connections
As mentioned earlier on this site,
effective communication allows you to connect with your audience whether it be
your students, their parents or carers, school administrative staff or the
wider community. These connections provide teachers with the opportunity to
build strong positive relationships with the stakeholders mentioned. After
all, “teaching is first and foremost about relationships” (Groundwater-Smith,
Ewing, and Le Cornu, 2011, p. 213).
STRATEGIES for the classroom
The
following strategies are ones that I have personally experienced and have found
to be effective.
At the start of the school year:
At the start of the school year:
- complete some getting to know you activities that not only allow you to observe the interactions between students, they also provide the learners with the opportunity to get to know each other and therefore build relationships
- have each student complete a questionnaire/survey that outlines key information about them such as their interests, a few of their favourite things and what they consider to be their strengths and weaknesses. A sample survey is at the bottom of this page.
- personally greet each student as they arrive in your classroom
- make eye contact with each student when marking the roll
- spend a few moments at the start of week and immediately following holidays sharing student experiences
key points to remember
building relationships with parents/carers |
building relationships with colleagues |
The suggestions listed above that were developed by Bowers (2009) can also be applied to the development of teacher-parent relationships. In addition to those basics, relationships are further strengthened when you involve parents in their child's learning and establish open lines of communication.
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Quality interactions between teachers promotes the formation of strong, positive relationships. These relationships can lead to enhanced staff morale and job satisfaction (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing, & Le Cornu, 2011, p.219). In larger schools it is particularly difficult to do this however, simply going to the staffroom once or twice a week to eat your lunch enables interactions with teachers other than those in your cohort and thus aides in the development of positive relationships.
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additional resources and links
This page has served to provide you with the importance of building relationships in a school context and how that is achieved through effective communication. Building such relationships will also provide you with the basis for the formation of excellent classroom management, the next aspect of this professional development resource.