Week 9 . Insights into multiple intelligences.

What a topic !  Going into  learning styles and discussing about multiple intelligences is very rewarding.This week, we learned about the different learning styles students may  have to   learn a language, and how learners may apply different learning strategies to acquire better learning. Learners may have various learning styles but there is still one more predominant than the others. We ,educators, also have a big variety of methods at our disposal, but there is also one we tend to stick more to. We need to take this into   account. We should not expect our students to adap to our methodology. Conversely, we should adapt our teaching strategies to our students' needs. This means that, although there is a teaching method we like more than the others, we must apply different learning approaches so as to match the different learning necessities our students have. The online survey is a good starting point to know about our students' learning syles and our own. I , myself, enjoyed taking this survey and know a little bit more about myself. I could see that it seems that I, myself, have different styles.This is true for anybody and, it becomes even more true for our students.They may have a predominant style, but it is not , certainly, the only one.

                                                                        
Parents can also help their children attain their learning goals. As it is said here, and in the article " Forget what you know about good study habits " by Benedict Carey, sometimes a quiet corner of the library is not precisely the best location for acquiring better learning. The opposite , seems to be right. This leads us to think that some children, at home, will acquire better learning by being in a quiet room, but  some students will feel much at ease and will learn much better with some music around. The environment may also affect the quality of learning expected.

We, always give opportunities to our students to communicate in the target language. I learned in  " Saling the 5Cs with Learning Strategies " that, besides communication, there are four more Cs we need to concentrate on : Cultures, Connections, Comparisons and Communities. This means, students should communicate their ideas in the language, they should gain certain understanding about the target culture, they need to connect with other disciplines and acquire information, they need to compare the target culture with their own and  they should participate in multilingual communities at home and around the world. The article can be found at : http://www.nclrc-org/sailing It has good ideas on how to apply some
activities to meet the five Cs mentioned above.

In my post on Nicenet,I provided the site for a book that appeared in an artice from the New
York Times. The book is " Why don´ t students Like School " by Daniel T. Willingham.This book deals, among other things, with the importance of sincere praise.If you want to take a look at it, the site is : http://www.ceopa.org/thestudentmind.pdf

Some time ago, I was given a pocket book called " Hugs for teachers " Inspiration for the heart. Andrews  Mc Meel Publishing. We are about to finish our course and I would like to share some thoughts from this book before we finish. This little book is divided into 5 chapters. I will share with you, the thoughts on chapter 5 called " A Teacher 's Thanks "
I hope you like them .

" Dear Teacher :

  Thank you for taking the time to talk to me in the hall the other day.You didn't know it, but
  what you said came up at just the right time. I ended up not doing something that   I now
  know would have been really stupid. "

"  Thanks  for  the  note  you  wrote  in the margin of my paper fifteen years ago.I doubt you
   remember  it  but  I   sure do. It  stirred something in me. It lit a fuse that hasn´ t stopped
   burning. I ´m a writer now.  I  hope  that  makes   you proud. Enclosed is  copy of my first
   book. "

" Thanks for really being interested in the point I was trying to make in class last week. I
   think it ' s the first time a teacher has ever taken me seriously. It felt good ."

" Thanks for the personal challenge. I needed it. Thanks for making school fun. The way you
   explain things. I don 't even mind taking notes. "

" Thank you for showing up every day. You ' re the only one in my life who does. "

" Thanks for knowing my name "

" Thanks for believing in me even when everybody else ( including me ) predicted failure. I 
   don ' t know what you saw in me. You put up with a lot.  Thanks for not giving up.  "

" Oh, and thanks for all the homework ( just kidding !) ".
                                                              
                                                                " Love,

Your students. "