Personality impacts

Personality
According to the MMDI questionnaire, my personality type is stronger in ESFJ, though contains elements of ISFJ. The "S" element refers to "Sensation," which looks at facts, takes a practical approach and tends to be interested in clear, detailed information. This explains my interest in nonfiction texts such as newspapers, magazines, and autobiographies, but lately I'm gaining a renewed affection for fiction after a long hiatus. I read a lot of fiction in middle school and high school, but abandoned novels in college to concentrate on nonfiction texts because I thought they were more relevant to daily life. When was I going to use themes from "The Odyssey" in a news story I was writing about city finances? I am starting to learn that literature contains valuable insights and truths about the human condition. Literary texts can also be subtle commentaries on the state of affairs of a particular time period -- such as perspectives on slavery in novels such as "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Paying attention to emotions and feelings is a hallmark of an ISFJ, so that explains why I am interested in teaching English and analyzing different characters.


As an ESFJ, I think I contain personality traits that will positively affect students such as encouraging and motivating others, promoting cooperation and teamwork and making students feel valued. One of my National professors repeatedly stated a tenet that I agree holds true: As a teacher, my job is to teach students first, the content second. He meant that teachers need to know who their students are as people -- learning about their families, hobbies, interests, goals. We could have all the content in the world, but it would not do much good if there were an obstacle, such as a learning disability, that made it impossible for a student to access or understand information contained in a lesson.


Learning and teaching styles
My scores on the learning styles inventory leaned more toward sensing and sequential traits. I tend to rely on familiar ways of doing things and prefer to complete tasks in a linear fashion. In order to be an effective teacher, I realize I will have to constantly discover new ways of presenting content to keep students interested. Along with that, I will encourage students to consider different ways of approaching an assignment, and, as a study aid, model asking questions of a text and then answering them to boost comprehension. Just because I have a certain learning style does not mean that my students learn the same way. As for teaching styles, I scored high as a facilitator and personal model. When I get my own classroom I want to make sure every student knows what he or she is supposed to do, and provide a few examples of how to get there. I believe it's important to give students a road map, but at the same time, I want to provide students the flexibility to solve problems in a variety of methods and approaches. As the different learning styles attest, one student may be more of a visual learner while a colleague tends toward the verbal side.