Establishing New Relationships with New Students

New teachers sometimes have a difficult time establishing relationships with their students.  Veteran teachers are well versed in this skill however for candidates starting out in the field it can become awkward endeavour.  With the beginning of the new school year, teachers beginning their teaching careers can become much more effective educators if teachers get to know their students better.  A few ways that teachers can become familiar with students are as follows:

Learning students’ names:

There is nothing more basic than learning names of people early on in the school year.  Make it a goal to be able to learn everyone’s names in the first week.  Try to pick up  strategies for being able to learn your student’s names quickly.

Share goals:

Give students a worksheet in the first week of class and allow them to share their goals, Be it social or academic or both, and other expectations they would have for the coming year.  You could create a bulletin board that would highlight their goals and accomplishments throughout the year.

Share personal artifacts:

Have students bring in personal  artifacts that hold great meaning to them.  Collect them all in a common area where students can share these stories with you and others in the class.  They can also be an inspiration for future narratives written in class or even be clues for a classroom scavenger hunt .

These are just a few ideas.  There are others and getting to know each one of your students individually could build  positive relationships between you and your students.  It can also break barriers between students encouraging socialization from the beginning. Feel free to share other ideas in the comments section of this article.