Module 2

Throughout this module, I have learned more about myself and how I believe I would want to set up my classroom to be a culturally friendly and comfortable environment for my students.

First off, it is very important to understand what type of students you are working with on an individual basis. In chapter 4 of the text, Woolfork describes Howard Gardner's MI theory or the idea of eight separate bits of intelligence in the human brain. The eight separate intelligences include linguistic, musical, spatial, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist (pg. 123). While Gardner's theory has been scrutinized heavily since its conception, I believe, as a teacher, it is important to be cognizant of these intelligences because each student will be different, and may be superior in some of these but not others. Being able to decipher which area of intelligence your students rely on individually will help you be able to group them accordingly, and plan lessons appropriately for the small groups. For example, as a PE teacher, I may have to introduce my students to bowling. Bowling is a physical sport, but there are also areas of math (scoring), spatial development (aligning the ball with the pins) among many things. Being knowledgeable of my students' intelligences can allow me to group them with other like-minded students who may be better in one aspect but need help in others so that I could teach them all as a whole, rather than teach each individually and wasting time. It would also help to create a sense of equality in the students which would make them feel comfortable and more motivated to try hard and correct mistakes if their peers share the same mistakes.

      Which leads me to another section of chapter 4 that I feel will play a major importance in my classroom. On page 132, Woolfolk talks about the difference between two cognitive learning styles, Personality-centered and Activity-centered. Personality-centered students react better to results while activity-centered students react to the presence of learning. As a teacher, it is going to be my goal to teach my students the importance of an activity-centered learning style. I do not want my students to care about the grade because if they do what they need, it will come on its own. I want to stress the idea the grade is reflected in the effort and participation of the student, and not just the knowledge base. By instructing this method of teaching I feel my students will work harder to grasp all the concepts of the subject area which will allow them to hold the content longer mentally.

Alther thing I know I am going to have to be aware of as a teacher is my students’ cultures. Not just for myself, but for the students as well. Like Woolfolk quoted, “Culturally relevant teachers utilize students’ culture as a vehicle for learning (pg. 236). We are in a time period, socially, where recognizing cultural differences in each other is of utmost importance. I believe that the earlier we can get children to understand and accept cultural differences, the better suited they will be for social life as they get older. As a teacher, I am going to have to be aware of my students' cultural differences, not only to be able to interact with them but to help them succeed. Like the video expressed – it could be as simple as a single word spoken in a certain tone that may be the difference between reaching your student and completely losing them, because of the culture of the student. I can also use my knowledge to help the other students learn the importance of other cultures. For children, diversity is different, and different can be scary. If I know the differences in my class I can use that to my advantage by grouping children of different cultures together and give help guide them in conversation to help them get to know each other, creating an environment of multicultural education (pg. 235)

Like Woolfolk says “Culture is compared to an iceberg. One-third of the iceberg is visible; the rest is hidden and unknown (pg.210). A good teacher takes the time to unearth the unknown of their students and use that information to build a unified feeling in their classroom, and that is my goal.