"Knowing one's own unique pattern of intelligences empowers a student to translate a different learning situation into an opportunity to operate from strength."
"Multiple intelligences empowers us to be more successful. We begin to see ourselves and others in more differentiated ways. No one is smart or dumb; each of us has a unique pattern of intelligences. Of our students we stop asking, "How smart are you?" and begin asking, "How are you smart?"
**I absolutely love this quote because sometimes it is so hard to remember that it is not always about how much a student knows and to what extent they know something, but more importantly that they know how they are getting to these answers and why they are able to figure things out (what intelligences allow them to solve these "problems").
"Each student has a very different mind; each is attracted to, comfortable with, and in turn becomes skilled with different kinds of stimuli."
"The more often we use our non-dominant intelligences, the stronger they become."
**This is another fantastic quote that really rings true for myself. In working with Lauren, I have learned that I need to be more comfortable with myself and the "silly" side of me. Students enjoy the animation and enthusiasm that you put into teaching. It is necessary to approach teaching from all different angles, whether that means singing a song, acting out or signing to the students; each opportunity can give yourself and the students a different view of who you are and the intelligences you possess (whether weak or strong it does not matter). Without practice you will never get better or comfortable with something.
Also from reading this book, I really want to try and make the teaching and learning more even between myself and the student. I would like to create lessons and activities that push the students to discover their own learning and also give them the opportunity to teach one another what they have discovered. This way they are held responsible for the information and also have to come up with how to discover what they want to know. As I read more, I hope to find ways to implement this at Greenhills in my last few weeks of teaching here. The students have such a variety of talents and all think so differently that I believe it would be a learning experience not only for me to try in the classroom, but also for them to discover things they do not know about themselves as teachers and learners.
This past weekend Susan and I went to a concert, Sound Relief. It was a benefit concert for the bush fires and between the Melbourne and Sydney concerts, over five million dollars were raised. Over 80,000 people attended the concert we went to at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) in the city. It was a fantastic experience, despite the rain that was definitely needed here. We arrived when the gates opened because we had tickets in the open lawn area. Unfortunately it rained for the first hour and a half we were there and it was rather cold. It took us a while to figure out that there was a place where we could sit inside and stay dry, so we did our best to warm up before the actual concert started. There were both Australian and American artists that performed at the concert. Each group or individual performed for about 30-45 minutes. Some of the artists included: Split Endz, Jack Johnson, Jet, Midnight Oil, Kings of Leon, Gabriella Cilmi, Paul Kelly, Augie March, Hunters and Collectors, Liam Finn, and Wolfmother. There were a few other artists and I really enjoyed the majority of performers. I think one of my favorites was Hunters and Collectors. The crowd was very active during their performance and the style of music was comparable to Journey or Kansas. I will definitely be downloading some of their music!
That's all for now. I have more to say on the concert, but need to have a sleep for now!
Sweet dreams:)
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