I AM A TEACHER

!1

Running head: I AM A TEACHER

I am a Teacher
Bridgette Young

University of Laverne

I AM A TEACHER

!2

Multiple Intelligence Theory

In my opinion, one of the best teaching theories to ever be in the spotlight of education is
the multiple intelligence theory. Recognizing all eight intelligences helps students solve problems creatively and address problems without fear. Exploring all of the intelligences reveals students strengths and weaknesses; which is very wise to acknowledge as an educator, when trying
to get to know each individual student on a personal level. For example, it is a possibility that I
may have a student who struggles with articulating; constantly mixes words up and has poor language skills. However, she is absolutely brilliant in the subject of science. Her understanding of
animals and nature and the physical world around her impresses her classmates because she is far
more knowledgeable than any other student in the classroom in this subject. Not only should I
encourage my students to respect her talent, but this is the very reason I should expand my repertoire of techniques, tools and strategies beyond the linguistic and logical ones commonly found
in American classrooms. In my classroom; I will always strive to shift my method of presentation
from linguistic to spatial to musical and so on, while keeping my educational objective firm. I
will be constantly brainstorming ways I can combine a handful of intelligences into one lesson so
that I have a better chance of reaching all my students in a language they prefer. For example, if I
am teaching about World War II; I will bring visuals, I will have a video clip to show, I will have
a real, tangible artifact to bring in, I will use dramatic gestures while I am explaining what happened in the war to keep the interest of my students, I will have the students move around and
interact with each other while doing an activity and I will be constantly asking them open-ended
questions to verify that they understand what we are learning. I will also brainstorm and use as

I AM A TEACHER

!3

many real life examples from all the areas of intelligences so that my lessons accommodate the
philosophy of common core, while using the multiple intelligence theory as the mode of learning. I feel that brainstorming ways I can integrate all eight multiple intelligences into one lesson
plan will be one of my strengths as an educator, because I have found I am pretty good at translating one intelligence to another. I have found that this specific task is not as challenging as it
may appear, as long as you follow the seven step procedure outlined by Thomas Armstrong; focus on a specific objective or topic, ask key multiple intelligence questions, consider all the possibilities, brainstorm, select appropriate activities, set up a sequential plan, and implement the
plan (2009). I will keep the common core standards as my guide, and the multiple intelligences
as my path of direction. I believe that incorporating the multiple intelligence theory in my classroom will not only create a stimulating, engaging environment for my students, but I can also
look forward to never getting bored or frustrated by the same, mundane routine of lectures and
grading worksheets.
The Climate of my Classroom
As a teacher, I will take on the role of setting a good example. I do not want to be a
teacher who my students fear, I want to be known as a safe place to come to, for every student
that walks into my classroom. I will take on the role of teaching material, answering questions,
encouraging students to work together and help each other with class assignments, and offer help
when needed, without giving away too much information. I will take responsibility for the
growth of my students learning process while they are enrolled in my class. I will never be an
intimidating teacher, that is just not me. I do not want to be the reason my students do not want

I AM A TEACHER

!4

to come to school. I will not be a push over, but I will care for my students in a nurturing, understanding way. I will expect a certain amount of responsibility from my students. I will have grace
for them, but I will expect them to come to class every day with a willingness to try their best in
every subject we learn. I will never expect perfect results from them at such a young tender age,
but I do expect them to improve in subject areas as the year goes on. I will expect my students to
be obedient and respectful to myself and classmates. I will have no tolerance for bullying and
discrimination from anyone in my classroom. I want my students to respect diversity and difference within each other. I want to feel proud of the heritage they have come from by encouraging
them to bring artifacts from their religion, culture, or family tradition to display in the classroom.
I want my classroom to be fun and inviting. I want it to sustain a warm atmosphere all year long.
I cannot wait to decorate for the holidays, and display my students work all over the walls. I want
to have good behavior incentives, fun activities and interactive lectures. I strongly believe in positive reinforcement when it comes to monitoring behavior, especially with children at a young
age. I will have certain rewards, some weekly and some monthly, that students will be able to
earn for good behavior. I will also use negative reinforcers in my classroom, to establish privileges. The idea of privileges reinforces appreciation and responsibility, which I believe is essential in classroom management and even in learning processes. I dont want my students to ever
dread coming to class because "its boring." I am a firm believer that students retain information
better when it is presented in a creative, entertaining and interactive way. I want to make my
classroom a special place for my students, I want them to feel appreciated and valued every time
they walk through the door. I want them to understand that school is a safe place, if they are having issues at home or on the weekends; they will always be able to look forward to coming to

I AM A TEACHER

!5

school on Monday mornings. I will use my knowledge of technology in my classroom to create

more efficient lessons on certain occasions, but will also still use a traditional form of teaching. I
will use YouTube videos for enhancing a certain topic and also to meet the needs of visual learners. For special needs children, I will make sure their learning environment is comfortable for
them, I will provide them with extra help and alter every lesson plan to accommodate them.
Children in my classroom with a hearing or vision disability will automatically always have a
front row seat in my classroom, no matter how often I rearrange seats.
The Role of my Students
The role of the students in my classroom will be to direct their own learning process, I am
merely just a facilitator to guide their learning into a direction that makes most sense for them. I
want to teach them to be critical thinkers, as well as ethical thinkers. The most important role I
will expect from my students is to respect one another in the classroom. There will be absolutely
no tolerance to any type of taunting, teasing or physical and mental abuse.
Risk-Taking
Risk-taking is the very first step towards growing and I want my students to not be afraid
of stepping outside their comfort zone. I want to get to know my students on a personal level and
demonstrate a unique investment in each one of them, so that I may be able to establish trust. As
they become more invested in me, I believe that they will become more invested in the material I
teach. I understand that children are vulnerable in elementary school, they are surrounded by
their peers and all they are concerned about is looking cool and fitting in; which is why I have

I AM A TEACHER

!6

come to this conclusion; in order to encourage risk taking, I have to find a way to show the students that it is the cool thing to do. First, I will have a reward system, like pennies in a jar or
rainbow cards, to reward students for participating in class discussion. Even if the answer they
provide is not accurate, if it shows a level of intellect that can be appreciated and demonstrates
effort, they will be rewarded participation points. The top five students at the end of the month
will be rewarded with a pizza or ice cream sundae party. This reward system will be based solely
on the basis of the students participation in class; no other type of positive behavior- to emphasize how much I value student discussion. Another way I will encourage risk taking, is modeling
silly examples; in which I will make a fool of myself in front of the class and encourage them to
laugh and have a good time while watching. For example, I will bring a racket and tennis ball
and slowly bounce the ball against a wall in my class. I will show the students that I am pretty
good at it, until I begin to speed up the process. Doing so, I will miss balls, act clumsy with my
movements, and maybe even fall and loose my balance while trying to keep up with a fast and
steady pace. After this silly demonstration, I will explain to my students that risk-taking involves
challenge, and that usually when you try something new, youre not going to be very good at it.
How ever, I will explain to them, that regardless of their current performance level of a certain
activity, they will never improve unless they are willing to push themselves to the point of making a mistake. I want mistakes to be a reflection of growth in my class. In fact, I want to change
the entire definition of mistake to learning opportunities. I will also have a management system
where I will reward students for motivating and encouraging each other, and also severe consequences for bullying and discrimination of any kind. I dont want students to feel like they have
to do something they dont feel comfortable doing, but at the same time I dont want there to be

I AM A TEACHER

!7

any feelings of discomfort in my classroom. I vision a class in which every students desires are
displayed evidently in their actions, words and smiles.
Working as a Team
Out of all the careers in our world, teachers need to be most responsible with keeping up
with our changing environment; which requires a conscious effort to continue learning. We live
an entirely different time, due to an explosion of inventions and technologies. Because students
have access to an abundance of information on the web, it is possible for them to learn information even faster then we can teach it. As educators, if we do not take responsibility for keeping
informed about new political, social and economical changes, we will not be prepared, nor in the
correct state of mind to prepare the next generation for a continuously evolving world. This is
why it is so crucial to be a life long learner and collaborate with our colleagues about different
strategies of teaching a diverse population, as well as reflecting on teaching methods that did or
did not work and why. As teachers, if we work as one collective unit or team instead of individually, we will have an abundance of information and resources at our fingertips. I think it is absolutely essential to meet weekly, in order to confirm that all teachers from the same grade level are
keeping a relatively similar schedule of activities in order to meet the required standards. I think
something that would be extremely useful to use as an outline for all teachers to follow, is to
have the same annual pacing schedule for each grade level. An annual pacing schedule I envision
is organizing the school year by months; and including what units and big activities will be going
on, and the duration of time for each month. Therefor, even though each teacher may have a
slightly different schedule daily, all classes of the same grade level will be learning the same

I AM A TEACHER

!8

thing at the same time. Before each school year, if all teachers could get together sometime over
the summer to create this schedule, it would save time and avoid miscommunication among colleagues during the school year when everything gets hectic.
My Goal to be a life-long learner
In order to fulfill my desires of being a lifelong learner, I will never stop reading. No matter how chaotic my life may get, I will always be reading a book. I want to read books on different cultures, narratives on a variety of life experiences, and different ethnologies of anthropologists who have gone out in different fields all over the world and what they have experienced;
essentially anything that will broaden my knowledge of people and why they do what they do. If
i can grasp an understanding of this, I will have a better understanding of the backgrounds that
each and every one of my students come from. I will also strive to read current events; whether
that be from an old-fashioned newspaper or a dependable source on the web like CNN; to make
sure I keep informed with what is going on in our government; keeping in mind that the educational system directly relates to the state of our government in many circumstances. It is humbling to know, that you can spend your entire life learning, and building on information that you
already know, yet still not even know a fraction of all the information that has ever existed in the
world. With that being said, I want to learn as much as I am humanly able within my lifetime. I
hope to always maintain a curiosity for life, and I aim to instill this curiosity in my students as
well. It is so simple; the more we know, the better we understand; and if students can understand
this concept at a young age, I believe that we can have a greater hope in humanity and treating
each other with respect. I also plan to attend any kind of technological workshops that are avail-

I AM A TEACHER

!9

able to me, so that I am confident using the tools in my classroom, and knowledgable of all the
different resources available to make teaching more effective in the classroom. Most importantly,
I desire to create meaningful relationships with my co-workers. I hope the educators I work with
will all have open-minds and the same, overflowing passion for teaching that I have. I hope that
we can create a system where all of our classes are like one, and there is not one single better or
worse teacher. I think the biggest attributes to establishing this idea is communication, collaboration and cooperation. Supporting each other potentially means inviting other classes to do an
activity together, or letting one teacher lecture about a certain topic if it is their strong suit, and
they are able to express it most accurately and passionately. Recognizing what each other are
good at, and taking the lead in those certain areas will ultimately bring the best ideas to the table,
and hopefully the most successful turnouts in the class room. There are many unwritten job descriptions required of teachers, and my goal is to find out what those are and master them to the
maximum of my capability.

I AM A TEACHER

!10
References

Armstrong, T. (2009). Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom. 3rd Edition Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development. 65-67