Trust, respect, compassion, and care between teachers and students are critical in successful classroom management. We can achieve this through bonding with our students.
In this article, we are going to discuss the critical role played by the teacher-student relationship in classroom management. We will further look at the dos and don’ts of creating a relationship with students. If you are ready, let’s dive into the discussion. Also, for more classroom management techniques, check here.
Why Build Strong Bond with Your Students
The teacher-student relationship is important due to the following reasons:
- Most disruptive behaviors can be avoided if students are highly connected with their teachers. Research has proven that about 84% of classroom disruptions can be solved if teachers were to have healthy connections with their students. That is, when there are behavior problems in the classroom, they are mostly attributable to the poor teacher-student relationship (Sheets and Gay, 1996).
- Most students need the attention of their teachers in our today’s world due to the lack of attention and care from their families. Most parents and guardians are busy surfing their careers, making them not pay much attention to their relationship with their wards.
- Developing positive relationships with students helps them create strong bonds with other students in class. This is crucial to your success in effective classroom management. It improves group cohesion in your class and hence improves students’ behavior. Because you can model students to learn to live well with others without problems. This encourages collaboration and helps in children’s social development.
- Children with special needs such as those with ADHD and autism generally require the attention of many stakeholders to help them develop well. Creating strong and positive bonds with these kids is paramount in managing them and their behaviors. In today’s classroom, they’re many children with one or more special needs.
Tips To Help You Build Positive Bonds With Students
When trying to create a connection with your students, try the following tips and guidelines. They will help a lot in your efforts.
Build a strong classroom community
The best way to build true relationships with your students is to create a network of collaboration with students their parents and families. Even though that is not an easy task to achieve, you still have to strive and succeed in the process.
Some parents and family members are too busy to get involved in their wards’ education. So it pays for teachers to make a force to get students’ parents or families to participate in educating their children. Nagging about it is not enough.
Different teachers have different methods that work for them in this regard.
For example, my experienced grade-three colleague uses a combination of writing letters to students and parents and holding a monthly parents meeting. That helps her get closer to students, their parents, and their families.
It also aids her commands the participation of parents and guardians in school programs. Another example word mentioning is about my middle school math teacher who goes for a picnic with her students and their families twice every semester.
Use traditions and routines
Establishing routines and traditions in your classroom can help you connect well with your students and their families. Daily, weekly, and monthly traditions with students and their parents of families improve the teacher’s relationship with them.
This is extremely helpful in advancing your course in the management of students’ behavior.
Weekly and monthly newsletters about happiness in class and school that students send home can help you burn well with students and their parents.
Another way of improving your relationship with students is true journaling student-led conferences and helpful homework routines. This increases the number of contacts you have with students as well as their families.
Make Good Impression
The teacher’s personality is an important factor in helping him or her develop healthier relationships with students.
Genuinely get interested in your students’ life and their success. This will make students feel you care for them.
They will therefore develop trust in you, and your connection with them will increase. Guard your speech responses and feedback about students’ work or questions positively.
Your answers and responses to students’ work and questions can tell how much you care for them, therefore keep them positive and lovely.
This will make you attractive to them, and they will want to relate well with you. Avoid giving negative, demoralizing, sarcastic, and responses to your students.
Use Quality Verbal and Nonverbal Behaviors
Making use of both quality verbal and nonverbal behaviors can promote a positive relationship between teachers and students.
It helps to convey a strong message of acceptance and enhances healthier, social, and interpersonal interactions among teachers, students, and other students.
Some practical and useful verbal and nonverbal behaviors are humor, eye contact, empathy, pleasant speech, effective praise, cheerful facial expression, and appropriate physical interactions.
If you put up behaviors such as what has been mentioned, you will become more attractive to your students, and they will feel comfortable getting closer to you.
Become a Great and Active Listener
Effective listening makes you good at communicating with your students. This supports you to create a good rapport with them.
Listening attentively to students tells them how respectful and genuine you are towards them.
It pays to pay close attention to students when they are talking. This is because children are mostly attracted to teachers who listen actively to them when they are talking.
Active listening is necessary when dealing with students, irrespective of their age and level. Therefore, much effort should be made to improve our listening skills.
React Positively, Not Negatively to Students and Their Behaviors
Be mindful of how you react to students and their behaviors. It is essential to react positively towards students, irrespective of whether you agree or disagree with their behavior or what they say.
Disagree gently and politely, if you are not approved of students’ behavior and opinions. Else, smooth communication between you and your students will be impeded.
Dos of Building Relationship with Students
The following are some things you must do when trying to build positive bonds with your students:
- Accommodate everyone. Try and accept everyone. Separate students’ behavior from their personalities. With that, you must always condemn undesired behavior, but don’t reject any student in the process.
- Be mindful of your influence on the students’ lives. Use positive words, nonverbal messages, and tones on your students. That’ll have a strong influence on their self-esteem and can improve your bond with
- Treat students with respect and decency. You are a human and will like to be treated as such – with respect. So do the same for your students.
- Cultivate the habit of using ’please’ when addressing students.
Don’ts in Building Relationship with Students
- Don’t be sarcastic in your speech or actions towards students or their works. Else It will make you less attractive to them.
- Be mindful of your distance from students. When interacting with them, give them their distance. It will make them comfortable to relate well with
There are numerous cases making news on front pages where students and their teachers engage in scandals.
For example, there was this case where a male colleague was reported to school administration, by students, for allegedly sexually abusing a female student.
Be careful when it comes to students touching you or otherwise, especially with adolescents.
- Never find yourself alone with a student, especially at a closed door.
- Avoid sexually explicit conversations with students.
- Avoid the use of double entendre as much as possible when talking to students. Else, your credibility and professionalism will be in jeopardy.
Conclusion
Effective teaching and learning occur when there is good classroom management. From the above, we noted that a healthier relationship between teachers and students plays a critical role in promoting effective management of students’ behavior. We finally identified what to do/not to do to enhance student-teacher relationships. You, therefore, have to work to relate well with your students.
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