Speaker 0 00:00:00 From Romano Leadership, I'm Oscar Romano. This is Learn, reflect Lead Leadership and d I A development for mission-driven individuals and organizations.
Speaker 2 00:00:13 This episode is titled by Powerful Strategies to Build strong Relationships with your students. This episode is for you if you're an educator looking to improve your relationships with your students. If you're struggling to connect with your students and are looking for new strategies, or if you're just interested in learning more about how to establish a sense of community and connection in your classroom and the school. Today we're gonna talk about how to build relationships with students.
Speaker 2 00:00:50 I don't want you to think about me as your teacher. I want you to think of me as your older brother or sister or friend. Flags went up anytime I heard a teacher share, share, something like that. I know what the teacher wanted to do. They were trying to build relationships with students by bringing down any barriers between them and their students. What about the other extreme though? I'm not your friend. I'm the authority in the classroom. It's my job to teach you math, not to get to know you. Flags went up here too. They wanted to be the utmost professionals in their roles. These teachers didn't want the potential for any lines to be blurred in their work. Well, if flags are raised in both situations, what's the right approach?
Speaker 2 00:01:42 We have to remember that students are people too. When thinking about how to build relationships with students, it serves to think about them as people, as individuals. All people thrive with connection and community, and students are no exception As a teacher, it's up to you to establish that sense of connection and community with the students in your classroom, but you need to remember that students aren't fully grown adults just yet. Their impressionable children or young adults, depending on the age group that you work with, they're looking to you for guidance on what to think and do and how to behave.
Speaker 2 00:02:25 It can feel like a heavy burden to carry, but it's not an impossible one. There are plenty of ways you can build relationships with students. Here are five them that you can leverage in your classroom today. You know five ways to build relationships with your students. Number one, be authentic. Students will know when you're putting on an act. There isn't a type of teacher that students will prefer over another. I've seen seen students be totally bought into both no nonsense teachers and you know, cool teachers. What students care about most is that they know whom they're speaking to. For example, I started to connect with my students when I leaned into my goofy or or cheesy side. I would hold them accountable when the situation warranted it, but I would also tell 'em cheesy dad jokes at the appropriate times. When they made that change, I had students tell me that they liked the new me better and when they, and by new me, they actually meant the the real me.
Speaker 2 00:03:39 Number two, share your stories. You can't expect a student to open up to you if you don't open up to them. Talk to them about your experiences in school. Why are you're teaching challenges you've faced in your dreams for the future? Of course, anything you share with them has to be school and age appropriate. Here's an example I learned that you can't assume students think you want to be there for them. They also won't believe you wanna be there when you tell 'em they'll believe you. When you start opening up and sharing your stories, it's as if they sense you're going all in with them. When you start to be vulnerable with them, they can sense it, they know it.
Speaker 2 00:04:27 Number three, get to know them. Show them that they are more than a name on your roster. By reaching out to them, take an interest in what their lives are like outside of school. Students will be more bought into you if they feel like you're bought into them. Let them feel seen by checking in with them if you notice something different about them. For example, it was always an incredible experience to see students who drag their feet in class suddenly light up in the middle of a soccer game or drum performance. I love seeing the whole different side of my students, and they loved sharing that side with me too. It, it made a difference. I could, like in the moment, I could sense the relationship changing and I had dramatic effects with our work together, you know, over the years.
Speaker 2 00:05:20 Number four, recognize their work. Praise them when they're meeting or exceeding expectations. Correct them when their behavior isn't aligned with the standards you set in class. Sometimes it can be easier to notice the mistakes rather than the successes. Make an effort to identify both, both the mistakes and the successes. For example, one year I learned that it can take between three to 12 positive instances of praise to make up for one negative instance of constructive feedback. I started to praise students as often as I I could for everything they were doing well and they loved it. I even had students coming up to me to show me their perfect uniform attire so that they could get some praise. They were showing me that they were compliant, that they were following the rules, and they wanted that positivity back, so I gave it to them. And number five, helped them feel safe, established, clear classroom expectations, and be consistent with how you enforce them in your classroom.
Speaker 2 00:06:25 Students want to know what to expect when they walk into a classroom. It isn't comforting to walk into a classroom and not know which rules will be enforced that day and which will be ignored. For example, when I was a high school Dean of students, one of the issues I've regularly addressed was inconsistent expectations. Students would get so mad when they got in trouble for something that they normally got away with. They didn't understand why things were suddenly different, and it frustrated them in their eyes. They were following the rules, right? And, and in some cases the unwritten rules. And so when those rules started to get changed, there's a lot of confusion and, and oftentimes like that's where a lot of behavior issues come about. All right, so it's, it's the end and it's time for you to commit. I want you to think and reflect, which of the five strategies discussed in this video do you think would be the most effective in building strong relationships with your students and why? And have you ever had a teacher who successfully built a strong relationship with you? What did they do that made the biggest impact on your connection with them? Let me know how it goes. Thanks.
Speaker 0 00:07:43 That's it for this episode of Learn, reflect Lead. Thank you for watching on YouTube or listening via podcast. If you're interested in more, you can find
[email protected] or connect with me on LinkedIn at Romano Leadership. If you like this episode, please share with your friends. Subscribe and leave a review. I'm Oscar Romano. Until next time.
