MI+B1+Chapter+8


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Tyler
Chapter 8 is about integrating MI theory and classroom management. MI theory does not necessarily offer a classroom management plan, but instead offers ways to gain students attention, prepare them for transitioning from one activity to another, and forming groups. Gain the attention of students is always a challenge that teachers face. Instead of simply yelling “Class, quiet down!!!” over and over, MI theory provides alternative ways to get the student's attention. The teacher can write “Silence, please” on the board(Linguistic), clap a rhythm and have the students clap back(musical), raise your hand and place you finger on you lips to symbolize silence(bodily), show a photo of a class being silent(spacial), record how much time is being lost and write it on the board(mathematical), tell one students that it is time to start and have them “pass it on”(interpersonal), start teaching and let the students follow suit(intrapersonal), or play a recording of a loud animal sound(naturalist). Any of these tactics are much more reliable and less stressful than yelling at the class.

Another aspect of teaching that teachers need to help students with is preparing them to transition from one activity to another. Each intelligence responds best to different types of communication. A musical student would respond best to songs about what is come, a kinesthetic student would notice someone miming what is next, a spacial student would do best to see pictures of people doing what the next activity is, and mathematical students would feel more comfortable seeing a countdown clock. Splitting up into groups can be organized in a similar fashion. Create an activity that utilizes an intelligence from MI theory, and use it to split the class into groups. For linguistic students, teachers could have students make a vowel sound from their first name and have the students find people making similar sounds, or give students three animal choices and tell them to make the sound of one of those animals. Then, the students make groups based on the animal sounds. MI allows teachers to create a variety of activities from any MI intelligence.

Abby
Chapter 8 of //MI// talked about using the MI theory in classroom management. They talked about moving away from classroom management that is only verbal. They suggested idea such as putting up pictures of a quiet class to get the students to be quiet or whispering to one student to be quiet and have them pass that along till all students are quiet.

I personally disagreed with almost everything in this chapter. I thought that the suggestions were ridiculous. Bringing an animal into the classroom is not going to focus attention, but rather cause more of a disruption. I realize that all classroom management techniques should not be verbal, but assigning students a rule that they are in charge of enforcing will never be a good idea. I think that the Multiple Intelligence theory should not be applied to classroom management at all. The one thing that I did agree with in this chapter was the last paragraph that stated classroom management issues do not arise as much in a classroom that is conducted using MI. I think this is very true. If students are allowed to learn in ways they feel comfortable, are engaged, are respected, and are in a friendly and open environment they have very little reason to act out. Overall I think that this chapter was ridiculous and although some of these techniques may be of some use at the elementary level, by fifth grade I would have lost all respect for a teacher who tried to implement such juvenile forms of classroom management.

Ally
This on of the most important chapters because it is about classroom management, this is something teachers are constantly going to need. If you don’t have classroom management your students will walk all over you and you will not get them to focus again. The gaining students attention was helpful because it gives you different ideas try. If students don’t react to one of the strategies you can try another one. Transitions is always difficult because of attention issue, having your students know certain cues mean to quiet down is important. The majority of this chapter was about how if you have basic communication with your students regarding classroom management is key to have a successful class. Students need to be informed about the rules of the class so they can follow them. Teachers are recommended that they explain to the students the rules on the first day of school so they are clearly warned. That way, they can be spoken to about the rules because they know them already. After that, if the students continue they can get proper punishment. Not only should teachers discuss the rules of the class on the first day of school they should also make posters of the rules and display them on the walls in order to make sure it is clearly known. The teacher should have a policy about how many chances the student gets before a detention is handed out that should be governed by the school policy or the teacher’s preference. Like in “Fires of the Bathroom” the teacher needs to be consistent with all of their students. This will affect me as a teacher because I am going to be practicing classroom management skills every day. If I am not successful then I need to try some new tactics or hold a conversation with my students.

Jake
A lot of this book has made me quite frustrated and I’m being completely honest when I say Armstrong’s rational in a lot of instances does not make any sort of reasonable sense. However, I think this chapter was relatively reasonable. In some instance, in others, well, it definitely went back to being ridiculous.

There were some examples in the chapter, like bringing an animal into the classroom in order to help the kids refocus, that were way over the top. Bringing an animal into the classroom? He can’t be serious that would never work. Ever. Every student in the classroom would get up for a closer look and you would have lost the entire class for the next 45 minutes. However, there were some methods that I thought would work well. The idea of being quiet and allowing students to recognize their error on their own opposed to be told definitely works. Armstrong justifies it with Multiple Intelligences, and I suppose I can go along with that, however, it seems a bit stretched. The idea of utilizing multiple attention getting methods at once, like asking for their attention and flicking the lights on and off is one that I thought was a good idea and I can easily see how it could be a useful tool in the future. However, again sometimes he went a bit overboard. Beethoven to signify recess. That is beyond humorous. Sure a teacher can do it, but I’m not sure it as at all necessary. No classroom is ever going to ignore a statement like “go to recess”. This chapter was interesting, though I’m not sure it really taught me anything that I had not already learned else-where, and most of the new ideas where a bit cracked.

Caleb
Once, again I am going to be talking about the [|X-men]. So, as far as we know the X-men are comprised mostly of students going to a school for the superpower being taught by people with superpowers. So, far this is a pretty amazing school. Now, this chapter is talking about how you deal with classroom management with a variety of different intelligences in the room. With the X-men we have a slew, that’s right, a slew of variety in each classroom. It’s not so much that there are different learners but there are different powers as well. That overwhelming diversity is quite hard to grasp. I’m personally glad that there is a telepath running the whole thing to make issues a little easier but I digress. The question that arises from all of this is how do these teachers manage a classroom like this? The answer? Use an action or an item that will grab their attention. Sure, they have different powers, but because of the teacher’s own diversity they understand they have to do different things to grab the attention of different individuals if that means blowing a hole in the wall, then so be it. All, I’m trying to say is that as a teacher keep an eye on your students and learn what gets there attention. If a bunch of fictional superheroes can do this task, then as real-life superheroes we should be baffling the minds of our students when it comes to knowing them and knowing what we have to do.

Katie
In chapter 8 of the MI book the main point is how teachers can use MI theory to manage their classroom by taking different steps and measures to help quiet down the students or to help transitions from different activities and classes run smoother. The author suggests the use of many things such as bringing an animal into the classroom to gain full attention, making gestures and having the students repeat them to ensure they know there is a transition happening soon, and even playing music before the start of recess.

I find that some of the things the author mentioned the teacher to do to grab the students attention was quite comical. I believe that if I was to bring an animal into the classroom the students would become hectic with excitement and I would lose attention rather than gain it. I also find that the giving students gestures to do and then to have them copy me is also slightly odd, especially the idea of signaling lunch by “rubbing stomach and licking lips” (115). One idea that I did agree on was how teachers could be silent in order to gain attention and I have also seen this method used effectively many times in my own high school and even in college. Students will want to know why the teacher is not speaking and the silence will bring their attention back toward the teacher because of the oddness of the silence. When it comes to transitioning, I believe that students will settle down once they have gotten situated in their seats. I also believe in just starting the lesson because students will be quiet in order to hear what the teacher is saying.

Jasmine
Classroom management using multiple intelligences can sometimes be difficult because when a teacher walks into a room and everyone is talking, it can be hard to just ask them to be quiet because they may not be able to distinguish your voice from everyone else’s. For linguistic learners, it may be successful to write “silence” on the board. For kinesthetic learners, a teacher could put a finger to her mouth signifying shhhh. For musical, one could clap a rhythmic phrase and have the class repeat it back. There are varieties of ways to get students’ attention, but sometimes it may take more than one. When it comes to forming groups, sometimes it is hard to get people to explore and not just work with their friends. A good way to get them interacting could be to think of a vowel in their first name and find others with the same (linguistic), make the noise of a farm animal and find others who are making the same noise, etc. The list could go on and on. There are varieties of ways to get students interacting together while also appealing to a variety of learning styles. Managing student behavior can be difficult in an MI classroom because all students act differently for different reasons. As a teacher, I would use the table given in the book that exemplifies each intelligence and what kind of assignment to assign them depending on their behavior level whether it be aggressive, withdrawn, or hyperactive. Overall, sometimes the best strategy for a student may be one matched to a poorly developed intelligence, then he may benefit most from activities that seek to develop his social skills. A teacher always needs to be aware of students and how they learn in order to make the classroom manage in a way that works for all students involved.

Roger
The eighth chapter in MI is about classroom management. The book follows along the same design as other chapters, meaning that it mainly consisted of examples of how to explain rules and managing behavior. Some of the ideas mentioned are already commonplace in the classroom. If one method doesn’t work, that would be where the teacher tries another. It doesn’t take much common sense to figure that one out. Other ideas were completely obnoxious. Yeah, let’s bring an animal into the classroom to get the class to quiet down. Where’s all the attention going to go? To the animal. Not the teacher. Armstrong was clearly reaching on some ideas here. What have I learned from it? About nil. I already know the MI theory pretty well, it’s only come up in every class. Application isn’t too hard to figure out, especially when it’s been said in every chapter. As far as application in my classroom goes, it would be a common sense application. Use what works. That would be a concept that goes a little beyond the book. MI is a branch of the Differentiated Instruction tree – these are concepts that have been drilled into us education students since last year. Application can be summed up to one simple concept – be ready to adapt. Every person is an individual, and this means that instruction will have to be different for different people. The whole MI theory and its application is something that could have been summed up in a single chapter, and rolled into the fairly simple understanding that people are individuals.

Dan
When you have a teaching a differentiated classroom full of many types of learners, having the ability to properly manage the classroom is vital. Everyone can relate to a classroom where the teacher would yell for silence but to no avail. This may work for a student of a linguistic learning, but other approaches need to be taken to get the attention of the other students. For instance, clapping in a rhythmic pattern could grab the attention of a musically inclined individual. When I am a teacher, I will use countless strategies to gain the attention of my students, but I will not devote all of my energy to silencing my students, for it takes away from the learning and teaching. I feel that the examples provided to prepare for transitions do not apply to high school students, as they seem childish in approach. For instance, rubbing your stomach and licking your lips for lunch seems quite creepy, especially in the eyes of high school students. But I do agree that teachers should communicate the classroom rules in a variety of forms, like written, with numbers, and pictures. I also agree that if students are allowed to help make rules, they will abide by them more often than not. When dealing with behavioral problems, I believe it is effective to address the problem in a way that relates to a child’s MI. For instance, if a student is more of a verbal student, the teacher should talk to them about what happened and give books that deal with the issue.

Brittany
This chapter gave some suggestions for different ways to address classroom management through different types of MI. I think some of the suggestions are not very realistic. Such as showing graphic symbols or using gestures such as "rubbing stomach and licking lips" to signify when events such as lunch, recess and dismissal are occurring. I feel like these methods would not effectively gain student's attention, but would rather draw them into a conversation on the silliness that the teacher is exhibiting. When it comes to transitions, I think tried and true methods will always work best because students have grown up with them. Some of the suggestions in this book are geared towards young students at the elementary level. High school students would not respond well to a photo on the projector of kids getting on a bus as a symbol of a time to be quiet while they wait for dismissal. However I did like some of the suggestions for group formation, because they provide a spin on the usual ways. But again, they are mostly geared towards young children. Overall I was disappointed in this chapter because it repeatedly used examples for students at the elementary level. I feel like not very many of the examples could translate into something that would work in a middle or high school without the students thinking it is a joke. I think I will have to perform some independent research to really find ideas that have been shown to work in a secondary level classroom.

Alex Slack
MI Chapter 8 – In this chapter based on classroom management I realize that classroom management is something that you do not just walk into or read a book and learn about. I mean yes you can learn effective strategies and tips on what is the right way and the wrong way, but it the end it is you classroom and your rules, now don’t let the power go to your head! Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither wills you classroom management skills. The first thing that jumped out at me was the idea of grabbing kid’s attention in class. The first reason why this jumped out at me is because it made me realize what I did as a student versus what it means to be a teacher. I now look back and realize why so many teachers told me they felt as if they were fighting with me for class room attention. Therefore how do you handle the class clown, the prankster, or the Alex Slacks who just talk for the same of hearing their own voices? This question would probably intimidate most old school teachers but I feel us new school teachers are going to make their material so engaging that this student’s energy won’t be focused on class disruption but by how much they can learn in the time they are allotted. Therefore lets go out there and show this Alex Slack’s I mean students how we run our classrooms.

Jenn
As talked about through many theories on education, creating a good system for classroom management is impossible. However, MI theory has some good ways that it can tie in and become more effective by targeting everyone’s intelligences.

Although I felt like the book was stretching for ideas on how to target all eight intelligences when grabbing the attention of the class, I do understand the usefulness of reaching out to different learning styles. There were a few examples that the book explained for settling a class down, or getting started, that I didn’t think would be appropriate in the long run. First of all, although I think these methods would attract the attention of various learners it is exactly that attraction that usually causes thoughts to wander, and students will begin yelling out questions, discussing possibilities of what the teacher is trying to accomplish, etc. and the class might not end up quieting down for some time afterwards. I do believe that there are ways to transition and class and target multiple learning types at once, but I didn’t think that the book gave strong enough examples, and frankly the ones they did give I had seen used and failed in a classroom.

In my opinion, the best way to work with MI theory and transitioning the students would to be to come up with a way that uses multiple learning styles in one method. For example, in order to settle students you could play a music, have students tap a beat, and have the students be responsible as a whole class for making sure everyone is prepared to start. This could connect to musical, spatial, verbal, interpersonal, and kinesthetic learning. This method would seem much more clear, engaging and powerful than just using one type of learning style to target and I feel like the book missed the importance of that.

Lizz
When a teacher walks into a room and everyone is talking, it can be hard to just ask them to be quiet. For kinesthetic learners, a teacher could put a finger to her mouth signifying shhhh. For interpersonal, the teacher could whisper in the ear of a student, “it’s time to start-pass it on,” and then wait while students pass the message around. The only problem with using whispering as a technique is students tend to change things when talking to each other and it might turn into a game of telephone. When it comes to communicating classroom rules for each multiple intelligence a couple of examples are for kinesthetic each rule has a specific gesture; students show they know the rules by going through the different gestures. For musical, the rules might be set to a song or a song associated with the rule. Asking students to help create the classroom rules can gain their support for the rules and make them more likely to follow them. One of the sections from chapter 8 that grabbed my attention was forming groups because well in health classes, I was always in groups in both high school and college so knowing different ways to form groups is very important. Many times when you allow students to form their own groups they always work with the same people, they should try collaborating with someone new, and the multiple intelligence theory can help make forming groups fun and different at the same time. For kinesthetic, the teacher could have the students hop on one foot then go find someone who is hopping on the same foot. For naturalist the teacher can tell the students to choose either sheep, pig, or cow and suddenly there is a loud noise and only one animal is left and they have to start making that noise of the animal and find someone making the same animal noise.