Suggested Objectives a and b: Discover individual learning styles and their importance in the classroom/workplace and identify potential influences that shape the personality development including personality traits, heredity, and environment

Did you know there are many ways for a person to learn? In fact Scholastic reports 8 different ways for a person to learn. Click the Scholastic link to see which intelligence is most like you. Most people are a combination of several of these areas. However, one style is generally more dominant than the others.

Linguistic - these learners are sensitive "to the meaning and order of words. These children use an expanded vocabulary and usually like to tell jokes, riddles, or puns; read, write, tell stories, and play word games."

Logical-mathematical - these learners have "the ability to handle chains of reasoning and to recognize patterns and order. These learners enjoy working with numbers, want to know how things work, ask lots of questions, and collect items and keep track of their collections."

Bodily-kinesthetic - these learners have "the ability to use the body skillfully and to handle objects adroitly. Kinesthetic learns enjoy sports and love to be physically active. They tend to use body language, dance, act, or engage in mime."

Musical - these learners have "sensitivity to pitch, melody, rhythm and tone. These children love to listen to and play music, sing, hum, move to the rhythm, and create and replicate tunes."

Spatial - these learners have "the ability to perceive the world accurately and to recreate or transform aspects of that world. These learners doodle, paint, draw, and build with blocks; enjoy looking at maps, doing puzzles and mazes; they can take things apart and put them back together."

Naturalist - these learners are good at "recognizing and classifying the numerous species, the flora and fauna, of an environment. These kids like to spend time outdoors observing plants, collecting rocks, and catching insects, and are attuned to relationships in nature."

Interpersonal - these learners are good at "understanding people and relationships. These children have many friends and tend to mediate between them and to be excellent team players."

Intrapersonal - these learners have "the ability to use one's emotional life as a means to understand oneself and others. Children with this type of intelligence control their own feelings and moods and often observe and listen. They do best when working alone."

Multiple Intelligences

Let's learn what your strengths are. Click the link to take Find Your Strengths assessment. Answer the questions honestly. Do not ponder long on them. Your first reaction is generally the most accurate, honest answer. Once you answer the questions, submit and read about your strengths. Write down the results. You will send those to me in an upcoming assignment.

We have looked at your your intelligence and how you learn best. Let's investigate your personality type now. Click the Jung Typology Test link and answer the questions. Again, read the questions carefully and go with your first reaction. It is usually the most accurate, honest answer. When you have answered all of the questions, record your results. Four letters will appear and represent your personality. You will submit this to me in an upcoming assignment. The video below will help you understand what the four letters mean.

Discovery Your Personality Type|Myers Briggs

Profiles of the Sixteen Personality Types has information for each personality type. Click the link to for each of the personality types. Does the information for your personality type seem accurate? What about the other personality types? Were they completely unlike you or somewhat similar? Think about these questions because we will be discussing them soon!

Your personality traits and intelligence type affects your relationships in the classroom. It determines how you learn material and can assist you and me to ensure your success with learning class material. This information also can aid us with knowing how you best function and interact with others. Understanding yourself and your classmates' behaviors and actions can enable all of us to work successfully together in the classroom and develop great working relationships to ensure that everyone learns and achieves.

Suggested Objective c: Develop effective leadership, decision-making, and communication skills

What Makes an Effective Leader from the University of Notre Dame is a short little article that discusses several leadership qualities people need. They include self-assessment, sharp perception, responsiveness to group need, and team building skills. Look at this and note which qualities you feel you have and the qualities that you need to improve.

Leadership Getting It Done from the University of Missouri lists many "P" characteristics an effective leader should have. These traits include personality, persuasiveness, persistence, patience, perception, probity, praise giving, positive orientation, people skills, possibilities, practicalness, progressiveness, preparedness, and power-building. Look at this article and read the information on "P" characteristics for effective leadership.

Top 10 Characteristics of a Leader

True leaders share many similar qualities. Some character traits of leaders include honesty, strong sense of responsibility, vision, persistence, intelligence, and competence or capability. These are just a few of the many characteristics a leader must possess. A true leader is like a column standing straight and tall - similar to the columns on the New York City courthouse displayed above. Can you think of other characteristics? Let's look at a few videos that discuss leadership skills. Not all videos may mention exactly the same ideas you state. This does NOT mean your characteristic is incorrect!

Leadership Skills - Leadership Training - Characteristics of a Great Leader

True leaders have obstacles they must aid a group with overcoming. The Ethics of Teamwork by William Frey gives 7 obstacles a leader must help a group overcome. Some obstacles or barriers to a successful group include the following:

Abilene Paradox - Failure to communicate within the group - no one speaks up
Groupthink - no one in the group will openly question the rightness of a situation - the entire group will follow the "the party line while happily marching off the cliff, all the while blaming 'them' (outsiders) for the height and situation of the cliff."
Group Polarization - a group allows their individual differences to become disagreements
Free Riders - people in a group who do not work or do their share of the work and allow the others in the group to do everything
Outliers - these people want to work but do not integrate into the group and require encouragement to participate because they are shy or something
Hidden Agendas - this situation arises generally when someone in the group holds back for some reason. They may have been "shot down" in another situation and now believes it is best to stay quiet and let the others "figure it out without me."
Conflict of Effort - these group members are overbooked generally and cannot participate as fully or provide the quality of effort that would normally be given.

A good leader can try some of the following practices to assist groups with overcoming barriers like those mentioned above.

Conduct anonymous surveys asking participants for input on the project

Assign someone the role of "Devil's Advocate"

Allow group members, when possible, to work in areas that interest them

Brainstorm ideas for overcoming obstacles and have everyone provide input and set a course of action

Obtain input from all stakeholders in the process or activity

Teamwork Funny

Funny Motivational Speaker | Teamwork - Engagement | Jon Petz

What did you notice in the videos above? Were there similarities in the group actions? Yes, they were funny; but you were to look beyond and find the traits that made the groups successful. Did you find them?

Conflict Resolution Resolving Conflict Rationally and Effectively provides information regarding conflict styles. It is important to realize what style of personality you have so that you can manage your behavior as well as effectively work with others around you. This knowledge of conflict styles can help you understand why others react the way they do in tense situations. Are you competitive, collaborative, compromising, accommodating, or avoiding? Also understand your reason for approaching situations as you do. In other words, do you try to maintain relationships with others or not? Think about what the article says and watch the video on the page as well.

Look at Conflict Management Strategies and Styles. This site repeats some of the information from the site just prior to this. However, it has some cute pictures to represent the various styles. Also, the site promotes the positive effects from the different styles and negative aspects for a particular style and situation.

Conflict Resolution Strategies

Conflict Resolution

Is this next video an effective way to handle conflict?

Conflict Resolution - The Waterboy

Suggested Objective d: Identify career interests

There are 16 national career clusters. As you investigate each of the clusters as given below by clicking on their respective links, notice the many files that can be opened and examined for more information on careers in the cluster. Take time to explore each closely. The 16 clusters are as follows:

Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources

Architecture and Construction

Arts, A/V Technology and Communications

Business Mangement and Administration

Education and Training

Finance

Government and Public Administration

Health Science

Hospitality and Tourism

Human Services

Information Technology

Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security

Manufacturing

Marketing

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics

Look at the videos below to aid your understanding of the 16 Career Clusters.

CEV Multimedia: Introduction to Career Clusters DVD Lesson Preview

Introduction to Career Clusters

Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Career Cluster

Architecture and Construction Career Cluster

Arts, AV Technology, and Communication Career Cluster

Business Mangement and Administration Career Cluster

Education and Training Career Cluster

Finance Career Cluster

Government and Public Administration Career Cluster

Health Science Career Cluster

Hospitality and Tourism Career Cluster

Human Services Career Cluster

Information Technology Career Cluster

Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security Career Cluster

Manufacturing Career Cluster

Marketing Career Cluster

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Career Cluster

Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics Career Cluster

The booklet below will tie all of the career clusters together for you. This booklet includes many student organizations that are available for each of the cluster areas. These organizations provide you an opportunity to compete in these different areas to see if the area is one you would enjoy as well as simply provide basic information. Click the link to look at the booklet.

PathwaysBooklet.pdf

You will have various career needs and expectations. Let's look at information for career planning and salaries as provided on the GCF Learn Free website. Look at the information by clicking each of the links. Take notes as needed to help you learn the information and to prepare for the quiz. Once you take the GCF Learn Free Careers quiz, write down your score results and any questions that you may have missed. You will report this in an upcoming assignment.

Discover Your Career Needs

GCF Learn Free Career Quiz - 10 questions - write down your results and any questions you might have missed