“Where can you find the long centipedes?” “What kind of grasshoppers are in Nebraska?” “Does this one bite?” These are all questions that sixth grader TJ queried Miss Leslie about one day during Read Room time. Knowing of his interest in bugs and a desire for learning in general, Miss Leslie had found a bug identification book that TJ was engulfed in that day.
One of TJ’s top strengths is Discoverer and it is apparent to anyone that knows him. Some key phrases in the definition of Discover, according to Gallup’s StrengthsExplorer, and the ones that TJ most identified with are: Questions are in your mind a lot. You collect and connect information and ideas. You might be bored doing things the same way everyone else does because you like to find new ways.
When defining a Discoverer in his own words, TJ stated, “A person who asks questions and makes new ideas for the future.”
Questions are on TJ’s mind, and it is obvious in the classroom. Whether he is learning about people of the past who made an impact, or learning how to play a new game during Rec time, he is always asking questions. Even as I was at the computer typing this story, he approached me and asked, “What do tarantulas eat?”
Almost daily, TJ will ask if there will be time to read independently, as he knows that there is so much information to learn from the books in the Read Room.
“Sometimes I get bored in class and want to find a new way to do it so others are not always asking me questions on how to do it,” TJ said when asked how he sees himself as a Discover. “I like to learn things by myself.”
Who? What? Where? How? All questions constantly going through TJ’s mind. But I also had a question for TJ that we seek to challenge students with at the ILC. “Using your strength of Discoverer, how can you make an impact in your world?’
TJ referred to all the Discovers we had identified in the past that had made an impact, among them being Thomas Jefferson and Grace Hooper, who invented the computer.
“All the Discoverers in the past made and invented things that we use today,” TJ said. “They all had an impact.”
Ask TJ what he wants to be when he grows up and he answers with five more questions on different occupations. Eager to learn and eager to develop new things, TJ daily exhibits his God-given strength of Discoverer. At the ILC, TJ is consistently seen living out of this strength to gain more knowledge by asking questions, even when there is not an answer.
