ITL 528 blog post #1
This blog is for one of my credential classes at National University. This assignment was to write about who I am, and what my personality is.
I'm a San Diego native who loves to travel, read, garden, and cook. Up until two years ago, I hated cooking. I thought it was waste of time. But then I made an effort to eat healthier and started to teach myself to cook, and I love it! The only frozen dinners in my freezer are ones I made myself. I bake really good sourdough baguettes, although not as frequently as I did a year ago because I gained weight! My favorite thing to cook is croquettas de jamón that I learned to make many years ago when I lives in el país vasco. Languages I've studied include Basque, French, Spanish, Latin, and Greek. I did try German too, but for some reason, I just can't seem to pick that up. I've lived in Spain, Tijuana, and London. I have one son and four dogs. I usually have a horse or two, but I haven't had any since we moved a while ago.
Take a look at my other pages to see where I went to school, what books I have enjoyed during this credential study, and more.
I have been a teacher for over a dozen years now. I always thought that I would only teach at the college level, but that has changed. I became concerned with the educational inequality in our communities a few years ago while scoring the CAASPP. This is the high stakes test at the end of the year that almost all public school children take. The results reveal how big the achievement gap is in our state. I want to be part of the solution that gives all students access to an excellent education. I know we have a lot of great teachers in our districts that work hard for the students. I want to learn from them and grow as a teacher.
I’ve actually spent quite a bit of time this year exploring who I am as a teacher. I took the big five aspects scale personality type at https://www.understandmyself.com. The results helped me to reflect on how I am, and how my strengths and weaknesses could play out in a public school classroom.
I am less agreeable than most women, which makes me less likely to be a pushover, but still somewhat warm and considerate. I would expect that I am much less agreeable than most women who choose to be teachers. I am less compassionate than most women, but about the same in this trait as most men. I am quite high in politeness.
I am extremely high in conscientiousness at the 97th percentile. I focus on achievement, order, and hard work, and expect students that I teach to value these as well. This can result in too much pressure on them. I have to be careful to emphasize that they only need to do their personal best, and not compare themselves to others. I expect excellence from my son, and he has internalized this, and he can put too much stress on himself to achieve. I have to constantly tell him that I love him no matter what grades he gets. He can also think it is unfair that he needs to do harder classes than all of his friends. But I tell him that aiming for good enough is the path to a life of mediocrity; why wouldn’t he want to be excellent? So I need to work on this aspect of my personality in the classroom so my students know I care for them as individuals, not just as scholars.
I am exactly average in introversion/extroversion. I like to be with people sometimes, and don’t at other times. I have always liked to do things by myself, like go to the movies, or out to dinner, or travel by myself. I am happy in my own company. But I also like giving parties and having people over. As part of this domain, I am quite high in assertiveness. Supposedly this means dominating social situations, but I don’t see that in me.
I am extremely high in openness to experience. I have to be engaged in learning something new all the time. I have to be challenged in some way. I like to teach myself new things by reading, experimenting, planning, thinking, etc. This bodes well for me as a teacher because a primary role of teachers is that of learners. We love to learn. I also think that I won’t be content to just be a teacher. I will explore different roles in education. I am getting my credential in English, social studies, Spanish, with a bilingual authorization.
My Myers-Briggs personality type is INTJ. About 1% of women are this combination of personality strengths and weaknesses, making this the rarest type of personality for women. As a result, I am often misunderstood. But I wouldn’t want to change. At this stage in life, I understand myself, and have developed strategies to fit in when I want to. For example, when men dominate the conversation, I let them unless it is important that I speak up. I have learned that many men don’t want to listen to a woman’s opinion however much they may protest that is not the case. I have learned how to observe mistakes without trying to correct them. Instead, I look for what people are doing right, and highlight that. I am organized, analytical, and make up my own mind. This can seem defiant to those in authority. But it is really a particular kind of defiance; I am not going to obey your stupid rule, but I will always respect legitimate authority. But if you’re telling me to do something I disagree with, I will simply decline to do it in most cases. So this means that I have a paradoxical approach to authority. On one hand, I respect every legitimate authority; I support the police, respect elected government officials, etc. But I won’t obey unless what you are asking me to do is right and proper. I determine this by using Kant’s categorical imperative and the Bible. I anticipate that this attitude towards authority will result in sometimes challenging relationships with some students who do not respect authority. My challenge is to elucidate the importance of respecting authority while being true to oneself.
A teaching style quiz indicates that my style of instruction is formal authority at 4.87, and expert at 4.62. This is consistent with other self-assessments I have taken. I think that as a college professor I was the content expert and didn’t have the role of caring for children, that this aspect of teaching was developed more than the others. I will use this information to refine my practice by maintaining the awareness that I tend to view the teacher’s role as the expert, and mitigate this by working to develop the traits and behaviors of the delegator, in which I scored the lowest at 3.37. These behaviors could include listening more to students, lecturing much less that I am used to, being willing to let students have more opportunities to discuss in small groups, and teaching students how to take responsibility for their own learning.
