Pekin teachers show their “True Colors”

            While students were still enjoying a break from school, instructors from Pekin Jr/Sr High were turning blue, green, orange and gold during a teacher in-service.

            Instructors took part in “True Colors”, a session presented by Iowa Works that helps identify their personality strengths and weaknesses, as well as how they interact with one another. Blues are empathetic, compassionate type that looks for meaning and significance in life. Green are your analytical, logical types that would rather stay at home then go out. Gold must have organization and stability in their lives and are usually a more conservative, traditional type. Oranges are outspoken, fun loving people who can’t sit at a desk all day and learn by doing.

            “You’re not just one color, but rather a different color for a different situation,” Rich Kennedy, Promise Jobs Facilitator for Iowa Works said. “You have a dominant color that is what you are normally. On a normal day, you could be cool, calm, collected, like a green, then you suddenly win the lottery and you’re jumping on the roof, like an orange.”

            Each instructor began by identifying their dominant color by organizing the colors, presented as cards, and which described them best. Images were placed on the front, visualizing what the personality was like and what it was interested in. For example, the orange card featured pair of dice, a roller coaster, an individual pumping up a crowd and a skydiver on the front. On the back was a list of adjectives to describe that personality, along with how that particular color operates in the workplace, in a relationship, or how they were as child. Teachers arranged the cards from the one most like them to least like them.

            The next part of “True Colors” went deeper into identifying one’s personality; by having teachers complete a spectrum for all of the cards. As Kennedy explained, no one is truly one color, so this spectrum required teachers to rate individual traits on a scale of four to one, with four being most like them. Everyone scored highest on the card they selected initially, but were able to be more specific about who they felt they were as a person.

            “True colors shows that innate personalities outside your dominant personality,” Kennedy said. “This shows you your mannerism and how to communicate better with others.”

            Davis Eidahl, a science teacher at Pekin, felt that this test was interesting because of its ability to show all his characteristics by applying the other “colors” to the equation. Though Eidahl scored highest as an orange, he feels his secondary color of blue helps to describe his personality.

            “This test was accurate for me I feel, Eidahl said. “I’ve done tests like these before in my 52 years of teaching, but this one really sticks out in my mind.”

            The main purpose of this presentation is to identify personalities in other as well, especially with students. For Kennedy, that is the reason he goes into such detail with each of the personalities presented, as well as takes the time to explain how each interacts with each other.

            “True Colors is about how you communicate with a different color, and make you successful because you identify another’s strengths and weaknesses,” Kennedy said. “”Have your oranges be the speakers on your team, have green perfect the speech, golds organize it, and have the blues create the synergy in the group.”

            Antoinette Wittrock, who teaches English at Pekin, felt that the presentation served as an overview and introduction to the system, and that everyday afterwards is about applying the knowledge learned in the classroom and at home. Wittrock had previously taken a similar test with her family to have their temperaments assessed.

            “It was interesting to see the different color’s strengths and weaknesses,” Witrock said. “I can’t say my pereption is changed, but I did gain more insight on understand the different personalities of people. I am asking our counselor to do this test and some activities with my junior/senior communications class. I think this will help kids gain insight into their own communication style and skills to communicate better with others.”

            Eidahl recognized that Kennedy’s presentation could be used in the classroom to identify his student’s personality, but he doesn’t plan on changing too much about how his classroom is run. However, he does acknowledge the presentation will change how he might divide students into groups

            “This wasn’t an ‘A-ha!’ moment for teachers by any means, yet I want teachers to understand that there is no one-fit approach,” Kennedy said. “It’s about how you articulate yourself with certain students. Just change your approach to different personalities.”

            According the Pekin 6-12 Principal Tim Hadley, the students will take a similar test at a later date as well.