Differentiated Coaching for Educators

At my daughter's high school graduation party this month, who showed up but her fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Haugerud. She had joined Facebook to locate some of her favorite students from past classes and took a 30-mile drive across town to wish her well!

In fourth grade, my daughter turned out the most high-level, high-quality work of her entire school career. Mrs. Haugerud not only provided top-notch lessons, but knew how to get our "Why work hard if you can get a B anyway?" daughter to truly do her best.

Mrs. Haugerud and my daughter share the same personality preferences, ENTJ--according to most type tables, the rarest type for women in the United States. I daresay Mrs. Haugerud seldom has students with her type preferences and my daughter has seldom if ever had another ENTJ female as a teacher. While research shows that matching teacher and student personality type doesn't necessarily improve student achievement in the long run, every student deserves at least one year with a high-caliber teacher who shares his or her personality preferences and understands them to the core of their being.

Hmmm, I think I'll pull out the video the class made that captures the year--their demo speeches, the "crime scene" group project, the Iditarod dog sled geography lesson with live blogs from the race, and so much more. Thanks, Mrs. H!!