A focus of our teacher only days this year was that of collaboration as all the hub teams this year are new, therefore it is imperative for us to get to know each other both professionally and personally before we enter the hubs and begin interacting with our learners. Part of the collaboration activity was to determine our current personality type and we had to answer a range of questions to establish this. I came out with the ISFJ or "The Defender" personality type as did both the other members of my hub team.
After determining our personality types, we shared with each other and had to do a SWOT Analysis for our team and think about how this might impact on both our relationships with each other and the learners as well as our design of learning. This was a pretty powerful activity as it got me thinking about some of my personal goals for the year and how I may accomplish these.
One of the opportunities for development of the ISFJ is that we can be reluctant to change and reflecting on last year, I think that this is something I should remain mindful of as I begin to plan for 2017. Just because something has worked in the past does not guarantee repeated success and as I get to know my learners' needs, I will have to differentiate activities based on their skill levels. Continuing to take risks with my planning and trying new things is a key focus of this year, especially as I am no longer in a full time team teaching position in the hub.
With teaching and my dissertation, I do have to realise that it will be another busy year meaning that I need to continue with the disciplined thought and disciplined action. I will be at school five days a week now (no more MDTA Fridays) and am more involved with extracurricular activities throughout the year so remembering to be open with how I am communicating and my workload commitments will be paramount to my success. A key trait of the ISFJ personality trait is ensuring that others needs are met, however, as my colleague Latai tells me: "You can't pour from an empty cup" so I also will be mindful of my own wellbeing.
I will share these goals in a later post, however, thought the concept of knowing yourself first is key to how you plan to set up your classroom, relationships and routines for the school year. I imagine that I will be reflecting on this post more as I get into the year so will look forward to seeing how I am tracking further in the term.
Here is a brief snapshot of what the ISFJ personality trait means.
One of the opportunities for development of the ISFJ is that we can be reluctant to change and reflecting on last year, I think that this is something I should remain mindful of as I begin to plan for 2017. Just because something has worked in the past does not guarantee repeated success and as I get to know my learners' needs, I will have to differentiate activities based on their skill levels. Continuing to take risks with my planning and trying new things is a key focus of this year, especially as I am no longer in a full time team teaching position in the hub.
I will share these goals in a later post, however, thought the concept of knowing yourself first is key to how you plan to set up your classroom, relationships and routines for the school year. I imagine that I will be reflecting on this post more as I get into the year so will look forward to seeing how I am tracking further in the term.
Here is a brief snapshot of what the ISFJ personality trait means.
This is really interesting Heath. What a great idea for your teachers to discover their personality types and consider its implications in the classroom. Its pretty neat that the other teaches in your hub are the same personality type! Do you think this will make it easier for you to work collaboratively and be on the same page? Hope you had a great first week :)
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting too and pretty relevant given how close we as teachers need to work together in the hub. Part of our PD was that we had to gauge what our collaboration styles would be like given our personality types so the three of us are mindful that we are similar so need to remember that when interacting with each other.
DeleteHi Heath,
ReplyDeleteAs I have not had any experience in a hub, I have always wondered how this might be set up so I found this post very interesting. It sounds like you could work very well together - with all of you looking out for one another! I hope you have a really successful year :)
Thanks for the comment Danni, upon reflection, I do think it is pretty important to start to look at yourself before learning to work with others. It might be an interesting one to look at with your class - I think Latai did this with her 7/8's
DeleteThanks for sharing Heath - I am interested to hear a little more about the SWOT analysis? What are your thoughts of it? It is part of one of my Year 11 assessments, but I was a little sceptical to using it in class. Look forward to hearing back!
ReplyDeleteThanks Georgia, I think the SWOT was a great starting point and the discussion that came from it was interesting, especially when you have differing perspectives.
DeleteHi Heath, I do agree that repeated success is not guaranteed because something has been successful before. That is why it is very important to know our learners. Do you find getting to know your learners a bit of a challenge with the student numbers in your hub? I also value the very wise words from dear Latai as well. Yes we can not pour from an empty cup. I usually say something along the lines of 'Gotta look after number one' but Latai's words sound wiser.
ReplyDeleteHi Amy, great to hear from you! It can be challenging at times to know all the learners however with the three teachers, I think it works out that each learner feels confident to share with at least one of us. This is something we do each term to make sure that each learner has at least one (hopefully more) significant adult in the hub.
Delete