In order to service you better, the Institute will be posting activties on a monthly basis for teachers that want to apply MI in the classrooms and parents that want to conduct MI activities at homes.  These activities are pulled from our partner schools and are written by researchers and experienced educators.  We welcome your comments and additions to the activity list to enrich the community.



Activity Title



Numbers in Our Daily Life



Triggered Intelligences



*    Linguistic Intelligence

*    Logical-Mathematical Intelligence



Suggested Ages



*    Three

*    Four



Learning Domains



*    Mathematical Thinking

*    Language and Literacy



Learning Objectives



• Attach meaning to number symbols

• Describe size/weight relationships

• Pose questions and gather data about themselves and their surroundings during Free Choice Time at school and at home

• Ask and answer questions



Materials and Equipment



1. A camera



Preparation



1. Take some photos of numbers in our daily lives (out of the classroom), such as number plates on cars, street numbers, numbers on price tags in stores, etc.



Presentation



1. Talk with children about the numbers in our daily lives, for example the sizes on their shoes. Invite children to gather their shoes and compare the sizes and numbers.

2. Invite children to look for numbers in your classroom, such as numbers on the clock, and page numbers on books. Encourage them to talk about the use of these numbers. We use numbers for showing the price and telling time. Numbers make it more convenient to find the things we need and easier to calculate.

3. Encourage them to think about other places that we use numbers. You can show them the photos you took to inspire them.

4. Have your children think about what our lives would be like without numbers.



Tips



When children are engaged in this activity, your questions and suggested inquiries should not be limited to the examples below. Think beyond the suggestions given to talk with children. Have real life conversations about the activity they are participating in so you can gain an understanding of what they already know and what they might want to know more about.



Reading time on a watch, circling a date on a calendar, checking the mileage on a car, attending to roll-call at school, keeping score in a game, reading a recipe in the kitchen - the list is just endless if one goes on to note down the situations when our computational skills, or more specifically, simple mathematics comes to play in our daily lives.

This activity can help children focus on the numbers in our daily lives and recognize the use and importance of them. Teachers can take this opportunity to inspire children’s interest in math, and foster an attitude of “attention to detail” in daily life.



Feedback



We would love to hear your feedback and discussion on the following questions:

What is "MI" about this?

What else would you do to study numbers?

Are there other activities relating to numbers?

Location: Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

Position Type: Full Time



The Riverside School is looking to fill teaching positions.  Qualifications include:



1. Education, Training and Experience



    *  Teachers for classes from Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 10

    *  Teachers who are experts in English Literature and the Sciences

    *  Understanding of Multiple Intelligences theory



2. Job Skills and Abilities



    * Strong knowledge and awareness of age-appropriate programming and developmental needs of children

    * Excellent teaching skills

    * Strong leadership and communication skills

    * Experience working with a variety of cultures and family dynamics

    * Responsible, reliable, well-organized, flexible, team player

    * Considerable initiative and creativity required to provide an exciting, dynamic and positive educational experience for children



To apply, please email your resume and cover letter to gregory.chang@miinstitute.info

...orphanages... (The perfectionist English teacher in me couldn't let that go! :D)

Hello Dr. Howard Gardner,

I am writing to suggest a partnership between Multiple Intelligences and School for International Training (World Learning) - on a global basis but more specifically in Muscat, Oman where they have just recently started an innovative Master program.

I am HUGE fan of your ideas! I would like to be able to orient my career in education around the MI practice and research - my dream = to design educational programs and apply them in orphaneges around the world but especially in Romania, Oman, Kenya, Nigeria and Brazil. (I am originally from Romania, but having an American education)(just feel a bit lost as the movement seems to be in its beginnings when it comes to professional development)

I've looked at Harvard for a master degree. However, it seems a bit unreachable for me in terms of finances at the moment. I've also looked at School for International Training for a master in TESOL. I can visualize an amazing partnership between MI and SIT in Oman where I plan to move and work as a college teacher. And of course I would like to be part of that in any form...as a Master degree student for now.

Just an inspiring thought.

Thank you for all your work for this humanity.

Many blessings!

Yours truly,

Roxana Fera

Thank you all for your input and Josh I am serious about it. I will contact you soon.

Thank you.

Roxy

MI approaches can create an enhanced learning environment, in harmony with Krashen's principles:
*A RICH VARIETY OF COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT
*A LOW-ANXIETY SITUATION
*REAL MESSAGES OF REAL INTEREST

A short (1 to 3 minutes) close-captioned movie segment offers the learner a synergistic schemata of opportunities for comprehensible INPUT. The visual images themselves are comprehensible and are stored in the students' memories as EXPERIENCES, rather than as a language lesson that must be "studied/learned" because the teacher will test the students for their ability to "remember" the lesson.

A schematic tapestry of English words becomes associated with the movie's images and emotions. Plot, character,music, emotion--these are the 'hooks' by which the language becomes comprehensible input and stored intake. This dynamic is quite different from the artificial approaches typically used--vocabulary lists, linear progressions in grammar complexity etc.)

To use another metaphor, the memories of the movie segment can be seen as gravitational schemata which can attract and retain words associated with the images. As the learner thinks of a scene, an ever-expanding constellation of words and sentences can become linked in the memory with a pleasant (LOW-ANXIETY) experience, rich with REAL MESSAGES OF REAL INTEREST. As the learner thinks of one character,
a tremendous variety of adjectives and actions can become part of the schemata.

This is in harmony with the episode hypothesis, which states that "text (i.e. discourse in any form) will be easier to produce, understand, and recall to the extent that it is motivated and structured episodically...these ideas lead to the supposition that perhaps second language teaching would be more successful if it incorporated principles of good story writing along with the benefits of sound linguistic analysis." (Oller)

In addition to discussion/description of movie segments, learners also should be active in role play based upon the movie segments. In Why Drama Works: A Psycholinguistic, Susan Stern at UCLA brings together a wide range of research relating to the power of role play for creating an enjoyable and effective second language environment:
Motivation
Self-esteem
Sensitivity to rejection
Empathy
Spontaneity

( from my http://tinyurl.com/ChinaMovieMagic )

We have decided to start a discussion on some of the most frequently asked questions.  These questions are generally answered by our own staff.  Please feel free to jump in and discuss whatever is on your mind.



Question:

Hello, I am curious if there is an online questionnaire to determine which 'intelligence' area a person has strengths in?



Response:

There are many surveys available online that at least purport to assess individual's intelligence strengths.  Any of these must be taken with a huge grain of salt, as they are not really assessments but self-report surveys (Your 'strengths' as identified in the survey will be based on your own assessment of yourself, within the very limited confines of a questionnaire.)  So, a better way is to do more extensive self-reflection, compiling all the things you do, are good at, in what contexts.  THEN analyze all these activities for patterns -- do you bring a "spatial" perspective or approach to your activities; are you most able at spatially oriented tasks and activities, job?



One question to ask is whether identifying strengths will be useful. How will you use the information?  Knowing interests and preferences -and analyzing that in terms of the intelligences is a lot more accurate and just as, if not more, useful unless you are assessing for entry into gifted programs or something like that.



MI 'reflections' rather than 'measurement' or 'assessment'  are the best way to get a "thick description" of yourself-- additional insights from someone else adds to the richness of the description.

As a MovieMagic EFL teacher in China since 1999, I have been using movie-based role play and project-based learning, within the spirit of MI. Also within this spirit was my recent presentation at the Jan 4--6 International Civic Education Conference at Beijing Normal U.:"Morphing China's English Corners for Wikinomics Generations." (http://citizen-09.nmsu.edu/) My 5-minute presentation will: *emphasize the great opportunity in China for linking MI with EFL (and MFL) and PBL (Project-based Learning) *suggest the tremendous potential for linking Wikinomics dynamics with MI-inspired learning materials, using Web-based peer production of materials for English learners and for Mandarin learners *give video clips from my classes at Shanghai Industry and Commerce Foreign Languages College. Those in my classes are 1st year students, 90% female, coming from Shanghai as well as the poorer provinces, without high scores on the national exam. Particularly important--and effective--for my students is the MI motto: "Nurture the learner, know the learner, trust the learner." The video will demonstrate the movie-based MI dynamics of my classes. BELOW is a general outline of the classes. Learners (Ls) view brief movie segments---usually 5 minutes or less Teacher (T) usually then summarizes what was SEEN and HEARD, in a sequential fashion. Ls then work in pairs, in 2 lines of chairs facing each other: AND (occasionally) *(when volume/subtitles are turned OFF, and T does not summarize) Ls guess the nature of the interaction/emotions AND/OR *tell the story...with one student speaking in Chinese and the other translating simultaneously into English AND/OR *both L pairs tell the story...taking turns AND/OR *L pairs do role plays from the movie sequence AND/OR *L pairs discuss the movie, based upon their homework>>reading movie reviews from www.imdb.com and/or www.metacritic.com and their translations of difficult/interesting words into Chinese Ls circulate systematically around the lines of chairs...moving one or more chairs to their right...then perform ABOVE with new partners. When appropriate, Ls also relate movie-based story/role plays/discussions to distributed class materials relating to topics such as: *Customer Service *Dealing with Difficult People *Problem-solving *Brain-storming *Creativity *Leadership *Success In each class: * Ls listen to Ls' PBL assignments from www.voxopop.com * T mentions positive elements of their assignment, and offers suggestions for improvement * Ls read aloud/discuss one or more movie reviews (with translated difficult/interesting words) done by Ls for homework * circulating L pairs quiz each other on new vocabulary words, from the movies and/or from the movie reviews For Homework: *(As described ABOVE)Ls do different Movie Reviews for the assigned movie *L then read their list of English--Mandarin words into the MovieMagic page at www.voxopop.com, and list these words in the page. (So these materials are suitable for both English as well as Mandarin learning.) (My Blog of several years, from www.eslcafe.com is available at: http://tinyurl.com/ChinaMovieMagic )

There is program in Russian/Ukraine language? :)