra
It is important for a teacher to realize that they too are a student who is subject to their own learning varieties and preferences. In order to teach effectively one must have an understanding of one’s own intelligence and how their preferences may affect their prospective students who do well under different learning styles. After reading this chapter and taking the MI inventory test it is clear that I am a highly linguistic learner. I also have strengths in Interpersonal and Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligences, while my Spatial and Musical intelligences are relatively low. I believe that working to further develop my intelligences as a teacher will help me to reach out to my student’s specific educational needs. This chapter works to shed light on how students have developed their prevailing intelligences through Biological, Personal and Cultural means. I hope to provide some of that personal support for my students to develop their intelligences in a variety of ways.

Justin C.
A good point that was made in this chapter was that all students, and even teachers, can function well using any, if not all, of the intelligences. Exposure to all of the intelligences and working with them better the personal ability to adapt to them in the classroom. Learning about how all of the intelligences work and how to incorporate all of them into lessons will encourage all students to enjoy school. When students get left out because they are not learning the content because of a lack of their learning style being used, it is up to us as teachers to address that problem without affecting the other students who may be learning just fine with the way the class is run. I feel that there is going to be a lot of modifying of lessons and activity ideas that will come with the territory and I want the students in my classroom to be as successful as they can be. In order for my students to succeed, I must succeed in figuring out how to incorporate each learning style.

Kaitlin T.
The very first sentence of the second chapter of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom caught my attention: “Before applying any model of learning in a classroom environment, we should first apply it to ourselves as educators and adult learners,” (20). As an educator I need to consider of my students will be receptive and learn well from a particular approach or style of teaching. I need to keep the perspective of my students in mind and I should constantly be asking myself, “How well would I understand this material if I were in them?” The multiple intelligences inventory that is offered in chapter two is one I would consider giving to my students at the beginning of our time together. I can’t stress enough how important it is for me to understand how my students learn best in order that I know how to teach them best. When I was a high school student, teachers never inquired about our learning styles or our multiple intelligences; looking back, it seems that the teachers of my local high school were merely going through the motions of how they taught best, completely disregarding how their students learned best.

Dan B.
The thing that really impacted me, and will impact the way I teach was on pages 21, 26, and 27. The book talked about how if you are not proficient with one of the intelligences then you could have someone else come in and help you get your point across. For example, if you are not good with drawing then you could have one of your students help you by drawing on the board to get the point you wanted to make across. You could also ask you colleagues for help; you could have the music teacher come in to help you get a point across. You could also use technology to help you get your point across. I had never thought about bringing another person in to help me get a point across, but after reading that I think that it would be a good idea.

Will L.
In the second chapter, it summarized how to develop and work with the multiple intelligences on a personal level. As discussed in the first chapter as well, one must bring each of the multiple intelligences to an adequate mastery before clarifying which are more favored. If certain intelligences aren’t mastered enough, bringing them into the classroom experimentally should be considered. As a future educator, I will need to harness both my favored and my weaker intelligences when instructing in the classroom. I consider myself more linguistic and interpersonal, so I would need to introduce more musical and logical intelligences for the students.

Grace K.
In chapter 2, Thomas Armstrong emphasizes the aspect of MI theory that says multiple intelligences are not simple, naturally occurring phenomena. Instead, they can be developed, nurtured, or hindered by many different factors around us. This supports other reading I’ve done (especially //See Jane Win//) that emphasizes that it is not natural ability, but effort and persistence, that are the primary indicators of success. I felt that this chapter reinforced my intention to incorporate various learning styles into my future classroom, because it could very well help students develop learning styles they didn’t fully utilize before. Armstrong also discussed the necessity of a teacher examining his or her own learning styles before attempting to utilize them in a classroom setting. I know there are certain learning styles, like bodily/kinesthetic or naturalist, that I don’t use as much as others, so it would be important for me to learn more about how to employ those effectively. I liked the suggestions Armstrong gave, stating that if a teacher isn’t comfortable using a certain teaching/learning style, then he or she could recruit help from a student or colleague to effectively use it in the classroom. I think that’s an excellent idea, not only because it allows you to use methods you might have otherwise avoided, but also because it helps to create a larger learning community in a school, rather than just encouraging teachers to focus only on their classroom.

Grady B.
In this chapter of //Multiple Intelligences//, I was initially struck by the truth of the statement on page 20 that our knowledge of multiple intelligences has a direct impact on our ability to teach to those intelligences. As a person that did not even have a perception of what “naturalist” intelligence was a week ago, I can see that addressing the ins and outs of each intelligence would be beneficial in relating to people that use this lens to address and solve the problems that they face. I additionally agree with the statement on page 27 that virtually any person can gain relatively strong usage of each intelligence, if time is given to do so. If I learned one thing in my high school psychology class, it was that in any aspect, life is the product of biology, psychology, and society, meaning that even if a person has a natural predisposition to one or more intelligences, in nearly every case, it is environmental factors that will ultimately dictate which intelligences gain prominence. The aspect of this concept of MI that I find most engaging is that, just as decades ago left-handed students were forced to switch to being right-handed, our current teaching models are forcing students out of their natural tendencies to learn in the best way for themselves, and MI provides a way to stop that destructive habit. At the very least, MI is providing for a much needed conversation about how the concept of intelligence has been placed in a very restrictive box for the past 8 decades.

Jonathan B.
This chapter begins by discussing the importance of understanding your personal MI standing, and accessing resources to help you incorporate MI into your teaching. Also very important are MI activators and deactivators. These are largely environmental factors that lead someone to build their intelligences in different ways. For instance, someone with musical parents is much more likely to have a high musical “intelligence” compared to someone who has non-musical parents. Similarly, someone growing up on a farm is more likely to be a naturalist. One develops the intelligences that they are exposed to and have the most experience in working with. This is something to take into consideration when looking at a diverse classroom, everyone's experiences lead to different capabilities and preferences.

Chris D.
In chapter 2 of Multiple Intelligences, Armstrong states that it’s very important to get to know what areas of intelligences I’m proficient in, as well as which ones I struggle in. He also suggests that instead of avoiding the intelligences that I struggle in, I should seek advice from my colleagues on how to incorporate these intelligences into my lessons. Crystallizing experiences and paralyzing experiences were interesting to read about. As a teacher, I should be careful about criticizing the work of students as a simple negative comment about a picture or an argument might shut off a certain intelligence that will never flourish, and any potential that area had will crumble. I should instead encourage all of these areas of intelligences and help my students develop them further.

Jen R.
Chapter two focuses on the multiple intelligence theory and our personal understanding as teachers. I learned from this chapter that before I attempt to relate to other intelligences or incorporate the MI theory into my classroom, I need to have a complete understanding of my own strengths and intelligences. It is important to understand the full spectrum of MI to greaten the impact of knowledge on the teacher and throughout the students they will be teaching. To heighten the capacity of potential knowledge within my students, I feel that is crucial for the teacher to develop a mastery of the MI theory. This chapter impacted me to always be discovering my new found strengths whether it is throughout my college years or well into my teaching career.