Monday, October 22, 2012
Building Relationships
In order to build relationships with students, first I try to get to know students on a personal level. I like to ask them about their lives outside of school and their interests. I try to remember events or activities students have mentioned to me and then I ask them about them periodically. I also like to share things about myself with them. The second thing I do, is to try to show students that I care about their learning in the classroom and what they have to say. I try and call on many people to participate during class discussions. I also walk around and conference with individual students and talk with them about their work. If students need help I try and help them succeed. Third, I try to redirect students in a positive way in the classroom. I want them to know that I am redirecting them so they can learn better not because I am being mean, or I want to embarrass them. I try to be compassionate, but firm in the classroom. I try to have a positive attitude, but I want students to know that I have a plan when I am teaching and I can keep the lesson in control and moving forward.
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I think the content of your response to students goes a long way toward building relationships, too. When you say you walk around to check in with kids as they work, offering support and affirmation, the way you frame that feedback says a lot about your learning goals. When students show you a finished math problem, instead of saying, "Yup, that's right", you can say, "How did you figure that out?" Or if a student shares a poetry review out loud with the class, you can respond by saying, "What challenges did you face when you were writing the review?" That kind of question sends the message that you assume there were challenges (all a high-quality learning tasks involve struggle, right?) and you want to know how your student worked through them.
ReplyDeleteI agree that connecting with kids by showing a genuine interest in who they are as people--their interests, activities, concerns, current events--is the foundation of relationship- building, but as you've noted in your response today, there are many more subtle ways we build relationships when we're mindful of all the opportunities.