Monday, October 10, 2011

My thoughts on taking the Strength Finder test

I had a hard time taking the Strengths Finder test. The questions were worded in such a way that I often was neutral because I strongly agreed with both options. Usually tests where you are supposed to pick one of two options, the options are opposites.
I'm not sure that I agree with the results: Discipline, Input, Belief, Learner, Responsibility. I agree that I fall into all of these categories. I just feel that some of the other categories in the book are equally applicable to me. I do not like that it only gives you a top 5. I took a test that was similar to this once and it gave the results in the form of a chart that laid out all of the categories and how many of your responses applied to each category. I liked that because it showed strengths, close runners up, and weaknesses. I feel like it is important to know which categories you are strong in, but it is also important to see what your weaknesses are. Weaknesses are areas for improvement.
Having already written my Philosophy of Ed, I find it interesting to see which of these strengths are easily seen it. I feel that it is important for a teacher to be part of the learning community of the classroom. Teachers should always be learning, not stagnant. It is also important for teachers to be disciplined and responsible. As a teacher, it is also important to have good ethics and beliefs. Christian teachers have the advantage of a solid place on which to base their lives.
I find the Input category the most interesting. I had not really thought about this aspect of myself before. The book talks about collecting information and physical things and having the inability to get rid of things. I definitely fall into this category. I have kept every workbook, worksheet, list of books, textbook, storybook, etc that I have ever gotten because I might be able to use it when I'm teaching. I have boxes and boxes of "teaching stuff." I have been striving to become a teacher since elementary school, so I have quite a collection. At the same time though, I have managed to keep it fairly well organized. I can call home and ask my mom to scan something in and email it to me. Sometimes she knows where to find it; most of the time I tell her go in the box labelled ______ in the _______ book/binder/folder and about halfway through it there should be a page that talks about ____________. Almost always my mom finds what I wanted. I have gotten better at figuring out what I use the most and bringing it with me to college, but it would be impossible to bring all of my supplies.
Overall, the top 5 strengths that the test identified for me are things that I already knew about myself. This test did make me think a little more deeply about these strengths though. I hope to put them to their best use to aid my students.

No comments:

Post a Comment