Personality types

I have done a lot of personality tests myself over the years at high school and since high school. But attending the International Conference On Thinking 2013 in Wellington at the beginning of the year reminded me of these tests and got me thinking of how these could be used in the classroom.
I knew that going into 2013 I had two particular boys that did not get on, in fact they have used very strong words, expressing how they feel about each other.
This got me thinking...
Is it that they are purposely going out of their way to annoy each other or is there a way to show them that sometimes that don't mean to annoy, it is just who they are? That message of all being different but because of this we are special and unique.
David Koutsoukis was a fantastic presenter at the conference and spoke about these different personality types.
Firstly he spoke about having 'Kefi'- a zest for life and that this will radiate out infecting those around you with a positive outlook. He had great messages about using the soft calm voice (which we all know gets the best results but sometimes I know I can be pushed past the soft calm voice) and the power of the pause. Don't just default as the teacher (or a parent) to outright 'No' as the reply to questions take the time to pause and make a more  thought out response to children's requests.
Sitting at a table with some other ladies I really liked the saying one of them shared. "Catch children in the art of being good." It is something I am always trying to do, acknowledging the positive behaviour but I thought is was a nice quote to remind you of that when kids haven't had such a great day.

But the majority of David's talk was about how we all walk to a different tune and see the world through different coloured glasses. He gave us four cards; a blue one with a triangle for the analysers, a red heart for the carer's, a yellow circle for the players (the spontaneous ones) a a green square for the safekeepers.
He asked us to read the cards which gave examples of what these personalities are comfortable with and what they don't like as well the habits that are often noticed by others but sub conscious to the person. We had to stack the cards in order with the least like us at the bottom through to the most like us being on the top. We then moved to a corner of the room to see who else was like us. He spoke about how one personality would frustrate another eg: the players who are impulsive might frustrate the safekeepers who are organised and need to have a plan and dislike surprises or risks.
SIDE NOTE-David mentioned that most teachers fall into the Safekeeper or Carer personality.

So in the second week back at school I decided I would like to get my class to value the differences in people through this personality game.
We first of all talked about how we are lucky because there is only one of us. No one is exactly like us we are unique and this is also what makes us special.
I spoke about the cards and I explained what traits you might find in each personality type and then gave the kids a chance to have a look at the cards for themselves and decide which one resonated with them. I was surprised to be honest at how well they managed this. I then asked them to get into certain corners of the room to show who were our carer's, safekeepers, analysers and players.
SIDE NOTE-Interestingly I had a lot of carer's and players in my class this year.
I then modelled what David did sparking discussion around how some personality types could potentially frustrate or annoy others.
We had a great discussion around it and then I posed the question to the class. What do you think was the purpose of doing this exercise? Why do you think I wanted us to find out more about our personalities?
The responses were very mature I thought coming from 7&8-year-olds and a I was very impressed.
It was also interesting at the end one of the girls in the class put her hand up and asked. "What personality are you Mrs Head?" I told the class that I had done this in Wellington and that I was a yellow but that I was a stronger (player-yellow) when I was younger and have become more of the green Safekeeper as I have got older. A few then sparked up and said yeah I think I was ....and now I am more ....
Below is a photo of what I recorded from these discussions.

NEXT STEPS:
Come Monday I would like to have a post on our class blog about our personalities including the photo above. But I would also like to get some video footage of kids talking about their own personality. Why did they place themselves in that personality type? How has it changed their thinking about people in their class that they may not have got on with in the past? What will they do differently next time someone in the class annoys them? Do you think it is a good or bad thing that we all have different personalities and why? Do you think your personality has changed at all and if so why do you think it might have changed?

I will also set up a classroom display with a copy of the cards, who falls into which type with a brief description of that personality and our thoughts around the purpose of the activity. Hopefully when kids become frustrated they may with practice look to our personality wall and see that they are not like me they think differently and may not have realised they upset me. This can become something the kids refer to throughout the year and it maybe that in time they set goals from it to become more of another type. eg: If they are too much of a player and need to have some order/organisation in their lives.