MI+B2+Chapter+7

toc 
 * Chapter 7 of MI **

**__Cam's Abstract __**
  This chapter of MI enlightens future teachers of the importance of providing students with a safe, friendly, and comfortable [|learning environment]. It is absolutely essential that teachers have a positive environment because it underlines the students’ success. No classroom is perfect. There is no such thing as a good teacher kicking back and relaxing during class time. The MI theory goes on to elaborate particular activities using the intelligences by providing questions. For example, pertaining to the musical intelligence, teachers need to question if their voice is loud enough and make sure that they are not taking in a monotone voice. Teachers can begin reconstructing their classrooms by setting up activity centers. There are multiple combinations of activity centers like permanent open-ended, permanent topic-specific, temporary open-ended, and temporary topic-specific. The open-ended activities give students the chance to experience all intelligences, but if temporary then the teacher may take it down. Topic-specific activities are ones that teachers will use to engage students all year long. Here is a [|video] that proves the fact that a positive environment helps students excel.

[|Cam's Reflection]  After taking everyone’s points and suggestions into consideration, there was moderate diversity in the classroom. Many peers were reminded of personal experiences of different types of classes they once had. They believe that they would have done better in these classes if teachers listened, paid attention, liked what they were teaching, and played auditory music during class. One student even had the advantage of taking a Human Behavior class that helped them realize the student’s environment of understanding, learning, and knowledge. A second topic that was spoken of more than once was the idea of having a comfortable class. Some students had the painstaking experiences when class heat did not work, or other times it worked too well. Students can also feel uncomfortable if the idea of no space or if space is overused. The last concept that the class really grasped onto was the concept of activity centers. Some of our peers believe that these centers are good ideas, but this may be a nonfunctional resource for high school students. It just all depends on how our students react to it. However, they do understand that the learning environment must change from what it is today. Others do believe that they will adopt this MI theory and can revise the way they do these activity centers by student feedback. Students could also start with their strengths and expand to other multiple intelligences after they have reached a stage of comfort.

Cam
This chapter explains that the classroom is not a perfect environment; it has to be tweaked to fit the needs of each leaner. The MI and ecological factors of a classroom are based upon the eight intelligences, which concentrate toward the level of difficulty. The MI activity centers are ways to organize the classroom permanently or temporarily. Permanent activity centers are open-ended and give students the chance to experience all intelligences. Temporary activity centers tend to be topic-specific and never settled. Temporary activity centers that are open-ended are set up by the teacher, whom which can quickly take them down. The appropriate activity center that teachers will use in a year-long situation is the permanent topic-specific activity center. This impacts me as a future professional because I will not base any activity centers in my classroom off knowledge, but only experience. After reading this chapter, I am not going to use the methods that are highlighted. Yes, I will use them if they apply to a situation, but I will not force my students to work in these conditions. This impacts my students because it shows that I am taking their necessities into consideration.
 * Chapter 7; MI and the Classroom Environment **

Dani
Chapter 7 is about creating a classroom environment that is friendly and welcoming to students. The chapter asks questions about the environment to help students make improvements on it. It also suggests setting up activity centers for each of the intelligences. This way students can enjoy their strengths while getting a chance to develop intelligences that are not as well developed. I’m not sure that as a teacher I would set up the activity centers but I do understand how important a good learning environment is. My high school was always too cold and it made it hard to focus in the winter. Having an environment that is more cozy will make my students feel more welcome in the classroom.
 * Chapter 7**

Jason
I thought that the early part of this chapter was very informative and gave me some great ideas of how to structure my classroom to be MI-friendly. The biggest thing I learned was that a good teacher should have a check list in his or her head that keeps track of things like, “am I doing too much lecturing?” or “do the students feel cramped in this room?”. The chapter stresses the importance of setting the room up so that students can learn. I have been in classrooms that were dark with only a few windows or rooms that were too warm and seemed really tight; these situations did not allow me to learn even though I wanted to; I could just not seem to concentrate, or I would start to fall asleep. I am more than willing to use this chapter’s check-list in order to see if my room meets the requirements for good learning and benefits all the intelligences. I do have to say that I disagree with the moving the room around to form different “centers” (Armstrong) because I personally feel that this idea works best for middle school and not high school students.
 * MI Chapter 7: MI and the Classroom Environment **

Nicholas
**Chapter 7:** Within this chapter I was able to learn about MI activity centers. The chapter really laid out some room suggestions that would facilitate each of the intelligences. Within the reading there were a few centers that I had never heard about. For spatial centers there could be a visual-thinking are with maps, graphs, visual puzzles, picture library, three-dimensional building materials. I had never thought about how to facilitate a spatial learner and surround them in an environment that purely provokes their desired intelligence. All schools should look to see how they can effectively improve their facilities to house centers that are specifically built to enhance certain intelligences. Students will finally reach a comfort level that was once thought unattainable within a classroom setting. I hope to use student feedback and reflections to help me create the most stimulating classroom for students of all intelligences. I just wish I was able to have the opportunity to have utilized a center such as these.

Lindsey
Chapter 7 focused upon the environments which foster the best learning results. Rather than merely listing the criteria of the most effective learning environments, the book instead divides the chapter by the eight intelligences, and then provides examples of both effective and ineffective learning methods. For example, to show the positives and negatives of musical intelligence, the book questions “how does the teacher use her voice? Does it vary in intensity, inflection, and emphasis, or does it have a dull monotone quality that puts students to sleep?” (MI 68). This continues throughout the course of the chapter, showing that it is easy to make simple classroom mistakes, yet a compilation of simple mistakes takes away from the overall classroom experience of the student. This is an important concept to remember as a new teacher as no matter how interested a student may be upon entering my class, if I am incapable of incorporating each of the intelligences into my classroom, the students will lose their drive to learn the material. However, if I am able to master this concept, I may be capable of engaging students who have never before showed an interest in the topic. Therefore, I must work to ensure that I am constantly evaluating myself and incorporating all learning styles at all times.

Marcy
As a teacher, being aware of what is going on in the classroom is imperative. This chapter is about checking classroom ecology or the environment using the multiple intelligences. In other words, making sure the classroom is friendly to all of the multiple intelligences, so each can learn. This chapter gives questions, categorized by each intelligence, to consider about the classroom. It also suggests activity centers that focus on different intelligences. This affects me as a teacher by stressing the importance of maintaining a classroom environment that is conducive to learning by all students. This affects my students by making learning easier for them.

Andrew D
This chapter is about the classroom environment, or ecology, and how multiple intelligences should effect the environment. There are a number of different ways that the environment of the classroom could be changed to correspond with certain intelligences. A number of the intelligences can be used effectively at the same time to help liven the environment. It is important to have a positive environment because a negative environment can impair the students’ ability to learn even if they come to class excited and willing to learn. The chapter also talks about MI activity centers, which organizes the classroom according to the different intelligences. There are a number of different places students can go, which correlates to each of the multiple intelligence that can give them the environment they need in order to learn. This impacted me because I know that it is important for students to be comfortable when they learn. If students are not comfortable, there learning will in fact be impaired and the teacher will have failed at doing their job. This will impact my classroom because I will be flexible in letting them go to certain places where they feel like they can learn best. I will do whatever I have to, to make my students feel comfortable in a positive classroom environment.

Jenna
Chapter seven of __Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom__ describes the critical need for incorporating the multiple intelligences into the classroom ecology. If children enter a classroom environment where a teacher is not accommodating to the needs of the different learners, then the overall learning experience will be shot. Students' motivation to learn will diminish. This chapter gave effective and ineffective ways of teaching. For example, the one that caught my attention was the musical intelligence question: "How does the teacher use her voice? Does it vary in intensity, inflection, and emphasis, or does it have a dull monotone quality that puts students to sleep? (Armstrong, 68)" I remember when I had teachers who completely turned me off to learning in their classrooms because of this exact problem. They never seemed interested in what they were teaching themselves, so I consistently would think to myself, "Why should I be interested if my teacher isn't?" These examples were very valuable to me because when I am a teacher, I want to consistently evaluate the progress I am making in incorporating all of the intelligences in my classroom. I also found the multiple learning centers to be useful and beneficial knowledge for me to use in my classroom. I specifically liked the permanent and temporary topic-specific centers because as a teacher, I would like all of my students to start out in their area of strength, but then rotate to other intelligences. This way, my students are experiencing all aspects and intelligences of learning that enable the children to create and construct their own meaning and knowledge.

Lizzie
“There is no other profession that subjects individuals to being packed so close together, for long periods of time, and then expects them to perform at higher levels of efficiency while interacting with others.” This statement only stands to prove that the teaching profession must be taken seriously and the strategies and tools learned from not just these classes in college but these particular books are preparing us for the teaching career. The classroom ecology also known as the classroom environment needs to be consistently restructured, rethought, and reshaped in order for all types of learners to succeed. When trying to adapt to this new way of thinking a review of the eight intelligences reveals more thought provoking questions. Asking these questions can help to develop a deeper understanding of the students and the environment. Within each of the intelligences these questions are meant to probe the minds of students and to develop an idea to the point of complete understanding. In addition to asking questions within each of intelligences creating a MI activity center is important. These centers organize the classroom in such a way that certain areas are devoted to a specific intelligence. Then these specific areas are organized into four categories, the permanent open-ended, the temporary topic specific, the temporary open-ended, and the permanent topic specific activity center. Different combinations can lead to different results within each student within each of the intelligences. Allowing such questions to be asked and such centers to be allowed in the classroom can help promote learning and creativity. But the problem here is that some may need more help than others. Teachers should make it all available to the students during different periods throughout the day. Essentially, any activity that goes beyond simple reading, writing, or calculation can qualify as an MI center. All of the different aspects of the classroom environment, discusses in this chapter, help me to understand that I really do need to make it a priority to really know how my students learn, that is if I want to be able to reach all of them. There are always going to be questions to consider. However if a teacher can ask a probing question to help the students in every area or intelligence then both sides are benefitting. The teacher can develop a deeper understanding of the student and their abilities. The student can then in return feel comfortable enough and prepared enough to accomplish tasks that were ordinarily overlooked. These activity centers help to not only promote the eight intelligences but social, emotional, and physical skills as well.

Andrew F.
This chapter discusses the setting of a classroom to appeal to the different types of intelligences and gives teachers hints on how to arrange a room to communicate effectively for all the learning styles within a classroom. It gave such hints as making the room very visually appealing to spatial learners, or working with the sounds in your room for someone with musical intelligence. I felt like these were all great hints to help educators make the environment of their students much more comfortable. After all one of the the key points in learning, is being in a comfortable atmosphere so you can relax and comprehend more. I mean if my teachers took considerations of putting music on for just a little auditory stimulation, I would have probably been more successful throughout my education.

Ted
Chapter seven of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom really appealed to me – I took a Human Behavior course in high school that really did a lot to clue me into the effects of a student’s immediate environment on learning, understanding, and demonstrating knowledge. The list of questions is really helpful – if the needs that applied to me were not met in a classroom, I would have a lot of difficulty concentration, and I certainly understand that other people would be just as concerned about other issues. The grid of topic-specific and open-ended for centers addressing intelligences seem like a really great idea, but in a small classroom the temporary centers may be difficult to pull off. I’d definitely run through the checklist before opening my classroom for business!

Ben
The classroom environment in most schools do not appeal to the MI theory. Along with every other aspect of teaching, the teaching environment also needs to be redone. The MI book states a bunch of questions for each intelligence to see if your classroom has the necessities for the students to succeed. Activity Centers for each intelligence is recommed by the author. Centers should be broken down into four quadrants; quadrant 1 is permant open-ended center, which should provide multiple experiences for the student. Quadrant 2 talks about temporary open-ended, this center is perfect for introducing MI theory to your students. Quad 3 is temporary topic-specific center. Here as a teacher I would create a station that have the students using the intelligences for one subject. Quad 4 is Permant topic-specific, meaning I would have a center combining Quad 1 and 3. This is especially great for year long topics. I hope after these ideas my classroom enivornment will be MI friendly.