It all goes back to
relationships!
Relationships are the essential element in our
schools. The old adage, “Kids don’t care how much you know until they know how
much you care,” is true especially in today’s society when kids are used to so
much choice in their world. Also, in today’s busy world, it’s important for
teachers and school staff to make positive connections with students. We must
be intentional and taking time with these relationships must be purposeful.
Members of the Compelled
Tribe have teamed up to share
practical ways for educators to build relationships with students. As connected
educators we also embrace the notion that it is the power of the team that
drives much of what we do. How do you build relationships with those that you
serve? See the list below for ideas to add to what you may be already doing in
the buildings and districts in which you work.
- Greet students at the door. Smile and call them by
name. Tell them you are glad to see them.
- Ask your students to share three things about
themselves. Let them choose what they share. Keep them on index cards to
help make connections throughout the year.
- Know your students families. As important as it is to
know the students, make the connection to home. Great relationships with
your kids starts where they kick off their day. As the year continues and
both the good and bad arise, having that connection will be crucial to
getting the results you are seeking.
- Journal writing is an activity to get to know your
students well and give students a voice in the classroom.
- Make positive phone calls home especially within the
first two weeks of the school year.
- Genius Hour/Passion Projects really give teachers an
opportunity to learn about student passions.
- Have kids make something that represents them out of
Play-dough and share.
- In the first couple of days of school, learn the first
name of every student in your first class of the day, and something
personal and unique about them that has nothing to do with your first
class of the day.
- Be vulnerable! Let your guard down and show your
students that you are a learner, you make mistakes, and persevere.
They will see you as a person, opening the door for a relationship
built on trust. Share stories about yourself as a learner or challenges
you’ve faced when you were there age and help them see what it took to
overcome it. It’s easy to forget how much a simple connection can make the
difference.
- Eat together. Have breakfast with a small group
of kids or join them at the lunch table. Gathering around meal time
provides an informal way to have conversations and get to know your
students.
- Hold Monday morning meetings (We call them “Weekend
News Updates”). Ask each student to share about their weekend - good
or bad. Ask questions. Be sure to share about your weekend
too! Occasionally bring in breakfast or make hot chocolate.
- Laugh with them. Frequently. Show them that school, and
your class, is just not about learning stuff. It is about sharing an
experience. Tell them you missed them if they were out.
- Keep in touch with past students. Show past
students that you do not have a 1 year contract with them. The
ongoing relationship will also model to your current students the value of
a positive classroom community.
- At the elementary level -- hold morning meeting
everyday as a class and stick to the routine of greeting, sharing, team
building activity, and morning message. This is a sacred time to
build and maintain a culture of risk tasking and building relationships.
- Send positive postcards home to every child. Have them
address it on the first day of the quarter, keep them and challenge
yourself to find at least one thing each quarter to celebrate about your
students, let them and their parents know.
- Find their interests and what motivates them! Sometimes
it may take a bit to break down barriers and build trust, but through
being genuine and authentic with them this will happen in no time.
- Make personal phone calls to parents. Find one good
thing to say about the children in your class. It can be how they
contributed to a class discussion or how well mannered they are in class
or in the halls. For older students it can be how diligent a student is at
learning challenging content.
- Share something about yourself that they will find
relevant or interesting to extend your relationships with students.
- Tell a story from a time you were their age. This
approach allows students to see teachers as they once were and make
connections easier to establish and maintain.
- Create a unique handshake or symbol for each of your
students. Use it when you greet them at the door or say goodbye.
- Eat lunch with a group of kids throughout the week.
They will enjoy a time dedicated just to them. (And you will enjoy a
peaceful lunch!)
- As a school, hold monthly celebrations to recognize
students and educators their accomplishments.
- Take pictures with students. Print. Write a special
note on the back to the student.
- At the end of a term or year, write a thank you to
students telling them what you have learned from them. Be specific and
honest - authenticity goes a long way. Try to make the note handwritten if
possible, but email works well too.
- Each day write two students a personal note about
something that you have noticed about them. Go into some detail and
be specific. Keep track of who you reach out to over the year and try and
reach as many students as you can. The time you spend doing this will
deepen connections and pay off 10 fold.
- Have dance parties! It is so fun to let loose and get
down with students. Students love seeing you have fun with them, and the
saying goes, “The class that dances together, stays together”.
- Play with students at recess or during a free time.
Climb the monkey bars, play kickball, or tag. Students will never forget
you connecting with them on the playground.
- Hang out in the hall to give high fives or to have
quick conversations with students. Relationship-building can be squeezed
into any time of the day.
- Notice students having a bad day. Ask questions without
prying. Show that you care. Follow up the next day, week, etc.
- When a student is having a rough day, ask if he/she has
eaten. We are all more unreasonable when we are hungry. Keep a supply of
snacks on hand (ex: breakfast bars, crackers, etc).
- Go see students at their events: sports, theater,
dance, volunteering. Meet parents and families.
- When a student stops to say “Hello” and has a friend in
tow, introduce yourself and be sure that the guest feels important.
- Stop class from time to time with a comment such as,
“Hey, everyone, Katie just asked me a great question. I think you’ll all
benefit from this. Katie, could you repeat that for everyone?”
- Sing “Happy Birthday” to students; send birthday emails
(I use “Boomerang” to schedule my birthday emails each month).
- Say “I missed you yesterday” when a student has been
absent. Be sincere.
- We have to make time to grow relationships with our
students. This time can not always be in a planner or a calendar.
Sometimes, this simply means just being there for your students.
- Mail them a postcard for their birthday. They are
always amazed to receive personal mail!
- In a leadership position, learn as many names as you
can. Greet students by their name as often as you are able.
- Music! Bond with your students over music. Play soft
classical music while they are working. Incorporate music/songs into
special events or lessons.
- Classroom: Start a compliment jar. Share comments at
the end of class or randomly throughout the day. School: Do shout-outs
during morning (or afternoon) announcements/news show.
- Smile and make eye contact. “Good morning”, “Good
afternoon”. Something as simple as a greeting in the hall with smile
and eye contact conveys both warmth & safety. Try it tomorrow.
- First day of math class have them choose 10 numbers
that are significant to them (3 for number of cats, 1 for brothers, 20 for
number of hours they work, etc.). Everyone shares out. You
will learn lots about all your students in one day.
- Cut them some slack every now and then. “What
were you doing? What should you have been doing? Can you do
that for me next time?” We all make mistakes.
- Hold class celebrations and have students develop
unique cheers for various accomplishments...these can be anything from a
sports team victory, to being selected for something, to earning a grade,
and they need not be school related.
- Allen Mendler’s 2x10 strategy for challenging students.
Spend 2 minutes per day for 10 consecutive days talking to a student about
something not academic.
- Share your own goals, successes/failures. Don’t be a
mystery to your students.
- After morning announcements have students participate
in a daily discussion question. Have a student read the question and
set a timer for two and a half minutes. Each person turns to a
partner and answers the question then volunteers share with the whole
class. Each question, in some way, will help you get to know your
students.
- Halfway through the year, have your parents and
students fill out a feedback form. In my classroom, these forms look
different. Allow them to evaluate you so you can keep what works and
change things that aren’t working.
- In your summer introduction letter, include a letter
asking parents to write about their children in 1,000,000 words or less.
Keep the assignment voluntary and open so they tell you what is most
important to them.
- Don’t be too busy to truly listen. Listen to
understand, not to respond. Are you starting a lesson when a student
interrupts and tells you they are moving? Take the minute to hear
them out. That time will mean more to the student than the first
minute of the lesson ever will.
- When students get stuck in class, teach the other
students to cheer them on. We do a simple, “Come on, [Name], you can
do it,” followed by three seconds of clapping.
- Teach students call and responses to uplift each other.
When a student responds with something profound and someone loves
it, that student gets to start the cheer.
- When you check in with groups to give them feedback or
see how it’s going, make sure you are seeing them eye-to-eye. If
they’re sitting, don’t stand. Pull up a chair next to them. If
they’re sitting on the floor, sit down on the floor next to them to avoid
standing over them.
- Give honest feedback even when it may not be positive.
Your students will appreciate that you expect more out of them than
they’re showing.
- Create a “You Matter” wall. Take fun pictures of
each of your students. Print each photo and put each student’s photo
in an 8x10 frame. Hang them all on your wall under a “You Matter”
heading. At the end of the year, send the photos home with students.
- Tell them what was hard for you when you went through
school and how you worked to overcome the challenges. It shows they
aren’t the only ones who struggle.
- Defend your students in front of other people.
- Take risks so students feel comfortable doing the same.
Don’t ask them to do anything you wouldn’t do.
- Create something that is unique to your class.
For us, it’s a house competition. It’s something that connects
my past students and current students. It’s also a family bond that
only the students who have been in my class understand.
- Apologize when you make a mistake.
- Cook together and then you can eat family style in the
classroom. Some fun and easy crockpot meals: applesauce, vegetable soup,
chicken and dumplings. Then, make cupcakes for dessert!
- Every so often, take the pulse of your building
according to students. Convene a volunteer roundtable with student reps
from various groups (athletes, scholars, quiet, loud) and ask them for
critical feedback about topics you are working on. Some ideas I’ve seen
discussed in this format include schoolwide incentives (assemblies,
sledding event, etc.), dress code, and discussing recess options for
winter.
- During your informal walk throughs, saddle up right
next to students and ask them the purpose of the lesson they are involved
in. Why do you think the teacher is asking you to work on this? You’ll be
more than surprised with the honest feedback.
- Bring board games back! Add a few games like Checkers,
Uno or Chess to your lunch table options. See if any students are willing
to play a game or two with you and others.
- Use sidewalk chalk to decorate the entry of your
building with positive messages to students. Have teachers help you write
and draw the notes!
- Leave nice notes on post-its for students on the
outside of their lockers. Recruit other students to help spread the
kindness throughout many lockers!
- Forgive them when they make mistakes. Remind them that
mistakes are opportunities for learning. Don’t hold grudges against
misbehavior and don’t allow other adults to hold them either.
- Make time for dismissal. Tell them you can’t wait to
see them tomorrow and share high fives on the way out!
- Notice which students still don’t have money to pay for
lunch. Help them out when you can. Treat them to a snack they don’t
usually get to purchase at lunch time.
- Find special projects that need to be done around
school and recruit the most unlikely helpers.
- Remind your students you and your staff were all kids
once too. Have your team bring in pictures of themselves as children (at
the ages you have in your school). Post them and have a contest allowing
students to guess which teacher is which. Those 80s pictures are the most
popular!
- My favorite question to ask my students or any student
I come in contact with is what are you into lately? This opens
communication with your students and let's them know you are interested.
- Allow students to do a job shadow. Give them a peek
into what you do and how you make daily decisions.
- Host an ice cream social for students that meet certain
goals.
The list will grow as our experiences and our
connections grow. Feel free to reach out to any of the Tribe members listed
below to learn more about the power of our team and how our tribe constantly
supports each other in our teaching, leading and learning.
Compelled Tribe Contributors:
GREAT EDUCATORS TO FOLLOW ON TWITTER
Jennifer Hogan
Craig Vroom
UPCOMING EVENTS
Monday, March 13: Principal Advisory Committee 8:20 am
Celebrate Monday Assembly 9:05 am
Student Re-entry Meeting (Benson/Limberg/Wennstrom) 9:25 am
Jon to Rotary 11:45-1:15
Parent Meeting Larabell 4:05 pm
Tuesday, March 14: Robotics Assembly in the PM
Diabetes Training (Jon,Shannon, Denise, Roxanne, Sherry Lynn) 3:15 pm
Parent Meeting Berrelez 4:05 pm
Wednesday, March 15: REED Fuller 8:20 am
Jon to PTSA at Garfield Elementary 6:00 pm
Thursday, March 16: Collaborative Learning Time (CLT) 7:50 am
Spring Pictures / 4th Grade Photo
Friday, March 17: CPI (Child Restraint Training) Jon, Shannon, Denise 3:00 pm
Monday, March 20: Celebrate Monday Assembly 9:05 am (Check presentation to MDA)
Tuesday, March 21: Living Wax Museum in the gym (Lunch in classrooms)
Thursday, March 23: Staff Meeting with special guest Paula Kohler 8:05 am
Elementary Principals Meeting 1:00-4:30 pm
Friday, March 24: Bill Roberts from AXA in lounge 8:00 am
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