Teachers and Students: How to Build a Relationship

Building a positive relationship between students and teachers is important, regardless of the age of the students. Pretty much everyone who went through a public or private school system knows that your relationship with your teacher(s) can have a lifelong impact. Don’t we all remember the “mean ones” and the “nice ones”? The impact of the student-teacher relationship reaches far beyond the classroom.

Here are some tips on how to build a relationship between teachers and students.

Individual Personalities

As teachers take on the task of building relationships with their students, it’s helpful if they take their students’ individual personalities into account. One size does not fit all! So as you look over these tips, bear in mind that not everything will work with each student. Don’t be afraid to be creative, and enjoy your kids’ quirks and differences!

Developmental Stages

There is an enormous difference between a kindergartener and a fourth grader, and even in the same grade you have kids at different developmental stages and ages. Some kids, for instance, are eight years old for the entire second grade year; others don’t turn eight until the end of the year. They can be almost a year apart, yet the eight-year old may be less developmentally mature on some levels than the seven-year old.

It can be challenging, but setting up your classroom in a developmentally-appropriate way can help all students feel calmer and more trusting of the teacher.

Face-to-Face

Sources agree that face-to-face contact between students and teachers goes a long way toward building the student-teacher relationship. Get down on the child’s level when possible, and engage him/her in conversation. It doesn’t take long, but when a student knows that he or she has your attention, you’ve already begun building a positive relationship.

Listen

An offshoot of the point above, listening builds relationship between students and teachers just as it does between adults. Part of listening is creating an environment where you can listen – after all, you can’t listen to 25 kids at once. But if your classroom is ordered without being oppressive, there should be all kinds of opportunities to listen to your students.

Encourage

During the busy-ness of the school day, it’s easy for teachers to forget to encourage their students. Try to acknowledge not just perfect performance, but also honest efforts at improvement. This helps prevent kids from getting discouraged. Sources say it’s best to deal quickly with challenging behavior and minimize it, while always being on the lookout for opportunities to praise.

Give Age-Appropriate Responsibilities

Students often feel so proud of themselves when they are given responsibilities around the classroom. Try to give everyone a chance and not always choose the same student to do the tasks. Look for ways to show your students you trust them – ask them to clean the chalk board, clap the erasers, run paperwork down to the principal’s office, etc.