"Stop! Collaborate and Listen!"
Listen to Vanilla Ice- collaboration is key, especially in the education world. Taking the time to engage in a professional learning network, or PLN, can only help in your growth and development as an educator. Without even realizing it, you probably engage or interact with a PLN on a semi-regular basis. Way back in 2022, I had the opportunity to learn about PLNs for the very first time. While the concept seemed unfamiliar to me, I realized that I was already a part of various PLNs without even knowing it. Check out my initial blog post on this subject to read more!
PLNs come in all shapes and sizes. From collaborating with teammates to joining online groups aimed at educators and everything in between, PLNs are designed to help those in the education field have a wide array of resources to cultivate a dynamic career and professional presence. This year, I am finding that I am relying on my PLN more than ever because I am implementing a new reading curriculum. Since I am working in uncharted territory, hardly a day goes by where I am not meeting with my teammates, reaching out to colleagues in other buildings, and even consulting teacher focused Facebook pages for advice and support.
Taking a Look in the Mirror
Since I have an established PLN, I decided to engage in self-reflection and learn more about my personality to determine what traits I bring to the table and contribute to those I work with. To conduct this deep dive, I took three online personality tests: 16 Personalities, Five Factor, and Personality Type Indictator.
16 Personalities Results
In reviewing the results from the 16 Personalities test, I was not really surprised to see that I am defined as an ISFJ, or a Defender personality. ISFJ is a personality type that is characterized by Introverted, Observant, Feeling, and Judging traits. ISFJ personalities are known for their loyalty, their perfectionism, and their thoughtfulness. In the workplace, ISFJs are reliable and collaborative in nature, but are prone to burnout since they want to please and will not often say "no" when asked to do something.
Personality Type Indicator Results
According to the results of the Personality Type Indicator test, I am an INTP personality. I feel like the results of this test align with what I learned about my personality through the 16 Personalities test. According to Five Factor, I am basically one of a kind- INTP personalities only make up about 4% of the population! I do consider myself to be mostly introverted and intuitive. As pointed out in my results, I hold myself and others to a very high standard, I can become impatient when I perceive others to be less competent than me, and I do not like to make mistakes. The few things I disagreed on with my results are that I can be perceived as pushy or rude when sharing my ideas with others and that I value efficiency over the needs and feelings of others. Additionally, my results stated that I may have trouble working as part of a team, which I feel is only partially correct. I love my team that I currently work on because we are mostly like-minded individuals-- when having to involve myself with others who are not as like-minded, I do agree that I prefer to work alone in those situations.
Five Factor Results
The Five Factor test measures your personality in terms of Extraversion, Openness to Experiences, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. According to the results of this test, my personality is: 59% extraversion, 75% openness to new experiences, 77% conscientiousness, 74% agreeableness, and 56% neuroticism.
I feel that the scores for conscientiousness and agreeableness are very accurate. However, I would disagree with the percentages for extraversion and openness to experiences. In my opinion, I am very introverted, enjoy my established routines, and am resistant to change or new experiences. Additionally, while I am not proud of it, I would have to agree with most of the points in the neuroticism category. While I like to think of myself as a positive person, there are definitely times where I have a little dark storm cloud over my head. This can cause me to overthink and sometimes respond or react more emotionally towards situations than I would like. I recognize that this can sometimes make it difficult for me to cope with stress and work effectively with others. Like most people, I feel that my neuroticism can ebb and flow. There are times where I am very easy going, calm, and reasonable; however, when there is too much going on or many things on my plate, I tend to be more overwhelmed and volatile because of stress.
So, What Comes Next?
While I consider myself to be a great teammate and an asset to my team and school, I know there are always things I can improve on. Based on the results of the three personality tests I took, the result or trait that stuck out most to me was Neuroticism. While I am not this way all of the time, I think that my tendencies to think pessimistically and react emotionally can put me at a disadvantage professionally and can impact my ability to contribute positively to my PLN. If I dedicate time to improving my coping skills, I think I will be better equipped to manage my stress, maintain a more positive attitude, and work productively with my team when we face challenges throughout the school year. After reading the article "Teacher Stress: 6 Coping Skills" from Education Week, I realized that I don't need to focus on making big, sweeping changes to help me achieve this goal. Here are some things I plan to do in the near future that I think will help me feel more positive and grounded. If I can implement these things and feel more consistently centered by January 1, I will consider it a success!
1.) Participate in the staff book club started at my school
This is something I am proud to say I have already started on! In my district, our superintendent invited all staff members who were interested to join her book club. We are meeting monthly to discuss sections of the book "Teach Happier This School Year: 40 Weeks of Inspiration and Reflection" by Suzanne Dailey. The biggest thing with this goal is to focus on consistently participating. I feel that it could be easy for me to make excuses about not taking the time to read or reflect, or making the time to attend the meetings. However, there are other teachers in my building that are a part of the club and I think they could help keep me accountable!
2.) Keep a gratitude journal
In my opinion, it can be easy to get bogged down with all of the things that are going wrong. Actively choosing to focus on things that are positive in my life or things that I am thankful to have in my life might help change my perspective. While I can't get rid of the challenges that I encounter in my work and personal life, I can take small steps to not give them as much space in my head. By journaling daily or weekly about things that I am thankful to have or about positive experiences, I can cultivate a better headspace for myself.
3.) Engage in mood monitoring
As suggested by the Education Week article, mood monitoring involves teachers making a practice of tracking their mood at least once a day and writing down circumstances or situations that contributed to their mood leaning more positively or negatively. I feel like this practice could help me recognize trends in my day where I tend to experience more stress and could help me plan my workload throughout the week to factor in self care to my schedule. For example, if I know Tuesdays can be more triggering for negativity, I might try to get more work done on Mondays so that I can have time outside of work to exercise or do other things to address my mental health and mood.
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