Myers-Briggs Part 2: How Do You Find Your Energy?

Last week I posted about the Myers-Briggs Personality Types. (See THIS post.) 

This week I want to tell more about the Myers-Briggs Personality Types. As I mentioned last time, there are four "scales". Today's scale asks how you find your energy.  

There are two ways people get their energy:  

1.  They get their energy from other people. (Extroversion)

2.  They get their energy by turning inward. (Introversion)

When I originally took the test, I really struggled over this one. I thought being an introvert meant I was anti-people. I thought it meant I was doomed to be alone, and I really questioned the accuracy of this scale. After all, I like people! I have a lot of great friends!

To some people, being an introvert can mean "terribly shy" or "prefers to be alone".  

For the Myers-Briggs scale, it doesn't mean that at all.  

• Introverts prefer small groups of people to large groups.
• Extroverts prefer large groups of people to small groups.
• Introverts "recharge" by spending time alone.
• Extroverts "recharge" by surrounding themselves with friends.
• Introverts think, then act.
• Extroverts act, then think.
• Introverts are very reflective.  
• Extroverts are very social.
• Introverts feel drained after a social get together, even if they had fun.
• Extroverts feel energized after a social get together.

• When extroverts get together, they all talk at once.
• When introverts get together, they take turns and speak one at a time

These last two comments remind me of the two staff rooms in my school, and the groups of people who have lunch in each room. Being an introvert, I go to the "quieter" staff room for lunch. It's a smaller group, and there is one conversation going on in the room. We all take turns and listen to each other. The other staff room has several conversations going on at once.They are clearly having a great time in there, but I can honestly say, the days I've gone in there, I was so drained I could barely go back to my classroom and face the afternoon with the kids! That's just not how I "regroup"!

I think what I've learned most about personality types is that our society needs all types. I've learned to value who I am and appreciate the other types. I've come to recognize the different types in other adults as well as the students I work with. Life would be boring if we were all the same! 

Some famous introverts:  Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, George Washington, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Julia Roberts, Audrey Hepburn, Johnny Carson, J.K.Rowling, Mozart, Steven Spielberg 

Some famous extroverts:  Oprah, Martin Luther King, Ben Franklin, Winston Churchill, Andrew Carnegie, Margaret Thatcher, John Kennedy, Bill Gates, Aristotle, Mark Twain, Anne Frank, Ronald Reagan

Great jobs for introverts: Accountant, Software Engineer, Market Research Analyst, Graphic Designer, Translator, Writer, Fine Arts, Designer, Chef, Scientist, Editor, Mechanic, Truck Driver, Lawyer, Teacher

Great jobs for extroverts: Emergency Medical Technician, Dental Hygienist, Physical Therapist, Public Relations Manager, Human Resource Specialist, Sports coach, Event planner, Corporate Fund Raiser, Hairdresser, Customer Service, Nurse, Financial Advisor, Teacher

Check out these book recommendations by exploring the images. (These are affiliate links,) Type Talk is the one I bought when I first learned about Myers Briggs Personality Types, and it has helped me understand people in all parts of my life.  

          

           

Here are links to all my posts on the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator:

Part 1: The Myers-Briggs Personality Types

Myers-Briggs Part 2: How do you find your energy?

Myers-Briggs Part 3: How do you process information?

Myers-Briggs Part 4: How do you make decisions?

Myers-Briggs Part 5: How do you live your outer life?

Myers-Briggs Part 6: What's your type?

Valentine Fun

 What is it about Valentine's Day that's so much fun for kids? 

They're not involved in romance, so that couldn't be it! 

 

We give them some class time to exchange some silly cards. Well, that's definitely fun. And there's all that candy... plus, it's something fun during the "longest" month of the year!

Yes, I know, February is really the shortest month of the year, and we have the last week off. But for those of us in New England who are totally sick of the winter cold by this point, February is the "longest" month of the year! Valentine's Day is a nice break from the mundane.

Well, as I was strolling through the Dollar Store yesterday, I saw packages of plastic heart containers. Immediately I started thinking about what I can do with them in the classroom. (Do "normal" people stroll through the Dollar Store and try to find stuff they can buy for their jobs?)

I found myself thinking of the activity I did last year with Easter Eggs, and I thought I'd adapt it to Valentine Hearts.

I made Valentine Synonym or Antonym Match Up.  I can't wait to show the kids!  I even found some shiny red bags to put the pieces in! 

Speaking of Valentine's Day, be sure to check out this fun resource:

Valentine's Day Mini-Books!

There's a mini book with Valentine's Trivia, and a mini book for the children to list all the things they love!  Plus, it comes with directions on how to fold and cut the mini-books.

 

Here's my newest treasure! If you're a fan of Boom Learning like I am, you'll love this one: Valentine's Day Fun Facts Trivia

Do you have a day off or a meeting coming? These activities are one way to continue keep the children engaged and learning, without making extra work for you! 

Valentine's Day No Prep Activities

I have one more activity to show you:  it's a math facts board game:  Have a Heart Math Facts Game! It practices basic addition and subtraction facts. The kiddos can play just addition, just subtraction, or combine both!

I can't blog about Valentine's Day without mentioning my very favorite Valentine's Day book: Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch!  This book will warm your heart, without a doubt.  It can actually be read any time of year, but it's a MUST-READ for Valentine's Week!

I love children's books!  I can't resist once I start looking at books, but here are several more with a Valentine's Day or a LOVE theme.  Be sure to click on each book for a link to Amazon to learn more about that book.  (For the Love of Autumn is another one of my all-time favorites - Patricia Polacco is an amazing author!)

                             

Have a great Valentine's Day!  I hope your kiddos LOVE the day!

Myers Briggs Personality Types

I got my master's degree in the late 80s in Creative Arts in Learning. It was a fabulous program with some incredible instructors, and fantastic content. We had classes in music, visual arts, acting, storytelling, and movement. We also had a great class called Arts in Society which helped us develop a deep understanding of what Art is and the importance of Art in our world. 

We met one weekend a month for a couple of years. We were lucky to go through the whole program with the same group of teachers. It was a variety of educators, from classroom teachers, to art teachers, music teachers, and even a school nurse! We came from all over New England to a little seminar house in a small town in New Hampshire. When we were done, we not only had a masters degree, but we had a core of deeply trusted friends in education.

Although these courses were 25 years ago, they left a profound impact in my teaching as well as my personal life. I draw on these experiences daily in my teaching. 

 

Probably the most valuable thing I got out of this masters program was learning about the Myers-Briggs Personality Types. It was one of the first things we learned in the program, and it kept coming back through the whole 2 year process. It helped me understand myself, and it helped me understand my students. It helped me accept differences in people and realize that all different kinds of people are valuable and important in our society.

It's based on 4 different scales, or preferences. It is important to remember that these are just preferences. It's not an IQ test or aptitude test in any way. Just like you might prefer to write with your right hand, because it's more comfortable for you. If you had to, you could use your left hand, but it's just not as comfortable. Using your right hand (or your left) is your preference.

The first scale is about how a person interacts with their world. Some think of this scale as how a person gets their energy. These preferences are Introversion (I) and Extroversion (E.)

The next preference is how a person prefers to process information. These preferences are Sensing (S) and Intuition (N.) 

The third preference is about how a person makes decisions. These preferences are Thinking (T) and Feeling (F.)

The fourth preference is how a person organizes his life. These preferences are Judging (J) and Perceiving (P.)

Since each of the 4 scales has 2 preferences, there are a total of 16 possible personality types.

The word scale is appropriate here. Some people land all the way on the edge of a scale, and some people land close to the middle of a scale. My own scales have some extremes, and some scales where I land almost in the middle. (Almost like ambidextrous, with the dominant hand analogy.)

There are links to more information about the Myers-Briggs Personality Types all over the internet! Just google it, and you'll find plenty of information!

Here are links to the other posts in this series:

Myers-Briggs Part 2: How do you find your energy?

Myers-Briggs Part 3: How do you process information?

Myers-Briggs Part 4: How do you make decisions?

Myers-Briggs Part 5: How do you live your outer life?

Myers-Briggs Part 6: What's your type?

Number Sense with Cuisenaire Rods

Although I teach second grade, I still have some kids who really need some basic number sense! These are the kids who still don't automatically "count on" when adding two numbers together, or determining the sum of two dice. They still count the dots!

These kids need more "hands-on" opportunities to get to know these numbers inside out!

I absolutely LOVE Cuisenaire Rods for helping children develop their number sense. I posted about them a while ago with THIS POST about using Cuisenaire Rods to practice math facts and fact families. I've got some kids who need to back up even further and really need to get to know the individual numbers by using these manipulatives.

It's a good idea to give the children a couple of sessions for free explorations with the Cuisenaire Rods. They'll catch on that the smallest cubes are always white, and that the longest  ones are orange. Sooner or later, they'll figure out the "staircase". From the staircase, they'll figure out the value of each color, so it's a good idea to start them off by building a staircase from this point on.

I've put together a few exercises with the Cuisenaire Rods to help build number sense. Click HERE or click the image to the right for a sample on the number 5 (the yellow rod).

If you're interested in more activities for the other colored rods, see the image below or see here: Number Sense With Cuisenaire Rods

 

I have also developed a resource for Cuisenaire Rods to help the little ones learn Math Facts with fact families.

And yes... there's another set. This is the most popular with the kiddos: Once they develop number sense and know fact families, they can build with the rods and practice adding multiple addends!  See it here: Cuisenaire Rods Build it and Add!

You want them all! Yes, there's a bundle, and it's available at an enormous discount!

 See the above image for the bundle!   HERE!

Are You Ready for Day 100?

Holy cow, Day 100 is right around the corner! 

 

There are loads of ideas on Pinterest and teaching blogs all over the internet. The hard part is choosing the best stuff without having to spend a month on Day 100!  

 

In the Common Core State Standards, most of second grade focuses on Numbers and Operations in Base Ten. Day 100 is a great day to celebrate the concepts of Place Value and Base Ten. Luckily, most of these activities go right along with these standards for this level!

Last year I posted about my tradition: Day 100 Caroling!  We really do go from classroom to classroom and sing a song. I wish I could share all the songs I've collected, but they're not mine to share, but I'd be glad to share my own: 100 Days Smarter. I think it's a nice reminder of all the work we've done so far this year! Plus, music, movement, and fun are all ways to help the brain remember things! Day 100 Caroling is one thing that kids tell me they remember about being in my second-grade classroom.

Here's an activity we've already been playing for a couple of weeks, since it's directly related to what we're working on in Math. (Adding and subtracting with 2 digits.) They really need to master the idea of adding and subtracting tens, and this freebie game is doing the trick!  Beanie Toss to 100

For some of my kids, I need to challenge them with more complex computations. This game is a popular one, and makes them think. With my second graders, I have them figure out the number they're waiting for ahead of time, but older kids probably wouldn't need to do that. I Have... Who Has...? gives the children practice figuring out compliments of 100.  (57 +  = 100)

Color Coded Number Grid There are tons of games that can be played on the Number Grid! My favorite is simply Race to 100 with dice or Race from 100 with dice. The children roll two dice, and proceed along the number line from 0 to 100. The subtraction version has them starting at 100 and counting backward to 0. The conversation that goes along with these games are as valuable as the number grid itself. For more of a challenge, or a quicker game, use 3 or 4 dice!

Again, with second graders, I want to celebrate 100 with more than just counting to 100. This game gives the children practice adding and subtracting 100 to 4-digit numbers.

Mental Math 100 Game

Want to make your life easier? Grab this bundle! It's got a little bit of everything, for lots of math levels and interests! 

Day 100 Games and Activities for Older Students

 

And, of course, a few books for the occasion! Explore each image for an affiliate link to Amazon to learn more about the book! I never miss an opportunity to include literature in my math lessons.  My students love books!

 

                    

I find Day 100 brings much excitement from all levels. How will you be celebrating Day 100?