MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

Do you know of multiple intelligences?

I'll explain who proposed this theory and meaning and the next post will propose an activity to practice multiple intelligences in the classroom with children.

Howard Gardner of Harvard has identified seven distinct intelligences. This theory has emerged from recent cognitive research and "documents the extent to which students possess different kinds of minds and therefore learn, remember, perform, and understand in different ways," according to Gardner (1991). According to this theory, "we are all able to know the world through language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, the use of the body to solve problems or to make things, an understanding of other individuals, and an understanding of ourselves. Where individuals differ is in the strength of these intelligences - the so-called profile of intelligences -and in the ways in which such intelligences are invoked and combined to carry out different tasks, solve diverse problems, and progress in various domains."

Gardner says that these differences "challenge an educational system that assumes that everyone can learn the same materials in the same way and that a uniform, universal measure suffices to test student learning. Indeed, as currently constituted, our educational system is heavily biased toward linguistic modes of instruction and assessment and, to a somewhat lesser degree, toward logical-quantitative modes as well." Gardner argues that "a contrasting set of assumptions is more likely to be educationally effective. Students learn in ways that are identifiably distinctive. The broad spectrum of students - and perhaps the society as a whole - would be better served if disciplines could be presented in a numbers of ways and learning could be assessed through a variety of means." The learning styles are as follows:

VISUAL-SPATIAL:  Think in terms of physical space, as do architects and sailors. Very aware of their environments. They like to draw, do jigsaw puzzles, read maps, daydream. They can be taught through drawings, verbal and physical imagery. Tools include models, graphics, charts, photographs, drawings, 3-D modeling, video, videoconferencing, television, multimedia, texts with pictures/charts/graphs.

BODILY-KINESTHETIC: Use the body effectively, like a dancer or a surgeon. Keen sense of body awareness. They like movement, making things, touching. They communicate well through body language and be taught through physical activity, hands-on learning, acting out, role playing. Tools include equipment and real objects.

MUSICAL: Show sensitivity to rhythm and sound. They love music, but they are also sensitive to sounds in their environments. They may study better with music in the background. They can be taught by turning lessons into lyrics, speaking rhythmically, tapping out time. Tools include musical instruments, music, radio, stereo, CD-ROM, multimedia.

INTERPERSONAL: Understanding, interacting with others. These students learn through interaction. They have many friends, empathy for others, street smarts. They can be taught through group activities, seminars, dialogues. Tools include the telephone, audio conferencing, time and attention from the instructor, video conferencing, writing, computer conferencing, E-mail.

INTRAPERSONAL: Understanding one's own interests, goals. These learners tend to shy away from others. They're in tune with their inner feelings; they have wisdom, intuition and motivation, as well as a strong will, confidence and opinions. They can be taught through independent study and introspection. Tools include books, creative materials, diaries, privacy and time. They are the most independent of the learners.

LINGUISTIC: Using words effectively. These learners have highly developed auditory skills and often think in words. They like reading, playing word games, making up poetry or stories. They can be taught by encouraging them to say and see words, read books together. Tools include computers, games, multimedia, books, tape recorders, and lecture.

LOGICAL -MATHEMATICAL: Reasoning, calculating. Think conceptually, abstractly and are able to see and explore patterns and relationships. They like to experiment, solve puzzles, ask cosmic questions. They can be taught through logic games, investigations, mysteries. They need to learn and form concepts before they can deal with details.

Student Engagement, Motivation Strategies and Tips

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT, MOTIVATION STRATEGIES AND TIPS

In the previous post I talked about the importance of the English language and I proposed an idea to motivate students to learn English and to consider the English language as part of them with the realization of the corner of English.

In this post I will talk about how to motivate students in our classes as teach. What we must keep in mind and good motivational strategies for students and for us as teachers.

Then I'll show you a video that I think thats is really good for this topic. I hope that it helps you as helped  me.

Like you have seen, this video serve to will help teachers with classroom management to provide an effective learning environment by creating a culture of engagement and motivation for their school students.

This video emphasizes engagement, motivation, building relationships, and Checking for understanding.

This video about engagement and motivation to provide opportunity for student and teacher success. Learning cannot happen without a safe, secure, and comfortable learning environment for students that provides engagement and makes students feel valued.

A studio said that if you do this the Test scores and learning in general will improve with effective and engaging classroom management. Building relationships, communicating expectations, and accountability will provide the keys to reaching students to teach them effectively.

Thanks people!! See you soon. 

How important is the English language and how to motivate students to learn it

HOW IMPORTANT IS THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND HOW TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS TO LEARN IT

Globalization, the Internet, television, and the possibility that our students have a future with more opportunities than us. These are factors that are influencing that as teachers we are more interested in to empower them to speak another language, especially English.

The educational training today get children must to go beyond learning the basic subjects taught in school. It is necessary for children in addition to their native language, expand your knowledge and learning another language better than that spoken in most of the world.

The fact that the child speak English in addition to their native language, you will not create confunsión. At the contrary, will more easily absorb all the knowledge to master and learn more easily.

It is said that the best time for the child to study English is between the stage of infancy and six years. When children are highly sensitive to the language and can study them faster, the earlier study, the better your domain. However it is never too late to start.

Some benefits of learning this language are:

It helps them to respect others. It is important that children get used to seeing people who speak another language and lose their prejudices against others.

We live in a globalized world. Now we can not settle for just knowing the language of our country. The labor market is global. And each time it seems that it will be more. You can find work in Dubai, in Brazil or England. Knowing English is important to be prepared.

Because they can enjoy the culture more. Much of the information and culture we consume is in English. Movies, websites, manuals, etc. Learn English from an early age will allow you to be more prepared to face life.

How to motivate students to get into the English language and to appreciate its importance:

would be best if we had a classroom to teach English only. In this way students would be in an atmosphere that could only speak and learn English. But if we dont have this, in my case, one thing that has worked well in my classroom for motivating language is make a corner of English in the classroom.

What is an English corner?

Is take advantage of a classroom space to decorate with different things in english language, I mean, put different normal situations, vocabulary, murals made among all the students of the language…

That should not be missing in a corner of English:

• Date and Weather: It is important to create a calendar with the days of the week and the months and daily ask the children what day it is in what month and what year the weather. And so children assimilate these concepts and do routinely.

• Hours: Make a mural showing all hours of the day and close to an image indicating that we usually do at this time. For example, at 8 in the morning I wake up. A 1 is lunchtime. At 5 I do homework. At 9 is dinner time. At 10 I'm going to sleep. It is a good idea that images are the students doing these daily activities. I mean, we can spend a week to make potos of us in different times doing something and then put this on the mural in the appropriate time.

• Vocabulary: we can put a section of common vocabulary. As classroom objects, colors, clothing, food, parts of the house…

• Feelings: we can put a section on how we feel today. I mean, putting different faces with different expressions and ask that all children with identified image feel and why. In my case i would put a smiling face, sad face, tired face and another upset.

•  Section of homwork: we should leave a section for students to stick on the wall to do different jobs.

• Celebrating some dates: we can during the year celebrate important dates in other countries and in ours as christmas, easter, halloween ... And decorate our English corner with things of the party.

We can put many more things that we can think of but all with the objective that the student form part of the language. The objetive that we have is motivate students to appreciate the language and be willing to learn and enjoy it.

BYE BYE FRIENDS!! SEE YOU SOON!!

The "listenig" is a fundamental part of our learning of the English language.

Many people focus too much on "speaking" (English conversation) as they believe is most important when communicating. "Listening" (the ability to hear and understand) is equally important and should be practiced in a strategic manner.

The natural way to get started in learning any language is "listening".

Remember as you learn Spanish, our parents bought us a book and began to teach grammar rules in the crib, right? No. We started listening to our parents as we talked, listened day after day and learned patterns in context and then slowly reproduce and transform the "listening" to "speaking".

Let's see some problems that many people have to listen in English:

listen in English is something that is achieved with practice and time to accustom the ear. 

But one must know how to listen. Students have various problems when trying to practice "listening" as:

• Many new vocabulary: The problem is clear: students want to understand all the words)

• Speed​​.

• The students are trying to understand previous words.

• Problems with different accents, pronunciation and phonetics: In this globalized world, we need to know and understand different accents as American, British, or Australian. Need to also be prepared to learn to understand the accents of non-native people like the French, Japanese or Germans. many students have great difficulty in understanding the various accents and try to only focus on one but eventually can be harmful because in real life we can come up with different accents.

Tips for hearing better in English:

• listening activities "listening" the appropriate level: To practice and make the ear sensitize is better advisable to go slowly and listen to conversations on the level at which they are. Thus can practice common phrases and start preparing our ear to advance stages.

• Identify key words: Not need to understand all the words when you listen. Almost always just enough to understand the "keywords" to understand the main message.

• Logical Deductions: Deduct the context.

• Intonation and context: Listen as people make intonations. Might show surprise, displeasure or any other emotion. Hear how accented words (Word stress) as it will give them clues for you to figure out the meaning of words. Pay attention to context.

Then I will propose some activities to practice "listening" with children from Primary:

• STORIES FOR CHILDREN

It is a very good resource to practice listening. It is very important that when telling a story in English both be very expressive intonation and gestures, so that the student has to understand it more easily. It is also good that we help puppet or pictures or objects that students will get more to the story. A good idea is to put the story in a video as it is new to them and always will seem more attractive.

This is an example of history:

After playLes history we can ask what happened? Motivate them to explain it in English even with a basic vocabulary. Ask them to do a mural for groups drawing and telling the story. Repartirles a form to complete with the information gathered in the story ...

• NORMALLY SITUATION:

Another interesting activity that we can do is to put a video in which a normally situation show and after seeing what happens we have to create groups to practice the situation playing different papers.

An example is the shopping, the conversation between customer and shopkeeper in a store. It is very interesting because this happens so cuotidiana.

Another example is the restaurants, the conversation between waiter and customer in a restaurant.

• LISTEN AND REPEAT:

Another example of good activity to practice listening is listening and repeating words. This is good to accustom the ear to the pronunciation and learn new vocabulary.

Thanks for your attention, see you soon!!

ENGLISH ACTIVITIES

Hello everyone!!!

In a subject in the univerty we did a series of activities designed for children to work in English with the verb to be: respect, relationships, routines, rules, rewards…

I and my group of work did a activities that work routines, respect, relationships, rewards for good work, rules and all of them practicing the verb to be.

 First of all, we have to explain to the students the activity clearly and with simple vocabulary so the  students can understand well the activity.

Obviously, the teacher will have to help and guide students in the activity.

The first activity was a song that name is “Hello Hello”. This song is to practice routines and respect and as you can see the tense is to be.

This is the song:

The name of the second activity is “ALL ABOUT ME”

The activity is about students that have to explain who they are and something about them.

For this activity the teacher with the help of one student have to give a card with questions about their likes that students have complete. After this the students have to present their self to the other classmates.

This is the card that the pupils have to complete:

Then when all students have submitted themselves will distribute to each student randomly pictures of one of his collage.

Respecting the turn, the teacher asked one by one to present the person has in photography with the help of which appears in the picture, I mean, the student have to ask things about what will be exposed before himself for example: What is your favourite color? And the person who has the picture answer your favourite color is pink for exemple.

If the answer is right will give a reward for doing so well.

This activity serves to practice the verb to be and also to practice relationships and rewards.

Finally, the a third activity consists that the teacher put in the blackboard  a serie of images on different actions and ask what is right and what not for do it. why? and when they do that often?. 

Once commented pictures and selected the correct rules we make with the students a space in class with pictures to remind children the rules.

Also we can put more every month.

All this is to practice the rules of class and the verb to be.

MY FAVOURITE TEACHER

To start my blog I will talk about my favorite teacher.  

His name was Lourdes. It was my tutor at Bachelor.

She was a very nice, friendly, very closely with students.

His classes were fun, explained things very clearly, always resolved all doubts, it was impossible to get bored in their classes.

If you didn’t  understand something, she stayed after class to explain it and didn’t care that it took time to explain it just she wanted all his students would learn.

I remember I gave my wrong text commentary and she stayed with me every Monday and Wednesday to explain it. It was a great help to me.

Also remember that many times after school we were going to have a coffee and talked extracurricular things. It was a profesorsa that cared so much about the student personally and for his studies.

You could always count on her for everything, you always gave their support and trying to give you advice and solutions to all type of school problems and personal.

Everyone we considered as an example of good teacher.

And thanks for here help I was able to pass the course and the selective. Many of their advice served me well.

I always will remember with affection and respect and i hopefully as a teacher can be like her.

THE MAGIC OF LEARNING

Hello, my name is Lidia, I am in the third year of a teaching degree.

This is my first blog post I am going to create about education in English language.

Taking advantage of this year I'm doing educational practices in a school whose students are children without resources and with considerable delay escolorar'll approach it in a different manner to the level that would be required at these ages.

The goal I want to achieve through this blog is to create and find educational resources and activities to motivate these children to learn the English language and also i want to tell my experience as a teacher and share different activities we do in college.