Step One: Be Aware

The first step toward building relationships lies within your ability to control yourself when interacting with students. The following activities will ensure that you do not hinder the classroom atmosphere when dealing with students.

Strategy
Implementation


Mental Safety Checks
Establish mental safety checks by consciously redirecting your words, actions, and thoughts about the student. Think about what positives you are observing in the present and even consider sharing those positives with the students.


Self-Questioning
If you find yourself responding abrasively, question would it be the same if it were a different student. If not, think of how you could respond without bias.


Journaling
When you feel disappointed about the happenings of the school day or interaction with a student, go home and reflect in your journal. Write down the contents without including your emotions during the recounting of the information. Wait until the next morning and then review the incident and list ways that you can make the present day better.


Pausing
Before answering without care or with too much emotion, say nothing. Take several moments to think about how you should objectively deal with the situation, and most importantly that you are not allowing for the student’s previous action to interfere with the action you are about to take.


Step-Away
Take a moment and ask the student to step outside, stay after, or come to your desk, and discuss the happenings of the previous day. Provide the student with the opportunity to offer a resolution or action plan for future steps.

 

Step Two: Facilitating Trust

 These are a few steps that can be taken in order to ensure that your intentions to assist students are clear:

Review your own personal biases. Analyze your teaching philosophy for any lurking biases regarding student ability.
Consciously monitor your thoughts regarding student abilities. When you find yourself making assumptions, mentally correct the thought and record the content of the thought. After school, take the time to journal on the thought that you had and analyze its origin. Ask yourself where did the thought come from? What happened to give you that interpretation of that student? What instances in your past has fueled such thoughts? What can you do as an educator to combat this belief and stop it from reoccurring?
Assist the student in restructuring their thoughts to accommodate the possibility for success. Students will voice fears or state that they cannot do something because they have seen failure or someone has told them that they cannot. Many students just need someone to believe and you can be that person. Tell them they can and show them how to get started on a path that they never believed that they would be traveling.
Start fresh each day. Consciously commit to giving student’s a chance each day. Do not hold past failures against students, but use those experiences to develop strategies and techniques that will aid in future successes.

Step Three: Allow students to be themselves

The following activities will allow you to get to know students, so that you may reach them on the academic playing field:

Activity
Example Tasks


Journaling
Reflection Prompts (i.e. What three elements of nature vs. nurture were the most intriguing to you?)


Projects
Focus Selection (i.e. Demonstrate your knowledge of quadratic equations by selecting and designing a product that would benefit from such an equation.)


Quick Writes
Content Connection (Compare and contrast your personal views with that of the protagonist)


Essays
Analysis (Reflect on your knowledge of the Vietnam War. If you were a leader during this war, what decisions would you have made in order to win the war?)


Presentations
Review (Create a multimedia presentation that explicitly demonstrates your knowledge through your choice of content, images, and sounds.)


Formative Assessments
Assessment (Select one of the three tasks presented and demonstrate your knowledge thoroughly)


Research
21st Century (Conduct research on a topic of your choice incorporating multiple sources, facts, and details.)


Literature
Dialogue Journals (Select a school appropriate text, read, and write about the characters, setting, and plot in your dialogue journal. You will receive a written response from me)

 

 

 

Step Four: Carve Out Time

 There are many methods for finding the time between meeting, conferences, planning, and teaching. The following are a few suggestions:

Establish office hours and state these hours in your syllabus.
Provide students with an email address that you can be reached and agree to respond during a certain period throughout the day.
Post appointment sheets somewhere in the classroom and isolate blocks of time throughout the week when students can sign up for individual conferences. For younger students, provide appointment sheets for parents to sign their child up for additional skill studies.
Establish a student walk-in policy during the nonteaching portion of the duty day.
Identify district resources that provide county approved social networking outlets for safe and secure student-teacher interactions. Create a class blog that students can post concerns and questions and agree to host live hours on the site at least once a week.
Create a conference area in the classroom to address immediate student needs during the class session.
Use classroom conference area to meet with each student at least once every two weeks, if weekly is not possible.

 

 

Step Five: Reflect Often

  Try these Activities

 

Take a drive through the surrounding community of your school. Then take a drive around your neighborhood. Take the time to write down what you noticed about the community that your students live within. What types of stores and establishments did you notice? What are the differences between their community and the one you live in? Write about how these establishments illustrate the socio-economic status of the residents and qualify or reject the research about urban neighborhoods. Extension exercise: Have students write a paragraph to describe their community. After doing so, have students write an additional paragraph describing the community they envision themselves living in with their future family. Have students share out and collect these descriptions to understand individual student perspectives.
Why do you teach? Think about what motivated you to become an educator. Write about how this underlying motivator drives your interactions with students. How do you engage students by bringing in elements of your world into the classroom? What are opportunities for you to connect with students through presenting elements of your background? Extension Exercise: While planning your next lesson, incorporate a personal touch during the modeling/demonstration portion of the lesson. Take note of student reactions to your personal touch that you have shared in connection with the lesson. What differences did you notice? Reflect in your journal at the conclusion of the school day.

 

Step Six: Listen to Students

  What students say:

 “Last year I was a depressed mess…This year you built my self-esteem.”

“Thanks for telling most of my teachers I am not a menial”

“You are the only teacher that understands my creativity and imagination.”

“Thank you for understanding that I fear you. I like how at the end of the year I would talk to you.”

“You kept me slightly sane this year. I needed you this year. Thank you.”

“When I become a well-renowned actress, I will mention you in my speech.”

“When I didn’t understand something, you made sure I understood the concepts before I left your class.”

“Thank you for understanding when I have my rough days.”

“I appreciated how you trusted me enough to borrow a couple of books.”

“You have made a difference in my year both personally & educationally.”

“You are so real that I can relate to you in so many ways.”

“My teacher responds to my red alert emails.”

“You taught me how to be open-minded and care about others.”

“Thank you for teaching me to express my ideas and opinions.”

“You listen to the things I have to say and I know that’s time you’ll never get back.”

“We laughed with you and learned.”

“Anytime I needed help you were always there even if you had to stay after school.”

“Thank you for being there.”

“I am thankful to have a leader like you in my life.”

“Your commitment is what inspired me in particular to do great.”

“I would recommend you for upcoming students.”

““I appreciated how you trusted me enough to borrow a couple of books.”

“Your annoying and constant nagging made me become a better writer.”

“I thank you for all the annoying work you have gave us this year”

“You have set the bar pretty high this year”

“Thank you for treating us like adults and not babying us.”

“Although I fought you the entire year about work and stress, I am glad it was with you.”

“Your strict work flow, I believe, will help make me a better person.”

“Thank you for pushing me into doing my work and going outside the box.”

“You encourage me to believe in myself and to do my best.”

“Maybe someday you will teach my children.”

“Because of you I have the inspiration to write my own book.”

“Just like a mom you get on my nerves, but I love when you are hard on us and push us to our best abilities.”