How Can You Nurture Positive Relationships In Your Classroom?

Developing a relationship with students who are difficult to manage is hard, but it may be the only thing that could help them. Forming a relationship based on trust is the first step. You may wonder whether that is the counselor or school psychologist’s job. The truth is that while they are important, YOU spend the most time with your students and your relationship with each of them can often keep them away from needing psychological help.

Many children who are sent to the counselor’s office see it as a punishment for their ‘bad behavior’ or their ‘issues’. This could upset their relationship with you and the class. Once you have formed a relationship with your students and feel that you are limited in your resources as a teacher to help them, you could suggest that they meet the counselor since that would be much more helpful. Counseling then would be beneficial in this case as the child seeks help voluntarily rather than being forced against his or her will.

Here are a few ways you a can form a strong and positive connection with your students:

Honoring Commitments

Every good relationship is based on respect. It’s the primary element in a good relationship, be it with your spouse, friends, children or your students. When you respect your students they respect you in return and also learn to respect and honor others in their lives. Honor, may sound a little odd. The definition of honor includes both – to hold in high regard and to fulfill or keep a promise. Well, it’s good to keep promises and honor your word. You can honor them by promising them a fun class trip at the end of the year and following through. Hopefully by the end of the year you would have developed a good relationship of trust and respect so that both you and your students enjoy the time together. Honor also includes another aspect which includes giving special attention and special regard to your students over students of other classes. They are your responsibility at school so you don’t have to think twice about showing them more attention and care than others.

Demonstrating Interest

Find opportunities and events that really mean a lot to your students. You won’t find a kid who’d be unhappy to see you at their game, play or dance recital. Doing this would actually make them see you in action and help them believe that you care about them outside the classroom too. Even the first five minutes of catching up you spend with your students each day add to you becoming a part of their life, even if you are just a listener. You may know that you play a part in your students’ lives, but you don’t know how big or small your role may be.

Persisting Through Obstacles

When you are trying to form a connection, especially when beginning to use a new method, don’t expect instant results. Even when you have used a certain method long enough and you don’t see your students being grateful, don’t give up. When you are discouraged, remember that it’s often a lot quicker to teach students a math problem than to teach them to respect one another. However, once they’ve acquired the trait, it transforms all their interactions. Don’t judge whether your method is working or not by your instant success rate. Give it time!

Developing Accountability

From the time teachers are trained, they are given feedback, most often from peers or instructors. When you open yourself up to receiving feedback from your students, the gesture clearly states that their opinion is valuable and makes you accountable to yourself and your students. Even as much as you enjoy teaching, it’s a privilege to know how good a job you’re doing and students can often be your best and most honest mirror. You could have a designated time where students have a chance to speak their mind and inform you about what helped them most or least in your class, what they liked and why they did so. You might even receive a rare account of what they did as a result of a class with you. One thing to keep in mind when you are getting feedback. If it is all positive or all negative feedback, which may be really rare, it’s important to take it with a grain of salt. Encourage honest feedback and consider that some assessments may not be entirely accurate. Realizing the impact you have is only one of the results here. You are modeling accountability for your students, demonstrating how one person’s actions affect others.

Discuss Here:

What are some ways you build supportive relationships with your students?

How do you encourage your students to develop nurturing relationships within the classroom?