tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-104163264540869646.post8821455130357913813..comments2023-10-24T02:07:47.274-04:00Comments on K-M the Librarian: Understanding introvertskmthelibrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08173264575828631775noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-104163264540869646.post-65833868010042965002012-03-15T22:21:45.237-04:002012-03-15T22:21:45.237-04:00Thank you for reassuring parents that it's oka...Thank you for reassuring parents that it's okay not to "participate." I think a lot of young introverts internalize their parents' (well-intended) anxieties over how "social" their kids are.kmthelibrarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08173264575828631775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-104163264540869646.post-81382940385231942722012-03-15T22:11:55.448-04:002012-03-15T22:11:55.448-04:00A comment from my friend Andromeda (for whom blogs...A comment from my friend Andromeda (for whom blogspot is being persnickety):<br /><br />The collaboration thing is so interesting to me (and was so difficult for me to handle well as a teacher), because so many of my group work experiences in school were so negative -- even though I've since realized I actually really enjoy collaborative work with the right projects and partners. From my introvert, nerd, ex-teacher perspective, here are the two things that stood out about that:<br /><br />1) I NEED to do a lot of learning independently -- I was never one for study groups and I need lots of quiet space to hear my own thinking in order to learn. I can think *or* I can talk, but I can't do both at the same time. So group work usually gets in the way of learning for me. (There are things I learn through collaboration, but they're usually not the sorts of intellectual things that the explicit curriculum of school is about, and if I'm going to learn them I'm still going to need time alone to reflect, and probably work I can do independently.) Extroverts tend to think you HAVE to talk to people in order to learn, and that's just not going to work for me -- people need the option of a variety of styles.<br /><br />1a) And really, most of the group work stuff I was asked to do in school was stupid easy stuff I could do on my own more effectively! If you're going to ask me to do group work, please make it complicated enough that it actually benefits from multiple perspectives and skills, and that I can see a benefit from having other people involved. (This is part of the reason collaboration in the real world is way more satisfying...the problems actually ARE hard and benefit from a wide range of skills, not just the ones I have.)<br /><br />2) However, I DID really need to learn more about working with other people in school. It would have helped me if teachers had taught explicitly about how to do group work well, and had structured it with roles we could play and helped me see how I could play those effectively, and how other people's contributions were useful too. (Again, this only works if the projects are sufficiently interesting.) Just throwing introverts, who might well rather be on their own AND who need time to trust people, into a group without any guidance is often a disaster. But pushing them gently out of their comfort zone, while being clear that you're teaching about group dynamics as much as you're teaching about content, can sometimes be useful.kmthelibrarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08173264575828631775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-104163264540869646.post-73776144805090535692012-03-15T20:08:03.539-04:002012-03-15T20:08:03.539-04:00Some very interesting thoughts - thanks for sharin...Some very interesting thoughts - thanks for sharing! As a public librarian, I spend a lot of time reassuring parents whose children's don't "participate" in storytime (but they almost always sing the songs and act out the stories at home) Some children prefer to observe and I tell them frequently that it's ok! Of course, once they leave me and go to school...Jenniferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05096787155616041727noreply@blogger.com