Before students will feel one-hundred percent comfortable in their learning environment, positive teacher-student relationships need to be fostered and built. Building relationships is something that happens from the first time that one meets a student. But it will continue on through the rest of the interactions that the teacher and student share. There are a lot of things that teachers can do to create these positive relationships in the classroom.
For one, when communicating expectations, classroom teachers need to be positive and clear. If a teacher is going over the classroom expectations at the beginning of the year and they sound harsh and mean, the students are going to be reluctant to trust the teacher. However, if the teacher presents the expectations and rules in a positive and clear manner then the students are going to be very receptive of that. However, it is important to find a fine line with this because if one is too nice students may begin to walk all over the teacher. Thus, why it is very important to ensure that students know what is expected of them and that they also know what the consequences are for not meeting expectations.
It is also beneficial to classroom relationship building if when one is speaking to students they do so in a constructive and kind tone. Talking down to students and telling them that the way they solved the math problem is all wrong will only make the child resent talking to you. However, if when correcting a student, you apply all the things that they do correctly and then state what they could do to make it better then the student will appreciate that you are acknowledging what they did was close. This also makes it easier for the student to understand that it is okay to make mistakes in the learning process.
Building relationships in the classroom does not always have to be academic. It is okay to get to know your students outside of the classroom. Talk to them about their interests and their hobbies. Talk to them about their family and friends. Show them that you care about them as a whole child as opposed to them as just a student within your classroom. Greeting students at the door when they get there shows students that you care that they are there that day and that sets a great tone for learning and it is also something so simple that the teacher can do every single day. I think a lot of times as educators we get so caught up in making sure that our students are succeeding academically that we forget to show our students that we care about them outside of school. Showing students that we care about their feelings, makes them feel wanted and cared for and this makes them feel safe. When students feel safe they will learn. Reaching out to students when they seem sad, or mad, or excited and letting them explain their feelings will also help to establish this strong relationship.
Overall if our students do not have this sense of trust and security within the teacher, then they are not going to reach their full potential in the classroom. This student-teacher relationship goes so far in the classroom because when a student and teacher can trust one another and have this mutual care and respect for one another, the learning can only benefit. When this relationship exists, the student might be so excited to go to school just to see the teacher. These student-teacher relationships also spill over to parent-teacher relationships and those are also so very important to establish early on in the year.
Miss Trone 