Tag: classroom management

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The Conclusion Of My MBTI Research: My Learning Summarized

This is part of a series of using Myers Briggs personality types in the classroom. For more information, click here. For information on how to figure out your student’s MBTI type, click here. 

In the last few months, I have analyzed all 16 Meyers Briggs personality types. Last week I wrote my 16th post in the series, the final personality type explained. Seeing my research come to an end was sad for me because I’ve dedicated so much time and interest in the subject. A few takeaways I ended  with were this: 

Figuring out student’s personality types can be hard and time-consuming, but also incredibly awarding if you’re willing to put in the work. 

You don’t necessarily need to know their MBTI personality type to know them better. Start with identifying introverts and extroverts and using that information to guide your teaching. Move on to identifying sensing versus intuitive students and then use that as well. 

Students can be aware of MBTI types as well to help them interact with other teachers and peers. 

When comparing personality types, they can be very similar and vastly different at the same time. 

There are not necessarily pros and cons to a personality type, just differences in how we think and who we are. 

Jane Kise has done extensive research on MBTI in the classroom. If I cannot convince you how beneficial is it, maybe she can with her TedTalk. Notice that she doesn’t find conclusive evidence by the majority of students acting and reacting in certain ways, but because every single student of the same personality type has the same actions. 

In the future, look for a post with links to each of the personality types to learn more about how to use your knowledge of MBTI in the classroom. Until then, share with me! How has your knowledge of MBTI helped you in your classroom? 

featured image: thedailybeast.com


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The Power of Authentic Praise in the Classroom: My Personal Experience

I had a student once, you know the student. The one that pushes buttons, tests boundaries, and always seems to say just the right things to upset you. He was difficult to have in the classroom and a challenge for every teacher, resource aid, and adult that walked the halls of the school. In my attempt to reach this student and use him as a powerful player in the classroom, not a distraction, I found research on praising in a positive, genuine way and the impact it can have on students. 

In short, I found in my research that we should be praising students genuinely, immediately, unexpectedly, and both publicly and privately. It should also be honing in on your own feelings, not said in a general sense. For example, instead of saying, “Good job on your book report” if you phrase it more in a sense of, “I was really impressed by your book report, I can see how hard you worked on it.” it will come across as more personal and elicit more feelings of accomplishment in the student. After coming forward with these findings, I was ready to apply them in my classroom with not only my difficult student but all of my students. 

It started slowly, I gave authentic, specific praise as often as possible, but whole class and individual students. However, I found that it was harder to give this type of praise to the harder students that didn’t seem to naturally follow directions like the rest of the class. 

One day, my particularly hard student (we’ll call him Johnny) was having an especially rough day. On the way out to recess, I saw him shove a notebook I had never seen before into his desk. “Hey Johnny, can I see that really fast?” Instantly he was defensive and hesitant because he was expecting to be reprimanded for it. I reassured him he wasn’t in trouble and just wanted to take a peek at something I found interesting on the cover. 

Right away I saw incredible artwork cover the front. I flipped through a few pages and found sheets and sheets of dedicated time and effort. My initial thought was that if he can spend this much time creating something like this, why isn’t he spending five minutes on his math homework? But then I had to change my thinking. 

“Oh, Johnny. This is absolutely outstanding! Did you create this all on your own? I love the attention to detail you gave this drawing.” 

He instantly was quiet and his cheeks red with embarrassment. I could tell fairly fast that this type of praise was not common for him, he wasn’t sure how to handle it. I knew it was something that needed to become more and more common with my speaking not only to him, but again, every single student I came in contact with. 

I started putting in extra effort into praising my students in an authentic way and started seeing a difference in my students. 

They started trying a little harder. 

They saw the hard work they were putting forth too. 

They started complimenting their peers and even myself in the same way.

Our classroom became an even more enjoyable, positive place. And on top of that, my little Johnny had a different attitude about learning and school in general. He sought to receive praise in his hard work. Don’t get me wrong, we still had struggles and I worked hard to motivate him the rest of the time! But deep down he truly did try to find that encouragement to keep going. He was easier to understand, and I truly found happiness in his drawings, especially when he would create something specifically for me! 

Ideally what I took away from this was that a little more effort in praise can go a long way if we take the time. 

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Teaching The Boundary Pushers- ISTP Personality Type

This is part of a series of using Myers Briggs personality types in the classroom. For more information, click here. For information on how to figure out your student’s MBTI type, click here. 

Do you have a wandering student that struggles with keeping boundaries? They are confident and realistic in their thinking and learning. This personality type could be ISTP. Although, according to statistics, there is a small chance to have a student with this type in your classroom, ISTPs only make up 5% of the population, making it a lesser common personality type. 

Introverted
Sensing 
Thinking 
Perceiving

Being introverted, they keep to themselves. The way they process information is in a personal way, using all of their senses. They need hands-on manipulatives to sit and work with while they quickly take in the information. Often working in groups or even with a partner can feel stifling to them because they don’t want to be limited by other’s thinking. They never want to discuss topics with peers, they want to answer questions as quickly and efficiently as possible. 

The sensing side of them thrives on using all of their senses to learn. Worksheets and procedural learning are difficult for them to use to understand concepts. In fact, ISTP students are commonly known for having a difficult time excelling in school and are the least likely to continue education beyond high school. 

School systems are built around extroverted, intuitive personality types, which are students who engage with others, work in collaborating groups, and learn in a procedural way instead of learning using hands-on techniques. While learning in a personal setting with hands-on manipulatives is becoming more and more common, it is still not ideal for this personality type to learn in typical schools. A study was conducted asking ISTP types what type of school they preferred. Trade school came in first place with public or private schools receiving very few votes. 

So how can we help these students be more successful? First, be aware of their needs. Give them the independent study time they need, as much as you can feasibly do with the collaboration-driven schools that we are in now. Also at the same time, teach them ways to cope with learning in groups and speaking with peers on learning topics. Provide them with learning that uses all of their senses, and find a balance with their resistance to structure and boundaries. And obviously the most important, just know who they are and be in tune with what they need. That’s the best thing you can do for any of your students. 

How do you keep respectful boundaries with your students who resist them?  

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Teaching the “Entreperneur” Student: An MBTI Personality Type

This is part of a series of using Myers Briggs personality types in the classroom. For more information, click here. For information on how to figure out your student’s MBTI type, click here. 

Picture a student that is highly motivated by competition, one that is highly practical, yet disorganized. Perhaps spicy would be a word you could describe this student as. A student that you see someday owning and running their own very successful business. In fact, an ESTP’s nickname is “The Entrepeuneur”. 

Extroverted
Sensing 
Thinking 
Perceiving 

ESTP students have a hard time with theoretical ideas because they are the “get to work now” type. When they find excitement in a subject, they excel. ESTPs are known for jumping in with two feet with an idea and doing the thinking later because they want results and they wanted them yesterday. 

Group work and collaboration are where they flourish, especially with their extroverted tendencies. Bouncing ideas off of peers and working with others gives them energy and fuels their fire to take off and create something great. They are known for their original ideas and especially for making them happen. 

Their quick personalities also give them a love for games in the classroom or anything else that requires quick answers with a competitive environment. They are not ones to sit down with information and take it all in, they need the reader’s digest version of everything so that they can bounce around and move onto the next idea. 

Highly structured environments are hard for them with their perceiving type. They want the room to move and create at their own free will, not under the direction of a teacher. When given the right materials and space, ESTPs can blow everyone out of the water with what they can come up with. 

The sensing type in them thrives on manipulatives in the classroom. They want hands-on experience in everything, allowing them to take in and internalize a concept by doing, not seeing. If they are having a hard time grasping a concept, put it into action for them or let them put it into action themselves, that’s how they want to learn. 

Do you have an ESTP student in your class? How do you see their spicy, driven personality enhance the culture of your classroom? 

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Teaching To The Dedicated, Procedure Following Kids

This is part of a series of using Myers Briggs personality types in the classroom. For more information, click here. For information on how to figure out your student’s MBTI type, click here. 

ISTJ students are often described as logical, practical, and structured. Do you have one of these students in your classroom? Possibly one that thrives on consistency and struggles when rules and procedures are not followed. 

Introverted 

Sensing 

Thinking 

Judging 

These introverted students are capable of working in smaller groups, but large groups can stress them out, especially when making comments or asking questions. It’s rare to find these students speaking up or asking things in classroom discussions. In an interview I conducted with ISTJ personality types, one student expressed how she wished there could be an anonymous way to ask the teacher something without speaking up in a group to avoid shame and embarrassment. Another shared, “I’m learning even if I’m not raising my hand and sharing my answers out loud.”

They are sensing students, meaning conceptual learning can be difficult for them. They need their senses engaged to understand concepts. They do not want lists of procedures to accomplish long division, sensing types need number cubes and drawn out examples to understand what exactly division is, then they can understand everything fully. 

Interest in a topic is vital for these students and if they love what they are learning they will put in their full effort. ISTJs often do well in a university school setting because the topics and classes are chosen based on what they want, giving them a deeper interest in their studies, pushing them to work harder and do better. 

Clear objectives and expectations are big for this personality type. If you ever feel like you’re writing your objectives on the board just because you were told to by an administrator or learning coach, know that your effort is not wasted with an ISTJ student in your classroom. They often need to look at what is expected and strive to follow this, because their core values are to reach expectations, and it hurts them when they don’t or can’t accomplish this. 

Do you have any ISTJ students in your classroom? What ways do you use their interests to drive their learning? 


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The Worst Phone Call I’ve Made to a Parent

My hands were shaking as I picked up the phone. I was about to make a phone call to a parent of one of my best first-grade students, a call that I never thought I would have to make during my time teaching, especially during my very first teaching experience.

“Hi, Mrs. Johnson, it’s Mrs. Ross, your daughter’s teacher right now while her regular teacher is on maternity leave. I’m calling about your daughter, we had an incident today that I need to let you know about. While we were doing an activity with scissors, a boy in the class took a pair to your daughter’s braid and cut off the end of it. It was about an inch of hair and she is devastated. Do you mind talking to her for a little bit?” 

When the phone was handed back to me a few minutes later, I apologized over and over to her. I couldn’t believe that something like that happened in my classroom. All of the reminders of procedures and the rules we had in place for using scissors, it all went out the door the second the little boy put the scissors up to her hair. I felt like a failure as a teacher. 

Her mom came to pick her up from school early, she was too upset to make it through the school day. Proper action was taken on the situation with both students, and at the end of the day when all of them filed out of my classroom, I finally let my emotions show. I sat with other teachers in the copy room while we prepped for the next day and I told them how awful I felt about the situation. All of them helped me feel better by swapping their own stories of situations they have been in with students throughout their years of teaching, it helped me realize I wasn’t alone, others had been in this boat before too. 

What really helped most was my conversation with this little girl’s mom the next day. She dropped her off at school in the morning with a fresh new haircut and I continued to apologize to each of them again. Her mom responded by letting me know that she wasn’t upset in the slightest, either at me or the other student. These kids are seven years old, they are unpredictable and emotional human beings and it would be impossible for me to keep my eyes on each of them at all times, it wasn’t my fault. She even ended the conversation by asking if she could volunteer for anything, even if it was just cutting up things for me (since we had a new classroom rule of NO SCISSORS ALLOWED until I could get over what had happened). 

I expected her to be more upset with me, blaming everything on me, so to have her be understanding and in my corner was refreshing and uplifting. It really made me realize how much we as teachers need parents. They can be your advocate in bad situations. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve dealt with my fair share of difficult parents too, but that doesn’t mean they are all that way. Even though I was only in a long-term substitute teaching job, I wish I could have gone back and utilized parents more from the beginning. They really can be your best tool, if you let them in. 

I truly am curious, what is one of your worst teaching memories that you can hopefully look back on and laugh now? 

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Teaching The Leaders: ESTJ In The Classroom

This is part of a series of using Myers Briggs personality types in the classroom. For more information, click here. For information on how to figure out your student’s MBTI type, click here.

Dedicated, organized, direct, responsible, leaders. ESTJs typically fit these characteristics. If you were to get any student excited about organizing and carrying out a project, it would be them. 

Extroverted
Sensing 
Thinking 
Judging 

They are extroverted, meaning they receive their energy by talking, moving, and collaborating with peers. It’s not uncommon to find these students constantly talking with others to figure out concepts or finding the next study group to attend simply for the fact that they don’t like to study alone. Allowing them to move, explore, and discuss is important for them. 

Being a sensing type, using manipulatives is such a big deal for them. Having the opportunity to hold and see the concept helps them use their sensing type to put together information.  Using abstract, theoretical ideas for teaching is a fast way to lead ESTJs to confusion. 

They thrive in an organized environment. They need to see the natural succession of information, bouncing around in the subject can cause confusion. Facts resonate well with them, they are great notetakers because writing down the facts and processes can be incredibly helpful to them in knowing and taking in information. 

It’s no lie that ESTJs are among the most successful academically. They are not only the highest type to graduate with an undergraduate degree, but also have the highest grades as well. Like I stated above, these students are the ones to not only carry out a project but to also draw up the idea, bring it to life, and see it carried through. Nothing brings them more joy than a well-organized plan with very well-intended ideas. 

Pictured are a few common careers of ESTJ students. You’re teaching future managers, engineers, and supervisors. 

Photo from MBTIonline.com

What are the ways you help your ESTJ students learn? How do they improve your classroom culture?