more on multiple intellegences

Here is a clip from Howard Gardner himself explaining how he came up with the idea of multiple intelligences and why it was so revolutionary.

Multiple Intelegences

Howard Gardner is a man who has had a great impact in many fields, one of which is education. he is the man who came up with the idea of multiple intelligences. These are different ways that people learn better. He started off with seven but now there are nine.

The image below gives an illustration of eight of the nine types of intelligences described by Gardner. They are all very important to understand and consider when working in a classroom. You need to remember that children have different learning styles and may need to be taught in different ways. It is important to include many teaching styles when working with children.






1. Naturalist Intelligence (“Nature Smart”)


2. Musical Intelligence (“Musical Smart”)


3. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart)


4. Existential Intelligence


5. Interpersonal Intelligence (People Smart”)


6. Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence (“Body Smart”)


7. Linguistic Intelligence (Word Smart)


8. Intra-personal Intelligence (Self Smart”)


9. Spatial Intelligence (“Picture Smart”)

Computers in the Classroom

I thought our discussion this week would fit very well in with my blog. We were discussing the use of computers and technology in the early childhood classroom. All the assumptions that we make that is is all just dandy and all for the betterment of the students when really we have to be careful and take a step back and look at the risks as well.

The article we looked at from Alliance for Childhood gave this list of risks.

Physical Hazards
• Musculoskeletal injuries
• Visual strain and myopia
• Obesity and other complications of a sedentary lifestyle
• Possible side effects from toxic emissions and electromagnetic radiation
Emotional and Social Hazards
• Social isolation
• Weakened bonds with teachers
• Lack of self-discipline and self-motivation
• Emotional detachment from community
• Commercial exploitation
Intellectual Hazards
• Lack of creativity
• Stunted imaginations
• Impoverished language and literacy skills
• Poor concentration, attention deficits
• Too little patience for the hard work of learning
• Plagiarism
• Distraction from meaning
Moral Hazards
• Exposure to online violence, pornography, bigotry, and other inappropriate material
• Emphasis on information devoid of ethical and moral context
• Lack of purpose and irresponsibility in seeking and applying knowledge

Standards

In Minnesota there are 10 Standards for teaching.

Standard 1, Subject Matter.

Standard 2, Student Learning.

Standard 3, Diverse Learners.

Standard 4, Instructional Strategies.

Standard 5, Learning Environment.

Standard 6, Communication.

Standard 7, Planning Instruction.

Standard 8, Assessment.

Standard 9, Reflection and Professional Development.

Standard 10, Collaboration, Ethics, and Relationships.



























To lean more about these standards you can go to the following links.

Educational Diversity

Being in a class of all first graders does not mean that you are going to be in a classroom of students who are all at the same level academically. Even if you are in a classroom with no children who are special education or with English language learners there would still be a huge spread of learning capabilities. Then if you throw into the picture that there are students with learning disabilities or with the handicap of not speaking English as their first language you can see how quickly you get a classroom with a huge range of understanding. This gap between students can sometimes be hard to deal with. You have to chose if you teach towards the higher end or towards the lower end. If you teach in the middle some will be bored while others will fall behind. If you split the class into "groups" you run the risk of the children realizing who the "smart people" are and who the "less smart people" are. This is not what kids want to be feeling in elementary school.

This movie is one found on You Tube that shows a new resource available for teaching students with autism. It talks about how those types of students learn very well visually and this provides pictures to learn from.






The website Reach Every Child has resources for teaching children with ADD or teaching English language learners or teaching students with learning disabilities. Whether you are a regular elementary education teacher or a special education teach you will most likely come across cases such as these so it is good to be prepared.

Racial diversity in the classroom

While teaching you have to remember that not all children are the same or come from the same backgrounds. In Minnesota the five largest minority groups that you would come across are:


African American











Hmong

















Somali





















Hispanic

















Native American



















Here are some organizations out there trying to help with education in diverse settings.

Educational Diversity Project

Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence

No Child Left Behind

No child left behind (NCLB)is a number of federal programs aimed at improving the progress in our elementary and secondary schools. It has to be updated every few years and usually gets changed slightly with whoever is in power at the time. The goal right now is to meet adequate yearly progress or (AYP). The expectations for tis goes up every year until schools are eventually expected to meet 100%.These are the requirements for the state of Minnesota.




NCLB Making a Difference in Minnesota




Recently we were asked to talk to a teacher about what their thoughts were on no child left behind. Here is what my teacher had to say.

“It is good in some ways. It is good to have standards. It is good to keep track of students. It is good to have a goal and no child left behind does this. The only thins is that the goal is unattainable. You will never be able to reach 100%. Right now it is fine when you are expected to reach 60% or 75% but once they are expecting you to have 100% in however many years, that is just simply impossible. I just hope that they don’t follow through with all the punishments that they had originally proposed when t comes time to not meeting that percentile. Schools have their own standards too. These help with keeping track of students progress too. In the end these things kind of come and go with every new politician so I never worry about them too much myself.”

What makes a good classroom

A good classroom set up should be educational and fun at the same time. Make sure there are colorful posters and boards around the room to engage students attention but not so much that it is distracting.




A good classroom should also contain many resources. Recourses for the students and the teacher. There are also many different ways you can lay out your room. Different layouts may work for different classes depending on the personalities you have. You just have to make sure that the children can all focus easily without being distracted by others.



My first time in the classroom I felt very comfortable. The classroom was really nice. It was fairly large, larger than any classrooms I had in elementary school. The desks are set up in rows facing each other. They switch them around maybe once a moth or so. There are all sorts of things you can do. Cabinets and shelves filled with the typical “teacher supplies”. There are multiple bulletin boards. One is for the star student of the week, one is for their centers. There are about 5 different color coded groups, each day the different groups all have a different center. Another bulletin board is for lunch count and attendance. Another is for artwork that the class does. Right now there are a whole bunch of Rainbow fish up there that the kids made. One up by the front of the class is for calendar time. There is a table over by the teacher’s desk where she does center time with the kids. There is a table in the back corner where I work with them o crafts of play games. Then there is another table where parents will sit and work with the kids if they come in to help. Along one whole wall there are baskets of books labeled A through Z. Each kid is at a different letter or level and that is the basket they are supposed to read out of. I really liked the spaciousness and the colorful decorations all around the room. It made it very inviting and it wasn’t too overly crowded so you couldn’t concentrate.


here is a helpful link to go to when you are trying to set up your classroom to teach to all types of learners.

My new blog

This is my new blog! I will be blogging on education. Things I learn in class things I experience in school new news articles and anything else that has to do with education today.