The Importance of Student-Teacher Relationships

A new teacher asked me the other day, "What do you think is the most important aspect of teaching?" I responded, "Hands down building strong relationships with students. Not sarcastic, humorous friendships but relationships built on trust, respect, love, a definite hierarchy but also the humor and humility that comes along with being a teacher." Once the discipline and behavior management is in place the laughter and fun will come naturally. You can't force students to like you but if you are genuine, honest and compassionate and create a safe, energetic, authentic learning environment your students will not only like you they will love you.

The classroom needs to be a community, equal voices in the design and implementation of the lessons. Students should have a say in how they learn. The curriculum might be set but the environment in which it is delivered needs to be accessible and student-driven. If it is, the behavior management will be minimal because the engagement and trust will be the foundation of the class. In my classroom they self-monitor and I have few if any behavior issues. How can you bring students into the lesson planning routine?

I ask students at the beginning of each unit what they would like to do, what will help them learn the content the best. Usually this matches up with what I have already planned. But I adjust to accommodate their needs and wants. I let them design a makerspace activity or lab. This makes them feel they have more control over the class, seeing as it is a student-centered classroom. I listen to their requests and we spend a few minutes clarifying and refining so they can come up with a game plan. How does this tie back to building relationships? If we do not have strong, trusting, respectful relationships with our students this process of student ownership and lesson design would not work.

The best gift we can give our students is to step back and let them be the owners of their learning. To teach them how to teach themselves. To guide them to be independent thinkers. The one-minute check in's my class has implemented allows for me to talk to every student one-on-one without any fear of humiliation. They all come to my desk to chat and no one hears what we are talking about so the quick chats can be remedial or enriching, but all are personal and have been rewarding both for myself and my students. We really know and trust each other and this has strengthened our classroom community ten fold.