Multiple Intelligences

I would like to make a reflection about Multiple intelligences, taking into account that everyone is smart in different ways.  That’s why it is important not only for teacher, but also for everyone to know or identify how we learn better or which are our intelligent strengths, remembering that we can develop all the intelligences, but we need to exploit the ones that are stronger on us in our learning process.

We have schools because we hope that someday when students leave schools they will be able to use what they have learnt.  If students just make a good exam, we usually think they are learning, but the reality is different.  In the other hand, when somebody carries out an experiment, analyzes the data, makes predictions, does interviewing, reads the documents, then the student is not only memorizing a bunch of names, facts, dates, even a bunch of definitions. 

The idea of multiple intelligences comes out of psychology, it’s a theory that was developed to document the fact that human beings have different kinds of intellectual strengths and these strengths are very important  on how people learn, how people represent things in their minds and how people use them. 

If we all have exactly the same kind of mind then there is only one kind of intelligence, then we would teach everybody the same thing, in the same way, and assess the same way, that would be fair.  But we can see that people have different kinds of minds, different kinds of strengths, that people are good at thinking spatial, some people are good at learning language, other people are logical, others need to put hands on to explore actively, then,  we realize that education that treats everybody the same way is actually the  most unfair one.  Because it picks one kind of mind, and the others who don’t think like that have not room in the learning process.   

If we know that one student has a visual spatial way of learning, another students has a very hands on way of learning, the third student likes to ask deep and philosophical questions, another likes stories, then,  we as teachers should provide tools, use technology, we can provide resources which present material to the student in a way that the student will find them interesting and he will be able to use the intelligences productively and show understanding in a way that is comfortable for him or her. 

Everything can be thought in more than one way and anything that is understood can be showed in more than one way.  I don’t believe that because there are eight intelligences we have to teach in eight ways, that would be silly, but we always have to ask ourselves: Are we reaching every student?  or,  Are there other ways we can do it.?  I think education needs to change to have more priorities.
By:  Mónica E. Vaca Cárdenas

Everyone is intelligent in different ways.  How are you smart?  What is your stronger Multiple Intelligence?

Take the test.  You can find the Multiple Intelligence test in your corresponding virtual English class.  http://www.evirtual.espoch.edu.ec/.

My Last Week at Building Teacher Skills through the Interactive Web course.

Thursday, August 25^th, 2011.

WEEK 10

Technology is more relevant every day in people’s life because of its fast increase and social impact with a number of different advances and, these advances open possibilities of innovation in the educative area too. Therefore, it is necessary to rethink in the teaching – learning processes and to promote the permanent updating on them around technological resources.

 

Building Teacher Skills through the Interactive Web course is coming to the end.  Thank you very much to everyone who made it possible I can be part of this nice experience. 

 

This is a great opportunity for any teacher whose desire is to get better.  Education needs to change, we cannot continue teaching in the same traditional way, technology is all around us and we cannot stay apart. Our students belong to the technological era and we need to learn about it. Then, our role is to use effective technological tools and resources in the classrooms which are basic characteristics of 21st Century teaching and learning.

 

This is a unique occasion everyone should improve.  It really deserves time to surf in the wonderful range of possibilities this web course offers and the tutors are very nice, especially Donna.

After a year of applying these new tools, I hope to be in Level 4b – (Integration: Routine), based on “LoTi” (Levels of Teaching Innovation), where students are fully engaged in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources such as: web quests, bloggers, delicious, interactive power point, Nicenet discussions, virtual classes and online assessment, where the teacher is promoting an inquiry-based model of teaching that involves students applying their learning to the real world.

All the topics presented in this course were really interested, but considering the short time which is assigned for English class in my University (this is two classes a week) I will only apply the tools I considered more important.

All in all we have had a very good on line course, I hope the best for the new participants and I look forward to put in practice and share what I have learnt.

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.  Anatole France

 

Greetings,

Monica E. Vaca Cardenas

 

Learning Styles

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Week 9

Using learning styles in our learning process provide better learning opportunities. They give fresh direction to alternative teaching, because students will learn better when using preferences in which they're successful and they will be better learners when they can expand their preferences. As teachers we need to identify not only student’s needs and interests, but also students learning styles for multiple intelligences, there are many classifications, so I think we should identify the most common. 

Technology can be used to facilitate learning in each intelligence area. There is no "right way" to integrate intelligences or technology into the classroom. The key is to provide the most effective learning environment for students.

In my opinion it is important to help learners to explore all the multiple intelligences.  And the resources we can find using technology are incredible, but demand a hard work from the teacher.  It is a challenge we have.

"Teachers bring enthusiasm and varied teaching and assessing approaches to the classroom, addressing different student needs and ensuring sound learning opportunities for every student"

During these weeks I have learnt a lot and I still have so much to learn in order to provide my students a better learning process.  My goal is that my students learn to learn. 

Thank you very much to Donna and all e-friends for sharing with me these weeks full of friendship, love and knowledge.  My desire is to put in practice what I have learnt and share the little I know with others.

Best wishes,

Monica Vaca Cardenas

ENHANCING LEARNING

Students need motivation to learn, but that is a difficult task for teachers since, every person is different, they have different interests, different backgrounds and different intelligences.   Using technology in our classes can help us to provide our students with different material where they can develop their skills, interact with others, find their interests, and become into autonomous learners, while we accomplish with our learning goals.

This week I had to work very hard writing the draft of my plan, trying to put in practice everything I have learnt so far.  I have a positive feeling it will help me a lot.  Have a nice week everybody.

Sunday, August 7th, 2011

WEEK 7

LEARNER AUTONOMY

We never stop learning and we learn something every day.  This week we were reflecting about the importance of learner autonomy, which is the ability to take charge of one's learning, which in my opinion is the most important aspect we should teach our students in order to have competitive leaders, who do not depend on teachers but on themselves.

The teacher plays an important role here, we need to adapt resources, materials, and methods to the learners' needs and even abandon them if necessary.   The teacher can help students to take responsibility for their own learning, making them read for pleasure and suggest them to listen to as much English as possible, e.g. english programs on TV or radio, make them to form groups to share their experiences. This could encourage those who are less motivated to learn by choosing and doing what they wanted and liked, and sharing with their friends.  And nowadays with the use of technology it is easy to find interactive tools for learning English language and students can access to them anytime of course if they have the resources.  Unfortunately, in my country, no many people can have access to internet very often, but if they get the opportunity it is an advantage for them to learn.

And finally my suggestion is to continue learning the advantages of technology in order to share them with our students.  Most of the students don't have access to internet, but we can share with them what we have researched by the use of a computer, speakers and a head projector in our classes.

Let's get better for our students.

STUDENTS ENGAGEMENT

Saturday July 30, 2011

To have large classes in my country is very common, is a reality that we face, and of course it is a negative aspect for the leaning process, because in large classes, there is lack of interaction between teachers and students, teachers do not know their students, the facilities and environment are inadequacy and it is difficult to test or grade more often and, that's why the teacher requires not only knowledge of the subject matter but also knowledge of how students learn and how to transform them into active learners.

Teaching large classes is particularly challenging and teaching consists of getting students involved in the active construction of knowledge, how to do that?, within a cooperative context; individuals, working together.

A teacher working in class with projectors and a power point presentation is common and this doesn't have to be boring, it can be fun if we use creativity in our power point presentations, and we make them interactive, where students participate in a cooperative learning.

Have fun with your power point presentations.

MEANINGFUL LEARNING

Saturday, July 23d, 2011

Rubrics are so important for me as a teacher, because they are a wonderful way to clarify expectations for grading, for writing or speaking, especially when a teacher wants to emphasize one specific aspect of that performance, in summary they are an agreement between the teacher and the students.

During this week I have learnt about Project-based learning, where learners are given instructions and resources, and then they work in groups to create a project. And I find this method very useful to apply with my students.

I have used WebQuests, but I didn't know  they are a form of Project-based learning, now I know, that's why a webquest follows an specific pattern where students work in groups and the teacher clarifies the evaluation in the form of rubrics. With the example of the webquest  I can understand easily the concept of Project-based learning and from now on I am going to try to use more webquests.

Last year I presented my students three webquests, but the one I liked more was the one that talked about water, first I presented them a video about how water will disappear for year 2050, and they the webquest, in this project students presented very good ideas. I really liked their work.  Another webquest I did was about the global warming, and I titled it, what can we do to help?, students also did a great job. And the third one was about avoiding pregnancy in teenagers.

I don't want to be a traditional teacher, using traditional methods of teaching English that have not given good results so far. I want to help my students to develop language skills while conducting meaningful projects with meaningful language and about meaningful topics which are according to the student's interests and needs. 

Technology Enhanced Lesson Plan

Sunday, July 17th, 2011

The most important issue I learnt during this week was about the design of a Technology Enhanced Lesson Plan.  We need to plan our classes and with this new pattern we need to specific the technology material we are going to use.  Students are very attractive to technology, so this is a positive point for teachers to improve our classes and call students attention.

The web provides many tools for language learning and it is an invaluable source, for teachers to create classroom materials and for students to explore the whole world, since Internet gives students variety and choice, from an enormous number of sites. And in order to develop specific skills in our students.

In order to improve my students' writing skills, by using web resources I can apply different content and task based writing activities, such as: writing a letter to a friend, a formal letter, a biography, a description of a person, write an essay, a description of a festival/ceremony, a description of a book/film/play, a newspaper report, an opinion essay and a description of a place, etc. Applying of course cooperative learning in my on-line classroom.

For improving my student’s reading skill I will use a story, because  stories are attractive and they call the attention of students. Through this, my students will get the main idea of texts through questions, and working in groups.  They also will be able to answer questions about detailed information of the text, by sharing with their partners their ideas and thoughts. Finally students will elaborate an individual summary. 

In addition, in order to improve reading and vocabulary I will apply the web page about news: (Breaking News English.

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/), where students can get informed and at the same time they get updated about the Business area, In this page I will use the link Business English materials.  There are plenty of great sites out there that cover the “traditional” stuff like presentations, meetings, talking about graphs, etc. all of which lead students to read more and study more outside of the classroom, with the authentic material they can find.

In my opinion the main problem students have in English is pronunciation and writing.  So considering these problems, the web can help a lot in order to improve all basic language skills reading, writing, speaking and listening, including the sub skills: grammar and vocabulary, since there are plenty of great sites in the internet that we teachers and our students can use.  Personally I try to use in my class the Integrating skill approach where all the skills are integrated and not separated, the virtual class as a reinforcement and cooperative and collaborative learning.

Monica Vaca Cardenas

Every day is another opportunity to get better

The time flies away and we need to improve every second to be a better human being, be happy and learn from our mistakes.
In order to improve our classes with the use of technology, another new tool appeared called delicious.com, which is a kind of bookmarking, which is an interesting way to organize our web links online and share them with others.
We were also reflecting about how to develop our students basic skills mainly listening and speaking skills, and the resources I prefer for improving speaking skills are videos, internet radio, and cds. I favour videos because, they allow my students access to more information when listening. They can see what is happening as well as listen to the text. They are a good motivation too.
This week had brought me many challenges, but I think I am succeeding them.

STARTING A PROJECT

Monday, 27 June 2011

STARTING A PROJECT

This has been an extremely busy week for me, but with the help of my students, and God, everything has gone satisfactory.

During this week I have learnt a different tool for searching information, which is www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html , with this tool, we are able to improve time and reduce stress when searching in the web, because we get what we really need in an easier way, with not many entries.

Teacher need to establish clear and measurable objectives that help to design lessons, that are easy for the student to understand and easy for the teacher to evaluate.  In this area, I have learnt a new way for setting objectives called ABCD, which stands for: Audience, Behavior, Condition and Degree.  an original and interesting way.

Finally,  I started thinking in who my final project will be directed to, and I decided to direct it to level I, since they are starting taking this subject at their superior level, and they follow the learning process easier than the ones who started before with another methodology.

Many challenges present In our lives, let´s continue with perseverance.

DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAM

Webskills Reflections

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

My Blog

During this week I had many challenges; we have been talking about important topics like rubrics and discussion rules. I had my blog, but I haven't been using it, so this week I recuperated my password and learnt that my blog can be a very useful tool to work with my students, because it can be used for many purposes as a method for improving teaching.

My students can follow my blog, read the articles I published, give their opinions and we can discuss about a specific topic from the blog in class.