The relationship between a teacher and student defines the quality of education. This relationship is almost as crucial as the one between parents and children. Therefore, the dynamics between these individuals must be cordial at all times. Teachers must always control their class without being bossy and disrespectful towards learners. In turn, students will likely reciprocate by complying with the rules of behavior set by a school.
There is always room for interpersonal growth, regardless of the quality of the relationship between a student and a teacher. Below are some actionable tips for improving teacher-student relationships.
5 Tips for Improving Teacher-Student Relationships
Attentive Listening
As a teacher, it is beneficial to listen to your student carefully. It shows your students that you care about what they want to tell you. You can achieve active listening by:
- Maintaining eye contact.
- Stopping all your activities with the intention of listening.
- Responding when appropriate.
- Asking questions.
- Acknowledging nonverbal communications.
Being an attentive listener helps you connect with your learners on a deeper level. It gives them the impression that you will always listen to their problems and worries without passing judgments. They will be willing to communicate with you when in need.
Know Each Student
Attentive listening is a great precursor for knowing your students. On the other hand, knowing your students involves learning about their interests, dislikes, likes, and passions. Knowing these things about each learner allows you to teach them effectively.
You can get to know your students by asking them to complete a questionnaire from time to time. Once completed, these documents will give you the chance to understand each individual. As time passes, you can keep track of changing behavior by developing quality surveys.
You stand a better chance of creating an excellent questionnaire by outsourcing its creation to any of the writing services highlighted within essay writing service reviews. You will find each platform capable of providing quality output for your academic writing needs, including thesis and dissertation writing.
Organizing After-school Activities
Organizing after-school activities is an excellent way of bonding with your learners. You get to spend meaningful moments with them of their own volition. As a result, you are more likely to see the real characters of your students during such events. Likewise, you will want to present an appropriate version of who you are outside the classroom.
Personal Support
Your door should always be open to all your students. Therefore, each student should be able to access you for their personal and academic needs. To achieve this, you must offer some degree of limited individualized support. Taking out 5 minutes to speak with a student can help them with problems at school or at home. The personal support you give students does not have to be after school hours. So, you will want to work around your schedule to make yourself available when you have free time.
Share Relevant Experiences
As an educator, your students may see you as a bigger-than-life personality. So, you have to humanize yourself in their eyes. The best way to do this is to share relevant stories that highlight your humanity. You must ensure you present each story in a manner that teaches a valuable life lesson. In addition, you will want to insert as many of these stories at strategic points within your lesson plans.
In particular, sharing stories about living an honest and healthy life is essential. If you are into fitness, you should provide fun anecdotes of your workout sessions. When applicable, you can also provide tips, like the one about taking the right supplements, which can help boost your students’ health.
Conclusion
Being an educator means you have to handle the relationship between you and your students carefully. You can achieve this by listening to them attentively, getting to know your students, and connecting with them by having them answer questionnaires and attend after-school activities. It will help if you consistently offer as much personal support as possible. Finally, you will want to embed relevant experience within your lesson plan. These tips will allow you to build a healthy, close yet professional relationship with your students.
About the Author
Michael Carr is a teacher and a writer. He loves working with students and providing guidance. For this reason, Michael runs outreach programs that help less privileged kids.
