One day before we started class this week, a student asked me if I ever got bored teaching the same courses year after year. He said he wanted to be a teacher but wasn’t sure if it would be interesting enough. I told him I never get bored because the different personalities of the students make the class interesting.
“Can you give us an example?” he asked.
I had so many examples I could think of that it was hard to choose, so, I chose one about two girls in one class that were about as opposite as they could be.
One girl, Leanna, had a light complexion with blond hair that streamed nearly to her waist. The other girl, Talia, had brown skin with short, cropped hair. They were both pretty girls, just from different nationalities.
But the differences weren’t just in their looks. Their personalities were far different. Leanna was very intense, too intense, in everything she did. She was a perfectionist who couldn’t stand anything less. She drove most of her math group crazy, wanting everything to be exactly right, including citing a number to about ten decimals. She always wore a stern look when she worked on math, her brow knit in deep concentration.
On the other hand, Talia was happy-go-lucky in her demeanor. She was fun to be around, and her math group gravitated to her. If she got close to the correct number on her answers, that was good enough for her. Too often, when I had them work in groups, her mind was far from class. Unfortunately, so was her discussion, and she led her group off on tangents. There were many times I had to remind her to focus on the problem.
Leanna let me know right up front that her goal was a perfect one hundred percent in my class. Without her saying anything, I was sure Talia would be happy just to pass.
As we prepared for the first test, I had the students work on a review. I smiled when somebody in Leanna’s group would get an answer, only to have Leanna correct them by adding additional decimals. Even though I tried to act stern through the seven times I had to remind Talia to work on the review, inside I smiled at her happy personality. I had an interesting thought: maybe I should put those two girls in a group together. But then I came to my senses and considered they might kill each other.
The day after the first exam, Leanna came in with a dark cloud hanging over her. She was always early, but that day, it was time to start. I asked her if anything was wrong, and she burst into tears. “I bombed the test,” she cried.
Knowing her personality, I asked, “Do you mind if I ask how much you bombed it?”
“I got a 96,” she sobbed.
The test was only worth 100, and I could hear murmuring in the classroom that went along with some eye rolls. After encouraging her, I started class. Minutes later, Talia bounced into the room, late as usual.
“You seem happy today,” I said.
She smiled and nodded. “I aced the test.”
“So, how much did you ace it if you don’t mind me asking?” I said.
“I’m happy to tell you,” Talia said. “I got a 64.”
There was a bit of giggling after what had just happened with Leanna, but Talia, not knowing the full extent of why everyone found her statement humorous, joined in the fun. Leanna, for her part, turned and stared in disbelief at how happy Talia was.
I never put the two girls together, but I did move the two groups closer to work side by side, hoping the two girls’ personalities would rub off on each other. I don’t know if it helped, but Talia did learn to concentrate more. As for Leanna, she did get over 100% with the small bonuses, but she also ended up only taking numbers out to a couple of decimal places.
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