Can an Introvert be a Pirate?

I can't believe how little time is left until the start of the school year.  My summer has been filled with thinking about school.  I've been participating in the Summer Learning Series and have been listening to podcasts and participating in Twitter chats and been on Twitter in general quite a bit.  A huge theme in the chats is relationships and student choice and crazy activities to engage students.  I'm a huge fan of Teach like a Pirate and of the Ron Clark Academy.  Kim Bearden's new book reminded me of how much I loved my time at RCA and the possibilities and hope available to us as educators.

As an introvert, I'm a big thinker and reflector.  A huge thing for me is perception, attitude and mindset.  The way I look at things has a tremendous effect on the way I act and the results I get in my classroom.  Several years ago, I made up my mind not to yell at students.  Just that decision made a huge difference to me in the way I handled everything.  I had to talk to myself differently whenever anything happened.  It didn't matter how frustrated I got, I had to talk calmly and figure out the best way to handle the situation.  I told myself that if I were a nurse and a patient frustrated me, I wouldn't yell at the patient, I would have to figure out how to handle it somehow without yelling.  Last year, I had one class that was a little loud and unruly after lunch. I worked with them and they were okay most of the time, But after reading Pernille Ripp, I know I need to make even more connections with those students and get behind the why.  I know there are girls that say, that's just the way I talk.  But there's more to it. Those students really liked me, but I have to do something different to create even better relationships with them and maybe I need to create something different in my routines for the afternoon classes because they are more restless after lunch.

So I've also been reflecting about my room and what it says about me and what everyone says I should do and not do.  I think I have to stick with my gut and decorate the room the way I want to decorate.  I can't give that up yet.  I teach high school and most of the high school rooms are really depressing.  I understand the reasoning of having the students contribute to the room decor, but we don't do that many things that would need to be displayed.  I put up Spanish expressions that the students use and bright colors.  I keep it very simple, but happy.  I think that the message I send is that I care about my students enough to make the room happy and organized for us.  I also take the time to always make games and activities have happy details like using decorated cards instead of plain index cards, etc.  I know that my pairs of desks face the front of the room and that's a seemingly no-no thing to do...not collaborative enough.  But I am an introvert and I want people to work in pairs for many activities especially at the beginning of the year and not feel overwhelmed by too many people.  I do move the desks into small groups and big circles and other configurations for different days and different activities.

Lastly, I've been wondering how I've been able to have many students over the years who seem to like me when I don't have a wild, extroverted personality.  I think maybe the answer is this...Because I'm an introvert, I listen well.  Students can talk to me and I listen.  I smile a lot.  I make eye contact.  Because I don't like a lot of spotlight, I design activities that don't involve me talking for the whole period or revolve around me. I explain things as many times as students need.  I never tell students that I "just explained that" or "they weren't listening".  I lend pencils!  So I guess without realizing it, I have been making things student centered.  I can certainly make things more student centered and I definitely need to add more choice into the activities.  I'm always looking for and thinking about exciting activities I can plan that still allow me to have my own personality.

So, I hope the answer is YES!  An introvert can be a pirate.  She just might not dress up like one.