Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom

1.
The intelligence that I am strongest in is intrapersonal. In fact, I scored a 100 in this category so I am extremely strong with it. I am also very strong musically. Some core characteristics include affective and ethical awareness, self-regulation and metacognition for my intrapersonal intelligence. Being ethically and affectively aware means I am aware of my feeling and attitudes as well as my principles and morals. Self-regulation and metacognition go together because they mean I can monitor my thoughts and thought processes. For my musical intelligence, the core characteristics are heightened listening ability, seeking patterns in all things, expressing experiences with patterns and thinking musically rather than verbally. The characteristics that best show my learning style are all of the intrapersonal ones for sure and the heightened listening ability and seeking patterns. When learning, I am constantly aware of my thought processes and attitudes about what I am doing. I hold very strong feelings about everything I experience so I have a mental dialougue running through my head. If there is any music around me I pick that up over everything else. I could be in a room full of screaming people with many distractions, but I can hum the song that is playing in a corner of the room. Seeking patterns is something that I do to make sense of things. It is a natural thing for me and I don't even think about it before doing it.

2.
Students with a intrapersonal intelligence are comfortable with themselves, express strong like and dislike towards activities, sense own strengths and weaknesses, show confidence in their abilities, set realistic goals, follow instincts, express sense of fairness and relate to others based on sense of self. Basically, these students like to take charge of their own learning. They do best when presented with activities involving student choices. Students with musical intelligence are particularly drawn to sound, pick up on patterns, enjoy moving to rhythm, pick up phrases in foreign languages easily and respond to cadence in language.

3.
I will support students with intrapersonal intelligence by providing different options on projects. Instead of saying all students must write a 3 page esssay on a certain topic, I will provide different options such as drawing a storybook, orally presenting, or making a collage. Providing these students time to reflect on their learning is also important so journal writing will be a part of my curriculum as well as self-assessment on their projects explaining why they should recieve a certain grade. For students with musical intelligence I will try to include music whenever possible. If learning about another culture, I will play music from that culture to the class. I will encourage them to find patterns in their writing and lessons we are doing in class and to further expand on those patterns. Simply playing music while we are working on projects may help these students to succeed in their learning. Learning foreign languages, and how to read music are other activities that will encourage this intelligence.

4.
Technologies that support intrapersonal intelligence include journals, diaries, surveys, voting machines, learning centers, class discussion, digital portfolios and self-assessment. Technologies that support muscial intelligence include pattern blocks, puzzles, musical instruments, headphones, digital sounds, multimedia presentations, and CD ROM disks.

5.
Since I am of strong intrapersonal and musical intelligence, I will struggle to present things to students in manners that are not supported by these two styles. I may not have a strong understanding of interpersonal, kinesthetic or verbal intelligence but must find ways to connect lessons to students that are strong in those areas. Including projects that connect to all intelligences is the key. Activities that involve going outside and looking at plants connect to the naturalist where using lots of diagrams and pictures would benefit the visual students. Refraining from one simple style of teaching is the way to go. Since I am aware of how the different intelligences learn and act in a classroom, I can now shape my teaching methods to accommodate all nine of them.