It's Not Too Late to Build Relationships with Your Students!

Hello!  I don't know about you, but I can't believe we are ZERO days away from the Christmas break!  When I think about this semester, it seems like a whirlwind.  I can only imagine how it feels from your perspective!  When you stop and think about the beginning of the year, was it cool, calm, and collected?  Fast, furious, and chaotic?  A little bit of cool, calm, collected, fast, furious, and chaotic all mixed up?  

Let's reflect on the beginning of the year, compared to years' past.  Did you have time to build relationships with your students as you have in the past?  Think of the "All About Me" activities we have always shared with our students at the beginning of the year... the conversations about favorite things, family members, and pets.... and then the goal setting we traditionally follow that up with.  Did you have time to do that with your students this year?  If you didn't, it's NOT too late.  If you did, that is awesome, but there is still time for more!

Before we continue, I just want to mention that many of the thoughts and ideas here were taken from or inspired by Carl Hooker's course "The Remote Learning Coach".  He is amazing and I encourage you to check him out at his Hooked on Innovation site and be sure to follow him on Twitter!

ONWARD...

No matter what, the start of the second semester is the perfect time to build relationships with your students.  Your students might need a refresher. Maybe their favorites have changed?  Maybe they have new goals for themselves?  You might even have new students!  It IS the perfect time!

In Carl Hooker's course, he reminded me of the importance of building relationships.  He also discussed how the key to relationships is trust!

 I did a little research and discovered that according to John Hattie, (Remember I talked about him a couple of posts ago?) a positive Teacher-Student Relationship has an effect size of .48.  (Remember we want to try to implement strategies with an effect size of .4 and above.)

On top of that, there is also Teacher Credibility.  Hattie says Teacher Credibility is "students who regard their teacher as a credible authority based on their perceptions of competence, 🅃🅁🅄🅂🅃🅆🄾🅁🅃🄷🄸🄽🄴🅂🅂 and perceived 🄲🄰🅁🄸🄽🄶. In other words, if students know you are competent, trustworthy, and you care, it will positively impact their achievement.  The effect size of Teacher Credibility is a whopping 1.09.

Simply put, building positive relationships = trust and caring = increased student achievement by A LOT!

So let's get down to business!  What are some fun ways that you can build relationships with your students after the new year?  Here are some ideas to get you started.

First, if you teach little ones, check out these cool activities in Seesaw...

In this All About Me activity, students are given a template with a circle they can decorate to look like themselves.  I love this one because it is more open-ended and encourages students to draw, label and record themselves.  Don't forget students also have access to emojis on their iPads! 

Click here to access the "All About Me" Activity

Next...This activity is great for our young writers!  Students will take a picture of themselves and then decorate it with labels of adjectives to describe themselves. 

Click here to access this All About Me w/Adjectives Activity!

 This next Seesaw activity is so simple, yet powerful.  You can use this over and over again at the start of each grading period to check in on a student's goals.  Make sure you give them an opportunity to reflect on past goals and make a plan on how to reach their goals!

Click here to access this goal setting activity!

For older students, check out this FUN Bitmoji Getting to Know You Activity that Carl Hooker shared with the participants in his course.  (He gave me permission to share this with you.)  You can customize the slides to find out more about your students.  

In this slide, students share their favorite snacks. 
You can edit this slide to add your Bitmoji instead of Carl's.

Goal setting and reflection for our older students can be in the form of a simple journal entry.  Students can have notebooks in hand, or a Google Doc on the computer.  Also, be sure to give your students the chance to reflect often, whether it is at the end of every class or the end of every day.  Do not skip reflection.  Ask your students questions like:

• What did you like about today?
• What did you not like about today?
• What did you learn in this class today?
• What do you want to learn?
• When it comes to (insert content area topic), what do you want to get better at?
• When it comes to (insert content area topic), what is your strength, or what are you good at?
• When it comes to (insert content area topic), what is your weakness, or where do you struggle?

THIS is a GREAT time to mention the importance of giving students the opportunity to build relationships with each other as well. (Community Building) This applies to children of ALL ages!  I'd say Community Building in your classroom will help to build comfort around Strong Classroom Cohesion, which has an effect size of .53!  (Another good one!)

Here are some great ideas for community building....

Carl Hooker mentioned the idea of a "Would You Rather" game for students.  Check out this site that has the ultimate "Would You Rather" questions for students. 

Once students have answered their "Would You Rather" question... let children partner up in groups via Zoom.  You can create breakout rooms and place students in breakout rooms to discuss their similarities.  Why do they like ice cream better than cake?  Why would they rather visit the beach vs. a snowy mountain cabin?  What have they experienced that is similar or different?   If you want to keep an eye on all of the breakout rooms, be sure to place at least one "Roomie" (Student who is IN your room.)  with "Zoomies" (Students who are at home learning virtually.) Then students can switch groups once the next question is asked.

Check out this list of other activities he shared:

Games to build community in your classroom shared by Carl Hooker. 
  Click here to access better directions for the "Come to my Party" game. 
I had trouble describing it well.  LOL!

If you add these activities to your lesson plans when you get back to school in the second semester, I am certain that your students will strengthen their relationship with you and their peers!  Not to mention, they will have so much fun!

It is important to remember that virtual learning and concurrent teaching hasn't changed who we are at our core.  We are educators.  We love children and we want them to be successful.  We also want them to love learning.  I truly believe that relationship building is the foundation for that.  Remember, it's not too late!