Student Relationships

The Edutopia article "Fostering Relationships in the Classroom" gives some good ideas for how to create good relationships in the classroom between the teachers and students. I think this is a really important aspect of teaching that I didn't really think about until I was actually in the classroom. The relationship you have with students obviously needs to be professional but it also has to be positive. I have had experiences where students don't like the rules in my classroom or feel like I'm being too strict. I think if a student knows you care about them and their education they will be more likely to go along with the rules and realize that you are doing things for a reason. I think this may be a bigger deal in the environment I teach in but I believe it would be important in any room.

In the article they provide several good tasks that would be great for icebreakers at the beginning of the year or as a way to break up the class. I think in order to get the class to act as a team it is important for them to have time to do team building activities. If they view each other as teammates they will be less likely to bully each other and more likely to support each other.