MI Chapter 2 Response

This chapter encouraged me to think even more about which intelligences I may be “lacking” in and how I might be able to bring them into my future classroom despite the fact that I am not proficient in them.  I really liked the suggestions that the chapter provided, particularly drawing on colleague’s expertise and the concept of team teaching (21), as well as asking students to help out (26).  When I did a practicum course at my previous college, I was placed in a global literature class that was team-taught by an English teacher and a social studies teacher.  Not only were they diverse in their areas of content and expertise, they also differed in terms of MI (as far as I could see, at least).  For example, one of the teachers had a great deal of “naturalist” in her, which allowed her to connect well with a group of students who were crafting lobster traps for a service learning project.  This particular group of students happened to be boys who had little interest in schoolwork and preferred to work outside as part of family businesses (some of which were in the lobstering business), but they were fully engrossed in the project with the guidance of their “naturalist” teacher.  Another group of students worked closely with the other teacher, who happened to be a former cross country coach and was very kinesthetic, to organize a 5k for their service learning project.  After reading this chapter and looking back, I can see even more of the benefits of having teachers with differing intelligences because it allows them to learn from each other and to connect to a larger range of students.