Along with student teaching, we have to take a seminar class once week at Trinity called Contemporary Issues. For this class we are reading a book called Classroom Confidential by Laurel Schmidt. In the first chapter, Schmidt talks about Gardner's multiple intelligence theory. Gardner believes that there are nine different types of intelligences, and that teachers should adopt a multiple intelligence approach to learning.
As I begin my student teaching, I want to do my best to figure out what type of learners my students are. Once I do this, I will be able to teach them in ways that they learn best. This will allow my students to use their intelligences to succeed. One of the major intelligences I will use during student teaching is kinesthetic. I have seven low functioning students who need to move around as much as possible. I will use activities that involve kinesthetic intelligences so that the students are able to move around while they are learning. A lot of my students have sensory needs so I will also incorporate activities that will stimulate their sensory needs.
Another intelligence that I will be focusing on is musical intelligence. When I met my students for the first time, I noticed that they all loved to listen to music, and some of them enjoyed dancing. I will definitely use music to teach my students because it is something they enjoy. If I am able to teach them a lesson that has music incorporated in it, I think they will really like it. If the students have fun with the lesson, hopefully they will learn more effectively.
Later in the chapter, Schmidt talks about how students need to have hands-on activities, but in order for this to be effective, it needs to be purposeful. Schmidt says, "... before you switch on the hands, you must ease the brain into gear and keep it running" (p. 15). This means that before I give my students hands-on activities, they need to understand the purpose of the activity. Just because an activity is hands-on does not mean that it is effective. I will use full brain learning by incorporating many different intelligences in each lesson. For example, if I am teaching my students about hygiene, I will have a variety of different methods. If we are going over the sequence of steps for washing your hands, I will have visual aid with the steps listed. I will also have a song that goes over the steps for washing your hands. I will also have my students actually practice washing their hands. This will give them a variety of different ways to learn the steps, and by using different methods, the students will benefit greatly.
I am really looking forward to learning new strategies for my students and implementing them into my classroom!
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Getting Excited!
Tomorrow is my first day of student teaching at St. Coletta's, and I'm getting very excited! I'm a little bit nervous, but I know that it will be such a great experience. St. Coletta's is a special education school, and I have 7 students in my classroom. There will be 6 aides, my cooperating teacher, and me, which means there will be 8 adults in the room. It will definitely be challenging making sure all of the aides are on the same page, but I have learned a lot about how to work with paraprofessionals in my classes so I am feeling pretty confident about that. I will let you all know how my first week goes in my next post!
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