by Rachel Wells

One of the best things you can do to help your students achieve their goals, and create a healthy classroom environment, is to build relationships with them. Having positive relationships with students helps them develop both socially and academically. Strong relationships also lead to better classroom behavior and morale.

Check out these 4 ways to build positive relationship with your students.

Spend 1-On-1 Time with Each Student

Individual conversations give students an opportunity to have their teacher’s full attention. Ask your students about their families, their extracurricular interests, and about how they are feeling. Simple comments like asking about a band or sports team on a student’s t-shirt can open the door to a fun conversation and building a strong relationship. Maybe you find out you have something in common, or maybe you just get to learn about something they are interested in that you haven’t heard of before. By showing that you respect their individual interests you can often build strong connections with even the most hard-to-reach students.

Let Your Students Get To Know You

Give your students opportunities to get to know you as a person. Whether you let them interview you, or share your own stories in conversation, it’s important that they see you as a real person on top of being their teacher. Students often love to hear funny stories about former students you had, about your own school struggles, or about the time in your life when you were their age.

Have Fun Together

Be sure to maintain a sense of humor in your classroom, and make time to have fun together. A simple brain break or game in between activities can go a long way in building classroom morale and close relationships. Students need to laugh, and it is possible to have fun together while still maintaining strong classroom management. Fun and learning do not need to be mutually exclusive!

Celebrate Their Successes

Acknowledge when your students achieve their goals – no matter how big or small. Make it a goal for yourself to send positive notes home to two or three of your student’s parents each week. If a student’s teacher thinks they’re helpful, kind, or hardworking – they may start to really believe it themselves!