Naturalist Intelligence

Naturalist intelligence involves learning through nature and naturalistic ideas. Children who are naturalist thinkers enjoy learning about the earth and all it has to offer. Plants, animals, water, energy, and food are all important aspects to the naturalist. The natural focus in physical education is natural health. I want to empower the students to be able to live a healthy happy life by having the knowledge of how to find and consume whole, natural, fresh food. This is the basis for good health. Supporting farmers markets or planting a garden are two phenomenal ideas that everyone should seriously consider.

Intrapersonal Intelligence

Intrapersonal intelligence refers to someone who learns through self-reflection, inner thought, dreaming, aspiring, and setting personal goals. This type of person is more self-motivated and thrives when taking on individual work. Some students simply learn better when they can do it at their own pace. That is why partners or small groups are not always utilized in PE class. We often times complete individual workouts in class. Students are encouraged to challenge themselves, yet go at their own pace. I teach them to strive to improve, and to set their own personal goals for the day. The students realize that every person is unique in their ability and fitness level, so it makes no sense to judge another classmate’s level of performance.

Students also have opportunity to learn more in PE through the website and this blog. As long as they have access to the internet, they will have that alone time to contemplate various health issues. Personally, I love to sit, read, listen, and think on my own about various issues in the health and wellness world. This time has become a very valuable, meaningful aspect of my life.

Interpersonal Intelligence

Interpersonal intelligence refers to someone who learns by reaching out to others through discussion, sharing, organizing, and bonding. These children like to learn through their interaction with others. Friends are very important to these students, as well as mentors. In physical education class, there is not one week where students do not work with partners, small groups, or large teams. As a teacher, I have always stressed that we can all learn from each other, and negative criticism will not be tolerated. Everyone has something to offer, and the students at SDA Elementary realize this. I always encourage students to get involved with sports, clubs, or groups beyond school, that will allow them to grow as individuals. Social interaction is very important for achieving emotional health.

Musical Intelligence

Musical intelligence involves sound, rhythms, tone, beats, harmonies, and melodies. Children in physical education class naturally love to move to music. When we are exercising, often times I will play some upbeat, highly energetic music. It is cool to see the intensity level of the kids elevate to higher levels. I once thought that in order to have musical intelligence, one must be a great singer, composer, or musician. This is actually not true. According to Gardner, displaying musical intelligence could be as simple as tapping one’s foot to a beat, or humming along with a melody. I for one know that music enriches my life every day, and I try to give the students the same opportunities to enjoy what it brings.

Kinesthetic/Bodily Intelligence

Kinesthetic intelligence involves movement. Physical education shines very brightly in this area. After all, this is the class where movement is encouraged 95% of the time. Children who have a high amount of kinesthetic intelligence enjoy hands-on learning. They want to physically experience what they learn. Physical education is a place where these learners can thrive. Throughout the year, students are challenged to move through a dynamic warm-up, rocket workouts, physical skills practice, and team competition. Physical skills such as strength, coordination, quickness, reaction time, speed, and jumping ability are all developed. Students realize that it feels good to express their energy, talents, and abilities through movement. Just visit the website to see the remarkable kinesthetic intelligences of SDA students.

Spatial Intelligence

Spatial intelligence involves thinking in terms of pictures, videos, colors, and designs. Children that have a high amount of spatial intelligence tend to have bright imaginations and can easily conceptualize visuals. These students are designers and illustrators.

The greatest contribution towards this intelligence in my classroom has been the implementation of my website. Children have the opportunity to explore everything we do in class through pictures, videos, and graphics that are made available on the website. Sometimes a child needs to actually see how they are performing a movement, in order to correct it. In the future, if a child is having a hard time capturing the essence of a particular skill or movement, I want to video the child and allow him/her to watch their movement on my camera. Sometimes that is all it takes to properly correct something.

If you look at some previous posts on this blog that discussed farmers markets, I included some beautiful pictures of the fresh, natural foods that are available. This helps the students visualize the food, thus hopefully promoting a desire to visit a farmers market.

This year we also did a “wall of words.” All year long the student came up with words promoting health, wellness, and positive character. We designed our walls with these words. Students not only heard me talk about these words and concepts, but they got to see them and think about them every day.

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence

Logical/mathematical intelligence involves figuring things out through reason. Children that have a high amount of logical intelligence enjoy gaining knowledge through the use of experimentation and calculation. These children want rationale. They want to know how things work the way they do.

Physical education includes mathematical concepts quite often. When we perform fitness assessments, we talk about numbers quite a bit. Students know that they have to perform a certain amount of repetitions for a given exercise to be considered healthy for that area of fitness. They also discover that these numbers are based on scientific research that tested children of various gender and age. So, according to the research referenced, a 10 year-old boy may have to perform 8 push-ups to be considered healthy for upper body strength.

Logical intelligence is also used when I explain body fat percentage to the students. They realize that there is an optimal percent body fat range that would be beneficial to fall under. They are also taught how to sustain this percentage through the use of exercise and nutrition.

A final example of mathematical intelligence would include the use of numbers during various workouts. Interval training involves time periods of low intensity exercise mixed with time periods of high intensity exercise. For example, we may walk for 45 seconds, followed by 30 seconds of running. During a dynamic warm-up, we may do a set of 10 squats, followed by a set of 10 vertical jumps. This is called a super-set. Any 5th grade student should be able to tell you what a super-set is and how to design your own super-set workout.

Linguistic Intelligence

Linguistic intelligence involves the use of words. Children that have a high amount of linguistic intelligence enjoy expressing and gaining knowledge through reading, writing, speaking, discussing, sharing, and questioning. How does this happen in physical education class you may ask? Well let me give you some examples.

When a new physical skill or dynamic movement is taught in PE, there is always discussion as to how to perform it, why it should be performed a certain way, and the benefits acquired from it. I always encourage the students to ask questions and give me feedback on everything we do.

Another way I reach out to linguistic intelligence is through discussion about health and wellness topics. Nutrition, disease-prevention, and stress management are a few of the topics we cover. Students get the opportunity to ask me questions and think critically. If I do not have time to answer all questions in class, students are encouraged to write their questions down for me. These questions are then answered on my teacher blog (that you are reading right now). This blog is also a phenomenal source for students to read about various health topics to improve their knowledge.

One last example of appealing to linguistic learners would be the written tests that we have each quarter. While some students can display their skills through physical demonstration or class discussion, others need the opportunity to write what they have learned. This is made possible through written tests.

Multiple Intelligences

Over the next two weeks, I will be explaining the Multiple Intelligences theory by former Harvard researcher, Howard Gardner. Howard Gardner theorized that there are eight ways that people learn. These different intelligences include: linguistic, logical/mathematical, spatial, body/kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist.

When people think about these areas of intelligence, often times they may think of a person being born to sing, a born athlete, or is just good with numbers. Although there is definite genetic predisposition towards intelligence, it’s not the only thing that counts. According to Garner, intelligences are developed through biological endowment, personal life history, and cultural and historical background. In other words, genes, experiences with people and the environment, and cultural interactions determine intelligence. So beyond genetics, the experiences we have in life will either promote intelligences or discourage and shut them down.

At SDA Elementary it is my responsibility to make sure I am reaching all eight of these intelligence areas. In the posts to come, I will try to explain each of these intelligences and how they are being taught to in class. Every student is unique, which is why teaching needs to be unique and meaningful.