Part #3...
People see, think and feel things differently. This makes life quite exciting! (Don't roll your eyes at me just yet!) To look at things from another person's perspective broadens your own point of view. It also can be very exasperating when you are trying to get a point across and some folks just don't ever seem to "get it". You can eat up a lot of class time trying to explain a point over and over again. Knowing a little about the other different personality types may help. Knowing your OWN is essential... According the Keirsey evaluation method, there are four basic types of personalities: The Rational, The Artisan, The Idealist and The Guardian. "Teachers" fall into The Idealist category in this model, however a teacher may come from any of the groups. Excerpted from The Pygmalion Project: The Idealist, by Dr. Stephen Montgomery: "Teachers are natural facilitators in all their relationships, encouraging those around them, urging their personal growth, and taking charge of others (particularly of groups) with an extraordinary enthusiasm and confidence. Indeed, Teachers are so expressive and charismatic in their leadership-in a word, so inspiring-that they seem in some ways less coercive than the other Idealists. Keirsey says that, though Teachers are both expressive and role-directive, they manage to "command without seeming to do so," not by means of explicit orders, nor through saintly patience, romantic longing, or mute withdrawal, but by kindling in their students and colleagues their own passion for self-exploration and development. Teachers are masters of the art of positive expectation (or "front-loading"), and they communicate their belief in the evolution of the "self" with such a glow of promise that quite often, as Keirsey tells us, their optimism "induces action" in others, and the "desire to live up to [their] expectations."-Copyright © 1989 Stephen Montgomery. Even if you do not actually find that you fall into this personality group (I don't!), I think that this is still a most wonderful description of what a teacher should strive to be, don't you? Curious about which type YOU are? Take the Keirsey Personality Test at: http://keirsey.com/. You may also want to get the books listed on the site (available through Amazon.com), so that your students can take the test, too! ( For the interested, I am an "Inventor" from the Rational group. This makes both those "touchy-feely" types and the "But, I want THE answer!" folks real challenges for me in a teaching situation. But at least now I know WHY...) In a nutshell:
And if you are an Inventor type like myself, there is a whole page with links to tests from self-esteem to your jealousy quotient. It's called coincidentally enough; "Tests, Tests, Tests!"
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