Charlotte (2012). http://fabulous5thgradefun.blogspot.ca/2012/08/getting-to-know-your-who.html
Teachers and students are together on average 5 days a week, 6 hours a day, 10 months of the year so it is pretty easy to get familiar with one another. What we as teacher need to do is use this familiarity to provide students with the best possible learning opportunities. Getting to know your students can be vital in order to recognize their strengths and weaknesses, and influence the way you teach them, (Drake, Reid, & Kolohan, 2014). Although there are some parts of the curriculum that we will be teaching year after year, every student and how they learn will be different. In order to maintain a growth mindset teachers need to be willing to evolve their techniques rather than just giving lessons or assessments the same way over and over because they ‘worked’ a few times.
Getting to know students interests and experiences can help us make students more interested in what is being taught, especially if we can take those interests and create a connection to the curriculum. I think these is sometimes a stigma around teaching in that people think our approach is “we’re just going to give you the information and if you can’t learn it, that’s your fault.” Getting to know what our students like and dislike, what they are good at, what they need help with, and what teaching methods works best, will show people that our intent is for students to succeed, not to just throw curriculum at them.
The benefits of actually learning about your students are endless. We don’t even have to keep the learning restricted to just in the class. Drake et al., (2014) discuss how learning about students’ home lives, including social, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds can help us enhance their experiences in the classroom. We can find ways to create a classroom environment that adheres to everyone. For example if we know students come from a lower SES area we can do our best to provide snacks, for students from different cultures we can find ways to include their diversity, and even more we can find ways to make all these unique attributes connect to curriculum to make learning relevant and interesting.
THIS BLOG by Education World outlines some amazing thought on the value of actually getting to know your students. The allow us to recognize changes in emotion which can help to see if students are having good or bad days. They let us see them as unique personalities, which can be beneficial in seeing who works well together and defusing problems. Additionally, it tells students that you care about them as people, which can help you gain respect in the classroom.
There are tons of resources on line as well that can aid teachers to developing positive relationships with their students. THIS WEBSITE by OLE Community has made a list of creative ways to get to know your students and build a strong environment. The image on the right is from a website call Teachers Pay Teachers that offers resources. A sheet as simple as this can help build a bond.
From a students perspective I know how valuable these bonds can be to build with a teachers. In high school I had some issues resulting in a suspension, but because I had already developed ties with my teachers they were all really kind and understanding. No one made me feel like I was a bad kid, just made a bad decision. One even said that if anyone gave me a hard time to let them know and she would take care of it. These responses made me feel really respected and made me more determined to do well in class, especially in the ones of the teachers who reached out to me. I hope that by getting to know my students I will be able to develop these relationships that inspire children to succeed and give them the best possible learning environment.
References
Charlotte (2012). http://fabulous5thgradefun.blogspot.ca/2012/08/getting-to-know-your-who.html
Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment: Engaging the 21st Century Learner. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.
Education World (2012). The secret weapon: Getting to know your students. The New Teacher Advisor. http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/columnists/mcdonald/mcdonald013.shtml
OLE Community (2013). 56 creative ways to get to know your class. http://olecommunity.com/56-ways-to-get-to-know-your-class/
Teachers Pay Teachers (2012). "Getting to Know You"- learn about each student in your class. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Getting-to-Know-You-learn-about-each-student-in-your-class-246790
