Love Languages... and Teaching?

 Have you ever wondered how your love language influences you as a teacher?

No?

That's probably normal.

I'm no expert with love languages.  I'm sure you've heard of them before.  If you haven't, here's a quick breakdown.

The idea of love languages is fairly new.  They try to describe how we, individually, prefer to receive and give love.  The five love languages are:

  • Words of Affirmation
  • Quality Time
  • Receiving Gifts
  • Acts of Service
  • Physical Touch
Some people find validity in this idea, but some find it utter trash.  Whatever end of the spectrum you find yourself on, just keep reading.  It might be interesting.

I find myself preferring to receive love by words of affirmation.  This means I want to be verbally reassured.  I want to hear "I love you, I appreciate you."  I want to hear your feelings.  Well, what does this mean in terms of teaching?  I mean, this isn't a blog about my love life.  That would definitely be a short, lackluster post.  😂

Anywho.  Back to teaching.

How do I see my love language play out in my teaching career?  It is definitely there, and it's something I've thought about this school year (thanks to my student teacher).  I often invite people to my classroom to watch me teach.  Whenever someone comes, I ask for feedback.  I crave it.  I long for it!  I always want to know what I could do better to help my students be more engaged or to help them perform better on an assessment.  I need this!  I don't feel supported if I don't get it.

I don't feel supported if I don't get constructive feedback.

That's a strong statement, and I didn't really realize its truth until I typed it.  

On the other hand, however, I love to be told that I'm doing something right.  It's definitely a juggling act.  I want to be told I'm doing a good job as a teacher, but also tell me what I could do better.  They balance each other!  

This is quite easy for a school's administrative team to fulfill.  It's pretty natural.  Being observed, giving support, and validating good teaching.  That's what principals do - at least my present and former principals.  I know some of y'all have had poor experiences with school administration.  Thankfully, I can't relate.  💁🏾‍♀️

So my love language is fairly simple to cater to.  What about the others?

Just as teachers have to differentiate education for students, are admins expected to differentiate their support for teachers?  

Hmm...

A math teacher may want to be told when she's doing a good job (words of affirmation).  An English teacher may want to have a one-on-one meeting with the principal to talk about a lesson (quality time).  The history teacher may prefer to occasionally receive a casual dress day or a Friday snack from the administration team (receiving gifts).  The science teacher may prefer for the principal to help manage a difficult group of students for a class period (acts of service).  Lastly, the PE teacher may want the occasional fist bump or pat on the shoulder (physical touch).  

I don't regard gifts as much as words of affirmation.  Someone who prefers quality time may recoil from physical touch.  If appreciation is given in a form that does not match the recipient's love language, is the appreciation valued as much as it could be?

If you find value in love languages, think about your preference.  Do you think it plays a role in how you like to be supported as a teacher? 

Just something to think about.


Until next time, 
Cononiah

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grouping Cards

 For the month of August, I am going to try to make a quick blog post each day.  Every.  Single.  Day!  I initially saw the idea on Twitter by @druinok.  Here's the post that sparked my inspiration.   As many of you know, I am currently in school to receive my Ed.D.  Part of my dissertation will be looking at groupings.  I've seen where teachers do random groupings with playing cards, a wheel, an online platform, or just group numbers/letters written on a piece of paper.  I have done the latter in the past.  The only downfall was that students would swap their cards so that they were in a group with their friends.  Then, I saw grouping cards.  On a single card, there are multiple objects/words/pictures.  Students get a card without knowing how they'll be grouped.  Then, the teacher can group students however she wants.  This is how I will use them in my class.  Please note that I use VNPS (vertica...
Read more

Mild, Medium, & Spicy

Hey, y'all! It's been a little minute, but that's ok!  This will be quick. In math, students have to get some solid practice.  They just need exposure to the concept.  In the past, I've done levels 1, 2, and 3.  Students could do practice problems from each level.  They knew that level 2 was the goal and level 3 was the challenge.   Last year, another math teacher at my school explained how he did mild, medium, and spicy. I watched a Zoom call with Peter Liljedahl (maybe 2 weeks ago), and he explained how he also used mild, medium, and spicy. I tried it in class with my 8th grade algebra 1 students.  They LOVED it.  They were in groups of 3 and each group was working on the same problem at the same time.  I provided the answers for them so they immediately knew if they were correct or not.  Some of them immediately tried the spicy problems while others worked their way through each level.  They really enjoyed it and worked real...
Read more

Be Flexible

Image
Something really weird happened today at school.  Projectors stopped working.  The wifi went out.  Some places were without lights.  The hallway smelled like death.  It was weird. It was at this moment that I realized I have become a new-age teacher.  I had to figure out how to teach my 4th block class with absolutely no technology.  I was definitely out of my element!  I mean, y'all.  I barely even write on my whiteboards.   Tomorrow, I have to teach Algebra 1 without an iPad.  Don't get me wrong.  I taught for 6 years without an iPad.  Last year, however, I'd connect the iPad to the Apple TV, and project solely from it.  I'd walk the room, let students write on the iPad, whatever I needed to do. I really had to ask myself "How did you teach without an iPad?  What did you do?"  It's funny and sad at the same time.  Before the fancy Prometheans, there were document cameras.  Before that, basic...
Read more