The Building Bridges chapter, made me feel more comfortable with having all the different MI’s in my classroom. It takes relief off of the teacher because it suggest letting the students who do have a strong MI take control and lead the way in that intelligence. I also liked the idea of the teacher serving as the audience for a child. “The simple fact of giving a child undivided attention can encourage an emerging passion and provide a catalyst for more independent steps. Patience is a virtue. I never want to hurry my students to do something. I think to myself, would I want to be hurried when doing something I truly enjoy? I love the fact that having patience and not hurrying a child is when discovery will take place on their own! “If we want children to have longer attention spans, then we must first be the ones to pay attention.” I see this happening so often, a student is fidgety and not paying attention, well maybe it is because they need to get their creativeness out and do something that they really enjoy. Then their expressiveness will come out, then their creativity will come out, then their problem solving and critical thinking will come out!
From Structure to Construction really opened my eyes to allowing the students be able to be involved in the aspect of the daily schedule. One of the greatest quotes that stuck out to me was, “calendars are only important when children have a reason to know the date.” This opened my eyes and makes complete sense. Just as my calendar has more meaning when I put events or due dates on it so will the students in my classrooms calendar have more meaning when it has special dates or events on it. I teach calendar everyday in my placement and I have been thinking a lot lately about how to make it work better. This is definitely something I needed to know. How much more meaning will the calendar have when the students are looking forward to a particular day. There is so much I can do with this idea and it excites me!
Another area that stood out to me was the fact of how, “we often focus too much on quantitative structure, we stop laying the foundations for qualitative thinking.” I have seen this not only happening in the schools today, but it also was a big occurrence when I was in elementary school. Teachers get caught up in the quantitative results of the students the qualitative thinking goes out the window. When in essence it is the qualitative thinking that will bring up the quantitative results, no wonder test scores are low because students have not been allowed to express themselves through “the arts, social skills, emotional wellness, creativity and personal reflection.” This is so true! Problem solving is going to occur when students are allowed to express themselves and this problem solving will only increase the way students think and learn.
The Intelligent Assessment chapter revealed a part of the portfolio I had never really thought of, yet it seems to be the most vital part of any portfolio. Having the students choose what they want in their portfolio seems like something every teacher should do. When I think about it, would I want someone else picking the work that best reflects me or would I rather pick the work that reflects me and my growth. I think I would probably want both, because I think that often other people see growth in me that I don’t always see in my self but I think I also see growth in myself that others do not see in me. That is why I think it is important for both the student and the teacher to pick pieces to put in the portfolio. I love how having the student pick things to put in the portfolio created a teachable moment about the past, present and future. Teachable moments can occur when we let students become involved in their own assessments! wow! A duh moment right!?
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