MI+Chapter+7+Block+1

[|Synthesis MI C7 B1]

Chapter 7 of Multiple Intelligences in the classroom focuses on the importance of classroom environment. Having a proper classroom setup corresponds to having a curriculum and teaching method that include all 8 multiple intelligences. The chapter gives ideas for the most effective environment for each intelligence. Each intelligence has different elements that can be effected in someway by the ecological factors in the classroom. Supplying ideas that accompany each student gives teachers a better idea of how to incorporate them all in the setup. If the teacher cannot create a classroom environment to support all the students they can use pieces of their classroom to have the similar effect. The chapter explains that teachers can provide different areas of the classroom for different student activities that take their intelligence type into account. The ideas in this chapter surprised me a little. I understood that in order to accompany all my student differences I would need to adjust my curriculum and teaching strategies, but it honestly never crossed my mind to rearrange my classroom, or consider which words and posters I was hanging on the walls. The ideas for integrating all of the intelligences into classroom setup and structure didn’t occur to me, but however, make perfect sense! To stimulate different types of learners I must have different types of attractions in my classroom. Dividing the classroom into different types of groups for different learning styles also helped my thinking a lot to adjust to the needs I would have to consider. Each intelligence provides a context for asking some questions about factors that either promote or interrupt learning in the classroom. They also point out some things that could be added or removed from the classroom that could help a student’s learning progress. For example, a question that can be asked from a linguistic point of view is how are spoken words used? For musical, a question might be: how does the teacher use his or her voice? To help focus the organization of the classroom, the teacher can designate areas of the room to a specific intelligence. For example, a teacher can create a naturalistic center a part of the room can contain a class pet where the students can interact with it.
 * **Names** || **Abstract** || **Reflection** ||
 * Archambault Michael || Classroom environment is essentially how things interact with each other, or classroom ecology. There are certain tools that a teacher can use that appeal to each species of learners inside the ecology. There can be permanent activity centers, like a classroom library with comfy seating, temporary activity centers such as stations or work sites, and then a combination of the two. By having multiple niche's in your classroom ecology, you promote learning and appeal to every style of learner. There can be times when you thrust a student into a new niche by direction, or you could let students pick whatever niche they want. || I like the idea of a classroom ecology. It is nice when the teacher has a little library with a couch or something so students can read or relax during down time. That's the only time I have really seen that type of work site used. Most classrooms that have that situation never get used, and it's more like an unwritten rule that you aren't allowed to sit on the comfy couch or go into the personal reading area. I would like to see the book explore different options for the less obvious subject areas for activity centers. How could a math teacher have activity centers, especially if they teach in a high school like most are in Maine where the teachers roam, and don't have a home classroom. ||
 * Audy Melissa || Chapter 7 in Multiple Intelligences begins by explaining that the environment created within the classroom is actually an important factor to consider. It talks about the stereotypical classroom where all the desks are in straight lines, facing front, and explains that this type of setting can be harmful to the learning process. Classroom environment affects learners of each intelligence differently, and the chapter breaks it down for each intelligence, explaining what factors of the classroom environment will affect the learners. For example, those with special intelligence will especially notice how decorated a room is, while those with natural intelligence will look more for plants or windows to the outdoors around the room. The chapter then breaks down ways to add items to a classroom that will comfort the learners of various intelligences. By designing an area for each intelligence, “activity centers,” as the book calls them, are created. This chapter encourages finding ways to make students comfortable in order to improve their learning. || I agree that environment can really affect the way a person learns. One of my teachers in high school had one of the “portable” classrooms (a.k.a. a trailer, because my school was terribly overcrowded) and she really used it to her advantage! All of her tables were easily folded, and they were almost always tucked in a corner, along with stacks of chairs, leaving the floor open. Everyone, including the teacher, would sit in a circle on the carpeted floor. This actually seemed to benefit our learning. Everybody was well engaged in the class, and displayed a comfort not seen in the typical classroom. I also find that most of the English classes I have taken here, at UMF have been set up in circles, which also seems beneficial. However, although this certainly affects those with special intelligence, there are so many other things that must be considered to make students comfortable. This chapter helped me realize that there are factors to classroom environment, besides arrangement, that affect each intelligence. ||
 * Boulter Elizabeth || This chapter was different in the way it addressed MIs in the classroom. It posed questions that made the reader think critically about the classroom ecology and how that affects learners. From “linguistic pollution” to “my way of the highway”, the chapter confronts countless aspects of a traditional classroom. The questions force the reader to think about the ecology in a classroom and how they want theirs to be. They next talk about activity centers and how having a place that is centered on positive learning and creates “intelligence-friendly” areas. The chapter gives overviews of different activity centers like temporary topic-specific, temporary open-ended and permanent topic-specific (shifting) centers. It explains what should happen in each center, like poems, calculations, games, drawings, and discussions, just to name a few. These centers provide students with options that will get them engaged and having fun- fun that is tailored to their learning style! || This chapter was really helpful to me. I really liked all the questions posed at the beginning because it got me thinking about what I want my classroom to be. I think the paragraph about “linguistic pollution” and busy work that was repetitive was very true because it happens all of the time and I do NOT want to become a teacher who does that. I liked the ideas it gave about the activity centers because I think it’s important to have areas devoted to different kinds of thinking- thinking that is catered to each MI. ||
 * Brown Ryanne ||  ||
 * DePue Margaux || Chapter 7 of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom explores the idea of changes in classroom ecology (environment) to accommodate the learning needs of all students. Teachers can question the accommodations of their classroom by looking at the context that each intelligence can provide. For instance, in terms of spatial intelligence, is the furniture arranged to meet only one need for student activity or many? MI activity centers, or stations targeted towards engaging certain intelligences through specialized activities, can be temporary or permanent. They can be open-ended (areas created specifically for the engagement for certain intelligences), such as areas of the room that allow students to use their kinesthetic intelligence to play a board game put on a performance. Topic-specific centers can also be used to engage all intelligences in a certain topic being studied. || The thought of creating specific centers to help students engage specific intelligences had never occurred to me before! I had thought about differences in room arrangements and how the classroom itself was assembled, but there are still so many possibilities in terms of designated areas of the room for certain activities. My math teacher in high school created temporary stations for a group project that engaged different intelligences and involved the exploration of different kinds of functions and relationships through real models. This got us up and moving around the room and certain activities, such as using small game pieces or measuring our heights and armspans allowed us to exercise our spacial and kinesthetic intelligences. It is possible that I could do the same thing but with activities related to my concentration. ||
 * Dunne Kaisha || Chapter 7, called “MI and the Classroom Environment” discussed the relationship between MI and ecological factors in learning. In this chapter it looks at activity centers for each intelligence and gives the students choices of working in an environment that best fits their intelligence. This chapter started out by discussing the type of classroom that we are all used to; rows of chairs, chalk board, teachers desk up front, and pretty much has plain and boring written all over it. This chapter discusses that you should apply the MI’s to your classroom and make it welcoming to all the different types of learners into your classroom. They propose questions to see if your classroom is intelligence and student friendly. Environment is key, because the students need to feel comfortable to be able to learn. The examples in the book on how to make your classroom intelligent friendly are great. The usual's are bodily-kinesthetic with hands on activities, verbal with lecture, and linguistic with reading and books. This chapter provided more examples to be able to expand. || This is a good chapter as we go into developing our units, because it gets us thinking about how we would set up our classroom and the environment we want kids to walk into. This helps with the MI part of our lessons to get us thinking of how each of the 8 MI's is included. As I read I thought wow I could use something like that in my class or that's a good idea or I should think about that more. This chapter also brings you back to thinking about the rooms that my teachers had back in high school and if any of these things applied and what stood out to me. ||
 * Hudson Kimberly ||  ||


 * This is interesting because it allows the teacher to focus questions on the areas of intelligences that are not being used regularly in the classroom. It also allows the teacher to address issues that certain intelligences can have. For example, is the noise level appropriate enough so that auditory learners can learn, but not be distracted? I really liked the idea of the stations. That way a student can go to a station that they are most comfortable in and have a place where learning is more comfortable. ||
 * Korn Shauna || This chapter went over different intelligence in a new way. The format that this chapter used was to start with asking questions that pertained to each intelligence and to the student with that intelligence. Some questions pertained to the way the classroom looked and felt and other questions talked about opportunities that a student with that intelligence would be able to have in the setting that is provided. This expressed the importance of the look and the feel of the classroom and how it affects the students in your classroom. If you create a classroom that looks more like a jail than students will learn less just because of the setting. Each student will need a piece of the classroom that he/she can relate to otherwise it may just feel like a classroom to them and not a learning environment. The next part of the book had to do with MI centers. There are five main one of which has more free will for students. The types of centers allow teachers to do a lot with each intelligence and decide to leave things open ended or not. || I like the questions that were asked about each intelligence in the book. I liked them, because it made me think about the classroom that I would be having. This also made me think of what I might have for a classroom and if I didn’t have any windows or other things that are crucial to the students with that intelligence. I thought that perhaps I would not just add plants and other things, but maybe get a window frame and create a scene in it to hang on the wall like a picture. This is just one suggestion that I thought of in case that scenario came about when I became a teacher. I feel that no matter what your budget is there is always ways to make your classroom more comfortable and fitting for students and techniques to engage them and leave the ball in their court. ||
 * LaRose Rebecca || Chapter 7 uses questions that made the reader think about how to cater to the different intelligences. How the room is arranged proved to be important to how certain students feel and learn. Making the classroom more comfortable is more conducive to learning and helps all students. Activity centers give students the opportunity to reach out to their peers in order to get exposed to other intelligences. Because students can see how their peers learn best, they can find other ways of doing things, but also learn to respect that their way isn't the only way of doing things. || I liked this chapter. I felt as though the questions made me realize that how I arrange my room impacts students and how they learn and feel in their environment. I think that it is important to cater to how comfortable students are and whether or not the room intimidates them like so many have to me over the years. I also liked the idea of exposing students to other ways of learning because when they see that their peer uses another strategy better than the one that they use, they can see and respect other ways of thinking. ||
 * Murphy Amber || This chapter opens with going over each one of the intelligence and giving different situations or asking different questions making you think about different accommodations for each of the intelligence. For example the spatial intelligence asked how is the classroom furniture arranged? Is the room attractive to the eye? These questions force teachers to thing of ways to engage every learner from the classroom environment. Another good idea for teachers is to create an activity center which touches base with each of the intelligence. When teachers have activity centers it is important to give the students the opportunity to choose which center they work in. Everyone is strong in certain areas and intelligences and this is a time where you can allow students to excel in their intelligence. || The questions which were asked at the start of the chapter made me think in great detail of ways to touch each of the intelligence. I believe that it is essential to set the classroom up in ways that all learners can benefit. These questions forced me to analyze the classrooms which I have been in and made me question how teachers have done well and how the teacher could also improve. I also support giving students the opportunity to decide which activity they do. I believe that school should be fun and students should have some time each day to do activities which they enjoy. These small things all help to improve the school environment and push the student to succeed. ||
 * Nieuwkerk Hannah || The chapter begins by stating that when using the Multiple Intelligences, the classroom environment might have to drastically change to accommodate the different learners. The book then gives a sort of checklist for each of the intelligences. If most of the answers were negative, then the learning environment is not very high-quality; on the flip side, if the answers were positive, the environment is a good one for students to learn in. MI activity centers are a great ‘intelligence-friendly’ way to break through boundaries. The classroom is broken down into four activity centers: permanent open-ended, temporary open-ended, permanent topic-specific and temporary topic-specific. The temporary topic-specific areas change frequently and are geared toward a certain theme, the temporary open-ended centers are for things like games that are centered around the eight intelligences, and the permanent topic-specific centers are for yearlong themes but new topics are introduced weekly or monthly. Activity centers are really nice because it allows the students to engage in active learning; students will like learning and look forward to class. || At first, I thought this was for elementary students because this is exactly what went one every day when I had an internship at a kindergarten classroom. After I started reading it, I realized that it is still good for students because it keeps them on task, and the activities aren’t too long. I think more information gets covered and students can learn cooperatively or alone. The only drawback is that there is only one teacher and four different activities going on at once. It would be hard to answer different questions from different centers all at once. The trick would be to have only one or two really challenging centers so they can have the help of the teacher. ||
 * Scheffler Erich || This chapter talked about how the classroom environment, or classroom ecology as the author calls it, can affect how students of each intelligence perform. How a teacher’s classroom is set up, and the environment that that teacher creates can greatly affect how a student performs in that class. This chapter also discussed four different activity centers. One was permanent open-ended activity centers, or things like lab areas, and libraries where students can go and do activities specific to their strong intelligence. Another activity center was the temporary topic-specific activity center. These are more geared to studying a certain subject. This can include a reading center where kids can read certain books and then write about them, or a place where students can design and draw things. The third activity center is a temporary open-ended activity center. This can introduce students to the different intelligences by using games and other things. The last one was called a permanent topic-specific activity center. || I thought this chapter was really nice. I like reading about all the different activity centers and the different ways I can use them in my classroom. I thought the third one, the temporary open-ended activity center would be the most helpful, because I think it’s important to teach kids in a variety of different ways, and expose them to each of the multiple intelligences. ||
 * Simoneau Andrea || This chapter discusses how a classroom environment can have an effect on student's learning, and how using knowledge of MI in structuring your classrooms' physical environment can boost the learning in your classroom. The book suggests MI activity centers, eight of them, each focusing on a specific intelligence, and if space does not allow for a permanent arrangement like this, the book suggests rearranging the physical environment of the classroom for a lesson or two. They also advocate student choice centers, where they can focus on the intelligence of their choice, and in some activities where its necessary that a certain topic be covered, have eight stations for people to move around to. || I found it interesting that colors of a classroom can deaden a student's ability to learn if they are spatial learners. But I wondered about naturalistic intelligence and having the students be allowed to look out a window. At what point does it just become distraction? Can a lesson really be taught around what's outside the window, all the time? How would you keep that habitual window-looker-outer engaged year round? ||
 * Stevens Newcomb || This chapter was mainly about the MI classroom and how current classrooms need to change. The MI classroom is designed to accommodate all of the intelligences. The MI classroom uses activity areas in order to let students learn how they learn. By allowing room for the different learning styles in the classroom environment, students fell welcome rather than bored or feeling like convicts. Classrooms that can utilize activity areas and other types of ways to appeal to the intelligences are signs of rejuvenation. || I think that this method of classroom environmentalism is one of the best things to happen to education. I think that the MI classroom is the five-star suite of classrooms due to all of the accommodations that are available: The spatial students can learn in an attractive environment that does not distract them from learning, musical students can hear music while they work, and the linguistic students are neither bored nor lost due to the teacher’s language. The classroom, when given activity areas, acts as multiple classrooms: this is something that most classrooms cannot even dream of. I think that I might be able to do this after a year or two as a teacher. I believe that this can really work if given the chance. ||
 * Stevens Newcomb || This chapter was mainly about the MI classroom and how current classrooms need to change. The MI classroom is designed to accommodate all of the intelligences. The MI classroom uses activity areas in order to let students learn how they learn. By allowing room for the different learning styles in the classroom environment, students fell welcome rather than bored or feeling like convicts. Classrooms that can utilize activity areas and other types of ways to appeal to the intelligences are signs of rejuvenation. || I think that this method of classroom environmentalism is one of the best things to happen to education. I think that the MI classroom is the five-star suite of classrooms due to all of the accommodations that are available: The spatial students can learn in an attractive environment that does not distract them from learning, musical students can hear music while they work, and the linguistic students are neither bored nor lost due to the teacher’s language. The classroom, when given activity areas, acts as multiple classrooms: this is something that most classrooms cannot even dream of. I think that I might be able to do this after a year or two as a teacher. I believe that this can really work if given the chance. ||