Building a Relationship with Your Students

Building relationships with students can be the key to maintaining a positive culture in your classroom. Teachers can start by setting clear expectations of all students and by enforcing classroom rules in positive ways.

There are many ways that teachers can further build relationships with students. Here are four suggestions:

Get To Know Your Students

Take advantage of opportunities to speak with your students about their lives outside of the classroom. One way might be to simply ask children about their weekends to help you connect with them. Talking to your students about their lives gives students the indication that their teacher actually cares about them as a person.

Individualize

Paula Denton, author of The Power of Our Words: Teacher Language that Helps Children Learn, believes building relationships creates a more learning-friendly environment. Understanding how the child operates allows the teacher to further individualize their curriculum and find creative ways to help the student successfully grasp the material.

"The more we know about the child the more we can build learning environments and curriculum that are going to work for them," Denton says.

Watch What You Say

Teachers can help students feel comfortable in their learning environment by being mindful of the words they are using with students. Sometimes teachers can make the mistake of using harsh language with students. This could be in the form of sarcasm when joking or unkind words when disciplining them. Being careful with your words will help to maintain positive relationship with students.

Keep Trying To Reach Your Students

Although teachers may feel a crunch to get things done, with all the material they are expected to cover, Paula Denton suggests taking the time to develop connection between the students and teachers , even incorporating it into the curriculum.

"In schools, relationships are treated as luxuries," she said. "Relationship is a necessity for learning. We can't afford not to do it."

These ideas are just a few ways you can build relationships with your students. Setting expectations, enforcing classroom rules positively, consistently making an effort to learn who they are outside of school, individualizing instruction, and using appropriate language in class will show how much you care. Relationships make a difference in the way students perform in school. They can also make the process of giving students what they need in the classroom a little easier.

Sears, Nina. "Building Relationships with Students." Rss. NEA, n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2016.