Connecting With Students (Occasional Teachers' Column)

Success for  all  students is  based on  social, academic, and  intellectual interactions. When students feel a social connection to the teacher, the intellectual and  academic  connections become much stronger.  It  is  imperative that  students feel connected to you in the first five minutes of the day.  By showing students you care you can reduce discipline problems  and devote more time to teaching. Here are two effective  strategies for making a positive connection with students.

Greet students at the door
Make eye contact and smile while saying “Good morning,” or  “Welcome,” to  every student who enters your classroom. This  simple gesture conveys  that  you  are  approachable   and  want  to work with them. It also conveys confidence  and implies that  you and the class are going to have a successful  day together. You may want to give specific  instructions so that students can begin the task as soon as they  are seated or as soon as announcements  are over. Something as  simple  as  a  pleasant “Good morning”  can act  as a self-fulfilling prophecy  for the day’s outlook. It is a good way  to begin making connections with students.

Recognize positive student behaviour
A  tried and true strategy is to draw a large box or circle on the  board with an amusing title such as Wonderful  2s or Fabulous  4s.  Students will be curious about this.  Tell  them that  throughout the day, you will place a special chalk or marker on the  desks of  wonderful or fabulous students. Students may then write their name on the board and return the chalk or marker to you.
You  can  discuss criteria  with  students, but you will find that most already know what they have to do to get  their names of  the board. If some students are being  fabulous  more than once, the chalk appears on their desks again and they add a checkmark or star after their  names.

At the end of the day leave the chart on the board with  a  note  for the classroom teacher: “Thesestudents  were awesome  today. You can be proud of them.” As this is a positive behavioural tool, do not erase  the  names when  poor  behaviour occurs. Rather  recognize   the  behaviours you  want  to encourage and keep stressing them. Praise takes  many forms.  Younger students love to  be praised in  front of  their  peers. You can  mention  younger students’ names as  you walk about the room: “I  like how Sam is  working quietly on his number work.”  However,  older students do not want this  kind of  attention in front of peers. Speak to them privately, use sticky notes, or write a brief comment directly on their work to let them know they have done something well. (Always ask if  it  is all right to write something on their work.)

Excerpted  from  I  am  the  Teacher:  Effective Classroom Management for Occasional Teachers, Elementary  Teachers’  Federation of Ontario. Available from shopETFO.