Human Connections Helping People Change Lives
Teacher Professional Development Presenter: Rocky Biasi
Address: PO Box 8281, Glenmore Park NSW 2745 Website: © 2013 www.humanconnections.com.au Email:
[email protected] 1
Human Connections Helping People Change Lives
D) Creating rapport and respect with your students. ‘Teacher – Student Relationship’ “ Positive connections between teacher and student have a huge positive impact on classroom management and student motivation.” Building rapport and connection with your students is important because: 1) When you know your students you are aware of the triggers – the things that lead them to acting out.
2) When you take the time to get to know your students you find out what they enjoy, what they like doing and what their interests are. With this information you have the power to make your lessons instantly appealing and your conversations with them stimulating.
3) When you reach out and get to know your students you show them they are valued as people. Once they learn this, their ability to take an active role in positive relationships increases. They fit in better and are less likely to get into serious trouble and less likely to spoil your lessons. In addition, your students like, trust and respect you – you have created mutual respect and with this respect you have students wanting to please you rather than upset you.
Address: PO Box 8281, Glenmore Park NSW 2745 Website: © 2013 www.humanconnections.com.au Email:
[email protected] 2
Human Connections Helping People Change Lives
Two strategies to create rapport and mutual respect between teacher and students 1) The ‘What are you into?’ (WRUIN2) survey can be used to: a) Tailor rewards to students’ interests. b) Provide reading and stimulus material – magazines, journals, books, newspaper articles etc – that relate to the students’ specific areas of interest. You could do this for break times, inducement to work, quiet reading sessions.
c) Plan interesting lessons! If you want your students engaged producing work that astounds you then you have to set tasks that actually interest them. You might choose to plan a series of lessons for the whole class around a topic that several pupils are interested in, or cover a skill such as narrative writing and encourage them to write a story about their particular subject of interest.
d) Use the WRUIN2 survey as a relationship-building tool. This enables you to strike up a conversation on a topic you know they are interested in and this is crucial with ‘hard to reach’ kids – it shows them you are interested in them as people. Being able to chat with students on their level is magical and is the short cut to having far fewer problems. Reflection time: What changes would you make to the WRUIN2 survey? How would you use it in your class and to create rapport?
Address: PO Box 8281, Glenmore Park NSW 2745 Website: © 2013 www.humanconnections.com.au Email:
[email protected] 3
Human Connections Helping People Change Lives
2) Spending time with your students outside the class environment eg. Walk and talk Technique
When walking around campus, take one student with you.
Places to go include: your school mailbox, the counsellor’s office and the copy machine.
You don’t have to talk about anything “heavy”.
You might ask, “What did you do last night?” to start the conversation.
Let the student talk. Listen and ask questions about what he likes.
Notice how the student will tell you what he needs.
Notice how the student will give you ideas on how to better “hook him” into the class.
You should see significant improvement in your ADHD students after three months or less of using this technique.
Suggestion: After each walk, jot down a couple of notes in your teacher binder. Example: Walked with Joey. He’s into ‘Sims City’ computer game. He said he doesn’t understand two of our vocabulary words. Come up with other ways / times you can use the walk and talk technique.
Address: PO Box 8281, Glenmore Park NSW 2745 Website: © 2013 www.humanconnections.com.au Email:
[email protected] 4