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Teacher-Student Relationships
Forming teacher-student relationships will help to earn the students respect and promote a quality learning community(Jones & Jones,
2007, 75-77). I employ a few methods of fostering teacher-student relationships, but I know that this is one area that I could further
improve in.

Positive Attributes
The process of forming a bond with my students starts on day one. I go around the room after taking attendance and ask if anyone has
done anything of interest during the summer vacation. Some students will share their stories at this point. I follow this up with the first
lesson of creating a work out goal. I explain that I not only want an overall goal, but I want the student to include a rationale explaining
why the goal is important to them. When I go back and read the rationales of each of the students, I get an intimate view of why they are
in the class and what they hope to achieve.

After reading through the goal statements, I try to sit down with each student in the weights class and discuss their goals. Some students
will offer more insight and details at this point in time. I collect the student's goal sheet and hold on to it for the semester. When we get
into the last four weeks of the semester I hand the goals back to the students and we discuss their progress.

I also believe in the community aspect of school and attend after school activities(sporting events, concerts, and other programs) so that
I can show support for my student's passions. This really goes a long way in establishing a student-teacher bond.

Negative Attributes
I know that I connect with many of my students. However, I always have one or two students that it is difficult to establish a teacher-
student relationship with. I have found in these situations that there either one or two two main character traits found in each student.

The first character trait that I have noticed difficulty in establishing a teacher-student relationship in revolves around the shy, loner type,
students that do not have a lot of their friends in class. I have attempted to make connections in the past by asking leading questions that
would require more than a simple one word answer to. These type of students seem to have figured out that type of approach and either
re-direct the question or find another way to answer with out using leading dialogue. I will often times initiate contact at least one per
week to try to develop some type of platform I can work from. In some cases by the end of the semester the dialogue is a little more
open, but it is no where near the rest of the class.

Research indidcates that there are several ways to reach the "shy" student and really form bonds. The following six strategies are ways
that a teacher can improve the participaiton and communication skills of a student that appears to be shy:
1. Be sensitive to the interests and feelings of the shy student.

2. Help improve the self-esteem of the shy student by focusing on his or her strengths. Acknowledge these strengths in the classroom. A personal
comment about the quality of their work can really make their day.

3. Help the shy student to set social development goals and show them how to initiate interactions with peers through role-playing techniques.

4. Interact with the shy student often if they are prone to daydream. Shy students often get so nervous about participating in class that they try to
escape by daydreaming.

5. Take the time to listen to the shy student each day and listen carefully to what he or she tells you.

6. Assign the shy student a partner to work with who is popular and engages frequently with other peers. This can provide an excellent role model
for the shy student. (Lacina-Gifford, 2001)

In the past I have utlized persistence in creating a dialogue when working with the shy personality types. This has proven not always to
be the best way. It may be time to try different approaches.

The other character trait that I have found in the past difficult to reach is the "negative leader, tough attitude, rough around the edges,
poor academic achievement" female student. The attempts at establishing some type of fundamental relationship are often thwarted early
in a conversation. I often times get a sassy response accompanied with an attempt at deflecting the conversation. Occasionally I will get
an individual that feels like my attempts at establishing a basic teacher-student relationship is picking on them.

A way to establish a relationship with this type of student would be to improve the student's self-efficacy(Margolis & McCabe, 2004). I
could create a tiered program to have the student go through in which there would be success point. Once the student reaches each level

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Teacher Student Relationships Page 2 of 2

and has success that would improve their self-efficacy(Margolis & McCabe, 2004). Through each level of success the student may break
down the attitude barriers that are put up. The tough attitude could be a facade covering a scared individual.

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https://www.msu.edu/~guntzvil/CEP883-TS%20Relationships.htm 4/7/2011