Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom

After taking a test to find out which of Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences that best fit me, I was interested to see that I essentially was almost even across the board. I was shocked at my results, and at first wondered if they were possibly wrong. However, the more I thought about it, and the more that I researched the different intelligences on www.surfaqauriu.com/MI, I was able to see that the results in fact did make sense. I have always been the type of person with a lot of vastly different interests. Even though my results showed me to have intelligences in almost all of the intelligences, the three Intelligences that I proved highest in were Intrapersonal, Linguistic, Visual, and Kinesthetic. The Intrapersonal intelligence makes a great deal of sense for me because I have always had the ability to understand other people, as well as myself, and their emotions. I am very good at talking with people when they are dealing with a tough time, which is also a reflection of my Linguistic intelligence. I can speak very well with people, and as my mom would be proud to say, I was blessed with the gift of gab. Writing is also one my hobbies that I have always enjoyed, and this is another example of my Linguistic intelligence. For the Visual and Kinesthetic Intelligences, those are a direct reflection of how I learn best. I learn best my seeing something done, then doing it myself. When I discover something for the first time, I need to see it and feel it in order to really know what it is. In classes, I write notes and draw diagrams while the teacher is talking, and I also shake my leg, sometimes to the dislike of people around me.
Learning more about these intelligences will give me a better chance at being a successful teacher for all of my students. Being aware of the the different intelligences will help to capitalize on each students individual strength, or intelligence, to help create a more positive and confident atmosphere for learning. For the Intrapersonal Intelligences, I will be sure to provide them with lots of opportunities to work with other students during different classroom activities. The Linguistic intelligences would simply be the students who I would encourage to write more, and read, as well as my other students. All students should be encouraged to read and write more, but there is a good chance, according to www.surfaquarium.com/MI, that the students whose strength is in Linguistic intelligence would enjoy this more and overall be more successful. To accommodate the Visual Intelligences, drawing or photography might be something that they could do within the classroom to reflect their abilities. Lastly, for the Kinesthetic intelligences I would make sure to include activities throughout the day that would allow these students to get up and move around. Truly, any lesson can accommodate each learning intelligence, it is just a matter of finding a way that works.
For each of the learning intelligences, there is a technology that would best suit their learning. The Intrapersonal students could blog with other students, safely, from other schools or countries. Linguistic students could be simply a computer with word processing for them to write stories, and a computer could work just as well for a Visual student to create PowerPoint's or web pages. Technology that would be most effective for a Kinesthetic student could be a mouse, or any type of manipulative that could be used to enhance learning. Overall I feel that gaining a deeper understanding of the learning styles will help me to be an more effective teacher who can ultimately help my students learn to the best of their ability, and capitalize on their strengths. As future teachers, it is important learn about each other's philosophies on teaching so that we all may become better teacher together.