The Days of Reflection
Building Positive Relationships
No matter how established you are as a teacher, building positive relationships with your students is important if you hope to get the best from them. A positive relationship involves the student ultimately trusting you. They need to trust that:
- you have their best interests at heart
- You genuinely want them to do well (not just for your performance management targets)
- You are fair when it comes to rewards and sanctions
- You know what you are doing so will deliver them the best education on offer.
Every teacher will have their own approach to this. I would love to hear in the comments below your strategies for building positive relationships with your students. Here are 10 strategies that I employ.
- Regular book-marking with a personal comment
- I am strict when it comes to following the rules and sanctions set out by my teaching establishment
- I set student-led activities so that I can speak to my students on a one to one basis.
- I tell them I care
- I do not overuse rewards. If a student gets a reward, then they’ve earned it.
- I try to learn my students’ names as soon as possible.
- I celebrate their progress and encourage them to do the same.
- My expectations are focussed on my students trying their best over achieving their best. If they have tried their best then they should always be pleased with their effort. Achievement will happen later.
- If I am faced with a difficult class where there are numerous groups of students who I am trying to engage and increase commitment from I will target a student at a time until I have improved the attitude for learning for the whole group.
- I speak to my students with respect
I will never give up on a group. Children can always be guided, my challenge is to find the way. Admittedly, this is more of a mindset than a strategy. I find it important to remember that my students need to trust me. Eventually, students will mirror positive behaviour.
Thank you for reading. Let me know your strategies in the comments. Don’t forget to like and share if you have found this post useful.