Wondering How to Celebrate Women's History Month?

 Women's History Month is upon us! 

How do you celebrate in the classroom?

I love to start with books! I read books by women and about women.  I read books about women's stereotypes, and books about women's struggles. We explore biographies about famous women.

And we talk. A lot! We talk about the women they know, and the women they've heard of. We talk about what it means to be a woman and what makes women powerful!

Claudio from Two Boys and a Dad has many suggestions, for books about women in this post:  Inspiring Women Children's Books

 Brenda from Enjoy Teaching has a great post with great strategies to help empower our girls: Three Ways to Empower Girls in the Classroom

 

  

Michelle from Teaching Ideas for Those Who Love Teaching has some delightful ideas for celebrating women, including book ideas and integrating history with this post:  Celebrating Women's Accomplishments

 

Here is one of my own posts, with several book ideas, and inspirational quotes by several famous women.

Inspire your girls (and boys, too!)

 Here's another one of my posts, reminding teachers (and students) that we are all unique individuals, and that needs to be celebrated: Diversity Matters! Celebrate Our Differences!

Here's a fun resource to help celebrate Women's History Month:

  

How do you celebrate Women's History Month?

Diversity Matters: Celebrating Our Differences

We are all different. We are all the same.

It's tough for a lot of people to understand this!  

Right now, there are a whole lot of angry people out there bullying each other... and it isn't just kids. 

But the kids are watching, and learning from what they see around them.

How can we help children learn to appreciate the differences in others? 

The most important thing we can do is be role models: show them to appreciate and celebrate the good in others. 

Talk to them. 

Let them see you talking to others... all kinds of people!

Read to them. Read books about different kinds of people!

Whether it's Black History Month (February) Women's History Month (March) Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (May) or National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 - October 15) or even National Disability Employment Awareness Month (October), there's plenty of books to share with children that show the importance of different kinds of people. Here are a few to help you with Black History Month: (These books are Amazon affiliate links, which means I get credit for sending you to Amazon, but it doesn't cost you a cent!)

• Black Icons - An Illustrated Children's Book: Celebrating 20 Leaders & Unsung Heroes of Black History
• Things Kids Should Know About Black History: Educational Children's Book for Black History Month

• The ABCs of Black History 

• Black Heroes: A Black History Book for Kids: 51 Inspiring People from Ancient Africa to Modern-Day U.S.A.

 

A couple of books for Women's History Month:

• A is for Awesome!: 23 Iconic Women Who Changed the World
• Women Who Dared: 52 Stories of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, and Rebels
• We Are Artists: Women Who Made Their Mark on the World

And here are a few books to celebrate the best in everyone!

• All Are Welcome
• This Is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids from Around the World
• It's OK to be Different: A Children's Picture Book About Diversity and Kindness
• Listening with My Heart: A story of kindness and self-compassion
• All People are Beautiful
• All Different and Beautiful
• I am Enough

Here's a little activity that you can use with your students to get their minds thinking about what is fair. It's perfect for sharing about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Black History Month, Women's History Month, or any time you want the children to think about respecting others! Just or Unjust?

You can get this resource for free by signing up for our helpful emails HERE.

More than anything, please model kindness! Here's a great video that touches my heart, that says everything I want to say about modeling kindness. (Plus the children will enjoy singing along!)

Honestly, I firmly believe embracing and modeling diversity is just as important as reading and writing!

These topics are great for research, as you can see from Enjoy Teaching!

Some ideas about celebrating Black History Month from  Those Who Love Teaching.

 

 Here's a great way to combine Dr. King's life with Google maps from Two Boys and a Dad!

 

Here's another blog post I've written about Sharing Kindness: 

 

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?

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?