How To Build Better Student-Teacher Relationships

Kenneth Soares
August 31, 2022
2 min read

The foundation of any good relationship is a mutual understanding between all parties of the relationship and an attitude of putting efforts into maintaining and improving it. It’s no different when it comes to student-teacher relationships. However, this somewhat challenging task becomes all the more difficult when you throw in the factor of having several kids in your class and having to to foster a healthy dynamic with each and every one of them. Here are a few ways you can try working on building better relationships with your students.

1. Making time

In order to foster a good relationship with anyone, the most important thing is to have the time to put in the effort into the task. Now, being a teacher isn’t easy. You’ve got a lot of work cut out for you when, alongside teaching, you have to manage attendance, scheduling, grading assignments… the list is endless. However, if you work smart rather than hard, you might just be able to free up enough time to help you work better and pay more attention to your students individually. Apps like Classcard help with all these tasks and much more. You can make use of the right technology to make your work quicker, smarter, more efficient and above all, so much easier for you.

2. Communication

Communication is the hallmark of every healthy relationship and so it is with teachers and students. As a teacher, you must do your best to lend an ear to your students regarding their life in the classroom. Whether it’s their coursework, grievances or opinions, you must listen to what they say and respond appropriately. In this way, you are encouraging them to voice what they feel and be more expressive. This is good for their self-esteem as well as for the classroom environment as it goes a long way in bridging the gap between students and teachers. You might learn an interesting thing or two about communication here.

3. Understanding

Understanding your students is the bedrock to building a good relationship with them. It’s an understandably arduous ask for a teacher to understand the needs of the several students under their care. However through appropriate time management and communication, it is certainly achievable. The key to understanding your students lies in frequently making little efforts rather than trying to occasionally make a massive change. Having a few minutes set aside from everyday lessons to hear them voice themselves would be a great place to start. This makes them see you as an approachable person which in turn makes communication a lot easier and clearer.  

4. Feedback

Continuous personal feedback ensures that you and your students are in constant contact about their needs, progress and growth. You can put forth this feedback in little notes while handing back assignments or even better, in person. In this way, you can maintain a constant rapport with your students. Moreover, this shows them that you are taking an active interest in their development which, in turn, will make them more open to your feedback; it’s the beginning of a great cycle!

At the end of the day, all you need to build a better relationship with your students is to be honest and establish trust and respect. Once you get to that point, everything is smooth sailing. You got this in the bag, good luck! :D Thank you for reading. If you liked this post, spare a few minutes to check out Classcard. Cheers!

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Pedagogy
Kenneth Soares
Singer songwriter.
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