Like many of my peers, I have had lots of experience with Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligence. One of the best ways to understand MI theory is to take a MI test yourself and identify your own strengths and weaknesses. I am strong in the visual/spatial intelligence but weak in math/logic. It is important for me to know and understand my intelligences so that I can make the most out of learning experiences by adjusting and adapting. It is vital, utterly important, totally necessary, for teachers to understand and incorporate this theory in the classroom--even though it defeats a major aspect of current education, the standards & accountability movement!
Some questions I am pondering are:
~How does MI relate to NCLB and standards?
~What is the best balance between using learning centers and exploration & direct instruction and memorization?
~How to avoid improper & inappropriate labelling while still providing necessary & appropriate recognition of exceptional learners?
~How to encourage & develop each child's strengths/weaknesses while still imparting the importance of performance & adaptability (outside of one's comfort zone) in our American society? (We value independence, competition, determination, self-sufficiency--these are not necessarily compatible with each multiple intelligence. Children, however, should also learn to be critical thinkers & be able to recognize when they may need to adapt to get the most out of the situation. There is something to be said for memorizing your multiplication table.)
~What are the most effective & fair methods of assessment? Using MI theory, teachers teach and assess differently based on individual intellectual strengths and weaknesses. I feel it would be an overwhelming challenge to assess every student according to his own strengths/weaknesses, although I know there are some helpful rubrics which can be effective. I think rubrics incorporating assessments in all the intelligences would be helpful for both teacher and student. Students should be able to see areas in which they can improve/be aware of their strengths/weaknesses. But students do need some "real life" assessments as well...it can't be all "fru-fru la la, everyone is special in their own way."
I feel very confident that I can properly incorporate MI theory in my classroom. I have worked in classrooms that use learning centers and they are very effective for reaching many intelligences. I really appreciated Concept to Classroom's implementation section on MI. This is a wonderful resource for new teachers who have little experience setting up and using learning centers. WOW! It's just such a great resource, and everything's all in one place. I think all educators should do professional development using this workshop!! I do not believe incorporating MI theory, on a large or small scale, is impractical, as some critics say, because I have seen it in action even in large, overcrowded classrooms with children in all ability levels and backgrounds.
I think we could talk about this theory for hours!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
VLIB and planet PDF
I greatly appreciated the PDF tutorial and discussion on planet PDF regarding the creation and storage of PDFs, just because it was interesting to think about major corporations or the government losing very important information just because of improper storage! Plus it was just weird to think about long term storage of internet documents. Very relevant to our future...but not too relevant to using this in the classroom...so onwards...
In the classroom being able to access online books and PDFs would be helpful anytime you needed to reference a title (but perhaps didn't need the entire book or have time to run to the library) and it would be great for accessing such info during class discussions, when you needed the info on the spot. Or perhaps you just wanted to print a paragraph out of a story to use for a writing topic...you could just click and print. Very effecient.
I also think this website would be helpful for professional development and teacher education...
The VILB website is a huge resource. The possibilities for classroom application are endless. The aspect of this resource I most appreciated was access to real research. It seems like many of the sites we regularly access are not giving us real research as opposed to newspaper articles, opinions, et. al. The VLIB resource provides so much factual information. For example, if my students were doing country or state reports, I could use the VLIB to find the best factual information sites (such as census reports and government information) and give the list to my students. That way my students are using factual information rather than just googling "Oregon population" and using the first thing they find. This resource is invaluable, because as we all know, not everything on the internet is true (no!?! really??!!). The VLIB is not as user friendly as some sites, but with plenty of exploration I believe it will be a very, very helpful resource for any number of classroom projects.
In the classroom being able to access online books and PDFs would be helpful anytime you needed to reference a title (but perhaps didn't need the entire book or have time to run to the library) and it would be great for accessing such info during class discussions, when you needed the info on the spot. Or perhaps you just wanted to print a paragraph out of a story to use for a writing topic...you could just click and print. Very effecient.
I also think this website would be helpful for professional development and teacher education...
The VILB website is a huge resource. The possibilities for classroom application are endless. The aspect of this resource I most appreciated was access to real research. It seems like many of the sites we regularly access are not giving us real research as opposed to newspaper articles, opinions, et. al. The VLIB resource provides so much factual information. For example, if my students were doing country or state reports, I could use the VLIB to find the best factual information sites (such as census reports and government information) and give the list to my students. That way my students are using factual information rather than just googling "Oregon population" and using the first thing they find. This resource is invaluable, because as we all know, not everything on the internet is true (no!?! really??!!). The VLIB is not as user friendly as some sites, but with plenty of exploration I believe it will be a very, very helpful resource for any number of classroom projects.
emotions & learning
One of our recommended readings, The Emotional Basis of Learning, by Norboru Kobayashi, MD, sparked a flame that has been just a flicker lately. While I was attending UO and teaching preschool, I was extremely interested in Robert Slywester's research on the brain and how emotions affect learning. Dr. Slywester is an Emeritus Professor of Education at UO and his research on how stress affects the brain (and thus, learning) is fascinating. But since leaving college, my reading and research on this topic has ground to a halt.
Fortunately Dr. Dunleavy chose an article on this very topic and I hope we can delve into this issue together online (since it's probably not going to come up in class).
The overall issue of debate is nature vs. nurture, a topic with which I'm sure we're all familiar. Dr. Kobayashi's argument in The Emotional Basis of Learning is that a "positive and emotionally rich environment is not a luxury but actually a necessity for better education." I couldn't agree more.
What Dr. Slywester has discovered is that the brain cannot absorb new knowledge and create connections when the person is experiencing stress. In my mind I relate his studies to Maslov's hierarchy of needs, in which basic needs must be met before critical thinking and self awareness can occur. I'm fascincated by how the studies of brain development, stress, and emotions relate to learning, and how this research can positively affect our teaching.
I live and work in a very low SES neighborhood, and our elementary school has extremely high turnover rates along with many other problems that go hand-in-hand with low SES. Some parents here have restraining orders; kids come to school without having breakfast or without jackets; kids leave school all of a sudden without saying goodbye or even cleaning out their desk. In this atmosphere, learning is sometimes the very last thing on their minds. In fact, according to the aforementioned research, learning is impossible when stresses like these are present.
As teachers, then, how do we overcome (work with? work around? eliminate? ignore?) such barriers to thinking and learning? I believe a thorough knowledge of how the brain & body systems work and respond to stress is the first step for teachers. Research on brain function and learning should be required in professional development for teachers on a continual basis (as such research grows and evolves). Why don't states and disticts fund this kind of development currently? I believe there is still too much public controversy over nature vs. nurture. Some people do not accept the idea that students CAN overcome a poor headstart by having access to a nurturing, loving environment.
In the classroom I've seen teachers dealing with this issue by providing the emotional support and nurturing that's missing in the home. This is a HUGE challenge. It is extremely difficult to give that much of yourself to every student, year after year. According to research, however, it is essential that we do just that.
Check out these links for interesting & additional info:
http://www.newhorizons.org/neuro/sylwester3.htm
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS286&q=author:%22Sylwester%22+intitle:%22A+Biological+Brain+in+a+Cultural+Classroom:+Enhancing+...%22+&um=1&ie=UTF-8&oi=scholarr
Fortunately Dr. Dunleavy chose an article on this very topic and I hope we can delve into this issue together online (since it's probably not going to come up in class).
The overall issue of debate is nature vs. nurture, a topic with which I'm sure we're all familiar. Dr. Kobayashi's argument in The Emotional Basis of Learning is that a "positive and emotionally rich environment is not a luxury but actually a necessity for better education." I couldn't agree more.
What Dr. Slywester has discovered is that the brain cannot absorb new knowledge and create connections when the person is experiencing stress. In my mind I relate his studies to Maslov's hierarchy of needs, in which basic needs must be met before critical thinking and self awareness can occur. I'm fascincated by how the studies of brain development, stress, and emotions relate to learning, and how this research can positively affect our teaching.
I live and work in a very low SES neighborhood, and our elementary school has extremely high turnover rates along with many other problems that go hand-in-hand with low SES. Some parents here have restraining orders; kids come to school without having breakfast or without jackets; kids leave school all of a sudden without saying goodbye or even cleaning out their desk. In this atmosphere, learning is sometimes the very last thing on their minds. In fact, according to the aforementioned research, learning is impossible when stresses like these are present.
As teachers, then, how do we overcome (work with? work around? eliminate? ignore?) such barriers to thinking and learning? I believe a thorough knowledge of how the brain & body systems work and respond to stress is the first step for teachers. Research on brain function and learning should be required in professional development for teachers on a continual basis (as such research grows and evolves). Why don't states and disticts fund this kind of development currently? I believe there is still too much public controversy over nature vs. nurture. Some people do not accept the idea that students CAN overcome a poor headstart by having access to a nurturing, loving environment.
In the classroom I've seen teachers dealing with this issue by providing the emotional support and nurturing that's missing in the home. This is a HUGE challenge. It is extremely difficult to give that much of yourself to every student, year after year. According to research, however, it is essential that we do just that.
Check out these links for interesting & additional info:
http://www.newhorizons.org/neuro/sylwester3.htm
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS286&q=author:%22Sylwester%22+intitle:%22A+Biological+Brain+in+a+Cultural+Classroom:+Enhancing+...%22+&um=1&ie=UTF-8&oi=scholarr
learning to...make the blog more interesting!
We are all working hard in class to learn how to upload images to our blogs. Everyone seems frustrated but I think once we get the hang of it, it will help us all get more out of using blogs. Here is a view of my igoogle page. I chose some graphics, three fun things like the national geographic picture of the day, and the NY Times headlines. As I mentioned, I added a tab for education. It has provided some good links for education news, such as NCLB and other current issues. In the future I am going to add a new tab for education research, because I am interested in sites I can use to make my teaching more effective.
Looking more at this igoogle page, I am brainstorming some more ways I can use this in the class. For example, I can use the quote of the day in the class to stimulate thinking or even for a daily writing exercise...or use the picture of the day for art or critical thinking or just class discussion. This would also be a great way to check daily news updates to use in the classroom as well as in union discussions, colleague interaction, etc. I'm sure even more ideas will come with increased familiarity and use, so that is exciting.
Friday, July 25, 2008
initial thoughts...online ed resources furl & igoogle
with a week's worth of exploring some online educational resources under my belt, i've come to some initial conclusions & thoughts about these resources:
*FURL is a great resource for teachers or any other professional. so far i've been investigating the issue of teacher merit pay, and using furl i've been able to weed out insignificant articles and save relevant ones. this is helping me develop a more comprehensive view of the issue. that way, once i am working as a teacher, i will have solid ground on which to stand as we navigate through this issue (it's currently an issue in oregon and will probably continue to be so when we graduate).
*IGOOGLE is interesting and i have had mixed success using all of the components. i am not too familiar with using spreadsheets, etc and got somewhat lost in cyperspace when navigating to those tools.
the overall issues i am working to overcome using this technology are:
*moving past newspaper articles and insignificant topics and delving deeper into actual research articles for improving teaching: i've had lots of luck with igoogle and furl keeping up with current education issues and news topics, but not so with real research or discussion of methods, lessons, etc. i know they are out there and i'm confident i will find them as we move forward with the class.
*time dedication to exploring these resources: i believe increased familiarity will come with increased use, and thus will follow increased relevance as i more effeciently navigate through the bs and get to the real good stuff. but as a teacher i wonder what the prinicpal would think if he/she always saw me just sitting on the internet during my prep time. i believe with more practice i could incorporate a positive balance between internet researching, maintaining a classroom blog or website, and completing other prep tasks in the classroom.
*reliance on online resources squelching my own creativity: i worry that if every time i need to do a lesson, knowing that i could probably find a wonderful idea online, i would rely too much on these resources to the expense of my own creativity. or, in the same train of thought, how to balance time online using these resources with time spent working in person with collegues to brainstorm and create new programs together. i feel like with limited time it will take a real balancing act and dedication to get quality results from online resources while simultaneously maintaining personal creativity and positive peer/coteaching relationships.
*FURL is a great resource for teachers or any other professional. so far i've been investigating the issue of teacher merit pay, and using furl i've been able to weed out insignificant articles and save relevant ones. this is helping me develop a more comprehensive view of the issue. that way, once i am working as a teacher, i will have solid ground on which to stand as we navigate through this issue (it's currently an issue in oregon and will probably continue to be so when we graduate).
*IGOOGLE is interesting and i have had mixed success using all of the components. i am not too familiar with using spreadsheets, etc and got somewhat lost in cyperspace when navigating to those tools.
the overall issues i am working to overcome using this technology are:
*moving past newspaper articles and insignificant topics and delving deeper into actual research articles for improving teaching: i've had lots of luck with igoogle and furl keeping up with current education issues and news topics, but not so with real research or discussion of methods, lessons, etc. i know they are out there and i'm confident i will find them as we move forward with the class.
*time dedication to exploring these resources: i believe increased familiarity will come with increased use, and thus will follow increased relevance as i more effeciently navigate through the bs and get to the real good stuff. but as a teacher i wonder what the prinicpal would think if he/she always saw me just sitting on the internet during my prep time. i believe with more practice i could incorporate a positive balance between internet researching, maintaining a classroom blog or website, and completing other prep tasks in the classroom.
*reliance on online resources squelching my own creativity: i worry that if every time i need to do a lesson, knowing that i could probably find a wonderful idea online, i would rely too much on these resources to the expense of my own creativity. or, in the same train of thought, how to balance time online using these resources with time spent working in person with collegues to brainstorm and create new programs together. i feel like with limited time it will take a real balancing act and dedication to get quality results from online resources while simultaneously maintaining personal creativity and positive peer/coteaching relationships.
Monday, July 21, 2008
the Burn...not educationally relevant but still very incredible
what happened was:
went to saturday session of class and got out a little early. decided to hurry to medford to see if old navy had swimsuit on sale for little one at home. no luck so bought gas and headed home over hwy 140.
it was hot. my old piece of lovable junk started to overheat. mind you, it was not overheating. the needle was just inching its way up towards the red zone. so being the normal person i am, i pulled over to let it cool off. i, like millions of people the world over, popped the hood to take a look.
unlike millions of people the world over, i had the misfortune of standing directly in front of a (unbeknownst to me) broken radiator. it boiled, it became pressurized, and it exploded.
directly onto me.
i screamed, i ran, i panicked. the hot, steaming, burning anti-freeze burned the living daylights out of me.
luckily for me some lovely, wonderful, saintly folk pulled over to help. they drove me to lake of the woods where i showered off the yucky, sticky, hot radiator fluid. then i really started to panic. the skin was peeling and blistering.
i wound up in the ER and was treated for first and second degree burns over 3% of my body. not 30%, but still a percent! yikes.
we had our final presentation the following monday (only 1 day away!) so i got a ride back over to ashland and tried to overcome and shine. the rest of the week continued to go downhill as i could not sleep, dress, walk, clean, shower, et al.
so thanks everyone for the support. it definitely feels good to vent. and just keep in mind when your car starts to overheat...
went to saturday session of class and got out a little early. decided to hurry to medford to see if old navy had swimsuit on sale for little one at home. no luck so bought gas and headed home over hwy 140.
it was hot. my old piece of lovable junk started to overheat. mind you, it was not overheating. the needle was just inching its way up towards the red zone. so being the normal person i am, i pulled over to let it cool off. i, like millions of people the world over, popped the hood to take a look.
unlike millions of people the world over, i had the misfortune of standing directly in front of a (unbeknownst to me) broken radiator. it boiled, it became pressurized, and it exploded.
directly onto me.
i screamed, i ran, i panicked. the hot, steaming, burning anti-freeze burned the living daylights out of me.
luckily for me some lovely, wonderful, saintly folk pulled over to help. they drove me to lake of the woods where i showered off the yucky, sticky, hot radiator fluid. then i really started to panic. the skin was peeling and blistering.
i wound up in the ER and was treated for first and second degree burns over 3% of my body. not 30%, but still a percent! yikes.
we had our final presentation the following monday (only 1 day away!) so i got a ride back over to ashland and tried to overcome and shine. the rest of the week continued to go downhill as i could not sleep, dress, walk, clean, shower, et al.
so thanks everyone for the support. it definitely feels good to vent. and just keep in mind when your car starts to overheat...
creating igoogle...feeling traitorish
we are now creating our igoogle during our first class session. the first thing i did was look at the art, in order to design my own "theme." but how can it be my own when i chose it out of a list?
regardless, it still made me feel "unique" by adding the beautiful colors. i can see why people like to do such a thing: having your own igoogle somehow makes you feel... connected? unique? intellectual? hip?
then i added a tab. i chose "education" since that is why we are all here. WOW. all of a sudden a million links to education related sites appeared on my igoogle. (are you supposed to call it "my igoogle?")
i really can't believe how many are out there. it makes me feel slightly overwhelmed, like perhaps i am missing something REALLY IMPORTANT.
next i added "gadgets." jokes of the day! confucius quotes of the day! the NY Times! i haven't been up to date on reading the NY times every day since college (5 years ago). my own klamath falls weather! there are pages upon pages of gadgets.
i would never get any work done if i checked my igoogle everyday. what do people do all day long at work? play on igoogle? i can see how it would eat up...no, GOBBLE, precious time out my day that i need to spend interacting with my coworkers and customers, connecting with my family, and reading a real book!
i also can't believe it. i tried to read my confucius quote of the day: it was sponsored by an advertisment! unbelievable. no, very believable. so i will just have to delete poor old confucius.
i am very wary of this igoogle. it's the same reason i cancelled my myspace account: would i rather spend time on the computer or with people? maybe i am missing out on REALLY IMPORTANT things. but maybe i am not.
the only caveat is that the purpose of this is to gain more knowledge and access to resources to help me become a better teacher. so maybe i really need to focus on this and later i will learn to filter the junk. here we go, just me and my igoogle!!
regardless, it still made me feel "unique" by adding the beautiful colors. i can see why people like to do such a thing: having your own igoogle somehow makes you feel... connected? unique? intellectual? hip?
then i added a tab. i chose "education" since that is why we are all here. WOW. all of a sudden a million links to education related sites appeared on my igoogle. (are you supposed to call it "my igoogle?")
i really can't believe how many are out there. it makes me feel slightly overwhelmed, like perhaps i am missing something REALLY IMPORTANT.
next i added "gadgets." jokes of the day! confucius quotes of the day! the NY Times! i haven't been up to date on reading the NY times every day since college (5 years ago). my own klamath falls weather! there are pages upon pages of gadgets.
i would never get any work done if i checked my igoogle everyday. what do people do all day long at work? play on igoogle? i can see how it would eat up...no, GOBBLE, precious time out my day that i need to spend interacting with my coworkers and customers, connecting with my family, and reading a real book!
i also can't believe it. i tried to read my confucius quote of the day: it was sponsored by an advertisment! unbelievable. no, very believable. so i will just have to delete poor old confucius.
i am very wary of this igoogle. it's the same reason i cancelled my myspace account: would i rather spend time on the computer or with people? maybe i am missing out on REALLY IMPORTANT things. but maybe i am not.
the only caveat is that the purpose of this is to gain more knowledge and access to resources to help me become a better teacher. so maybe i really need to focus on this and later i will learn to filter the junk. here we go, just me and my igoogle!!
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