MI- Chapter 8

Many times teachers are at a loss, as to how to get the attention of their students, or essentially, being able to keep them interested and respectful to listen when you ask. Getting a classroom full of so many unique and different students to all calm or quiet at once is not an easy task. Therefore there are many ways in which to approach this, one may be to use new techniques such as doing or saying something unplanned or unexpected by you students. Waiting, flashing lights, or writing on the board are all ways in which you can catch the attention of your students. In order to better understand how to reach your students, a teacher must consider all of the different multiple intelligences and how each one of these may be excited. Allowing each student to have input into the decisions being made, tasks at hand, or any kind of work/activity may allow them to be more interested and focused. I feel that the need to understand multiple intelligences is only becoming more and more important in order to have a balanced and attentive classroom.

Students will not respond if I simply teach to only one learning style/ intelligence. Creating activities that cater to all multiple intelligences is not hard, just takes some time and consideration. Knowing that multiple intelligences can be used to do so much will benefit not only my students but me as well in the long run. Most teachers resort to what they have experienced or what the “last resort” has become. Learning new ways of communication, verbal and physical, and how to address each student’s behavior may be the best way in order to be able to teach to the whole class not just a handful. I am interested to see how I can really adapt myself, to take myself out of my comfort zone/my own preferred learning style. I feel that when dealing with so many different learners having a routine may be the best way to help all students, mixing in all kinds of cues, music, inside and outside the classroom learning, different verbal and physical communication.