Every teacher will mostly likely
use a slightly different technique to get to know his or her students, however
there is some overlap. For instance, every teacher will need to establish some
classroom management skills, and make it clear that they are there to be a
teacher but also to be there for the students and help them along their
educational journey (McDonald, 2012). I think an implication that sometimes
arises is that there is a fine line between being professional, and being a
student’s friend. The teacher-student bond is very important, however it needs
to consistently be established in a particular way. I often wonder how I can
maintain a positive relationship with my student while continually acting in an
appropriate way?
As a leader in education, there
are many ways to establish a good relationship with students and getting to
know who they are. I find that getting to know vital characteristics of each
student will ultimately create a better teacher and a more positive learning
environment for all. As teacher’s, we are going to be there for our student’s
by listening to them, giving them choices and sometimes simply being there for
them (“Tell Me About”, 2012).
I found some great activities that
can be used to better know your students. For instance, the picture below is an
effective opening activity for one of the first few days of school. Questions
such as ‘what would you like to learn this year’ and ‘what is your favorite
subject’ allow a teacher to adjust the classroom dynamics to cater towards
individual needs. Additionally, this questionnaire asked questions such as
‘what is your favorite food’ and ‘what did you do this summer’ to invite open
discussion and a fun element to invite children to positively participate in this
activity.
One idea that I remember doing in
elementary school was creating a poster board all about myself. There were
sections on family, school, extracurricular and more that provided a well-rounded
view of each student. This made the task
of getting to know students a fun interactive way to learn. Not only is the
student able to share their lives, which should be interesting to them, but
also the work can be displayed around the classroom.
In my classroom, I would most
likely use this as a technique to get to know my students as well. I think that
this can be used as an autobiographical assignment where students could
potentially do a presentation as well. This allows for the time of getting to
know my students and also be utilized as an opportunity to evaluate skills is areas
such as writing, presentation skills and other areas. This ‘teachable moment’
can be an invaluable experience for both the student and the teacher.
There are so many online
resources for teacher’s to share their ideas. I found some great icebreakers
and activities that can be used to better understand your students here and here.
I love that we can communicate and share ideas as future educators to come up
with ways to get to know our students that we may not have otherwise
encountered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1FC1ZPN7cw
I found that this video
effectively sums up what it means to be a teacher, and how vital your role is
in a student’s life. How can you make a difference in a students life if you do
not know what is going on in it? In the future, I will actively attempt to keep
up-to-date with what is going on in my children’s lives. It is important to be
understanding of whatever is happening with them. I strive to be the teacher
that student’s can trust to come to with their problems and offer sound advice
to them as well. What will you do in order to be an active member of your
students’ lives?
References
McDonald, A. (2012). The secret weapon: Getting to
know your students. Education World. Retrieved from: http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/columnists/mcdonald/mcdonald013.shtml
(2012). Tell me about: How to get to know your
students. For Each To Excel, 69 (5). Retrieved from: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb12/vol69/num05/How-You-Get-to-Know-Your-Students.aspx
(2013, March 22). Know your students. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1FC1ZPN7cw
(2015). Getting to know your students. Teacher
Vision. Retrieved from: https://www.teachervision.com/students/resource/2878.html
(2015). Top 5 ways to get to know your students. Scholastic.
Retrieved from: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/top-5-ways-get-know-your-students
I would hope to be able to connect with the parents of my students; this way I hope to be able to understand my students needs beyond the classroom, as well as hope to integrate parents into the school. That way, we can all work together to achieve the same goal of our students success (ps, I love that you ended the blog with a question, it gives me a good starting point to comment on the blog).
ReplyDeleteWhile utilizing the methods of understanding your students, how may can these strategies help out with teaching the students about the "Know, Do, and Be"? Perhaps by being open about who you are, will allow students to learn who they are by using reflective practices (A great way to include mindfulness into the classroom as well).
For your next blog, I would only suggest that you make your links more noticeable instead of interwoven with in the paragraphs. If I was only skimming your blog, I would have missed it. Other than that, you are a great blog writer.
Piglet: Pooh? How do you spell love?
Winne the Pooh: You do not spell love Piglet, you feel it.
Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your blog. I think you chose an important topic because it discusses the issue of building relationships with your students. This reminded me of something we learned in Education 8P17, our professor once said, “Student is the adjective, child is the noun”. This reminded me that we have to learn who the children in our classroom are outside of their role as a student.
There are many ways teachers can get to know their students. I agree with the strategies you suggested. Particularly your suggestion of having students do a presentation about themselves is a good idea for children to share with the class who they are. However, I think that some children might struggle with sharing personal things with the class, or simply don’t feel comfortable speaking in front of a group of people. To gain a more in-depth understanding of students I would like to conduct parent teacher conferences to gain a better perspective about the child’s life outside of the school. As well, another idea I had was having students share facts about themselves with their teacher through journal writing. Some students may not feel comfortable sharing personal information verbally and feel more comfortable writing about themselves. Overall great work, I look forward to reading more!
Alex
Ms. Bowen,
ReplyDeleteThank you for yet another great read! Getting to know your students is absolutely a crucial step, that I believe helps foster learning. What's so beneficial about knowing your students is that it shows them you're involved in who they are and care about them as an individual. This allows students to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance within the classroom and therefore encourages students to be more involved and engaged in their learning.
I, too understand the importance of creating boundaries and an amount of professionalism within the classroom in order to ensure students are on track. This is something that I feel I may struggle with in my beginning years as a teacher. I have never had difficulty in forming and creating relationships with young people, but more so being that authoritative figure and so I fear that students may not take me seriously when managing the classroom. It is something that I know I will gain through experience.
Lastly, I liked that you discussed little activities on how to get to know your students at the beginning of the year. I think it's important to maintain this discussion throughout the year for a lot of things happen in student's lives and things may change. Something all of my favourite teachers had in common were that they all continued to get to know me even when I was no longer their student. Just simply saying 'Hi, how has soccer been going?' In the halls of the school can really go a long way and make a student feel that much more cared for by their educators.