Interact Meaningfully with Every Student
“Obviously, it’s difficult to develop relationships with students if we don’t interact with them.”
Long-term impacts to student achievement can be made by creating a bond with even one teacher (Goodwin & Hubbell, 2013). But how can we make this bond? The easy answer is to interact with students in a meaningful way every day. In John Hattie’s ranking of influences of student achievement (2018) teacher relationships come in at strong 0.52, well above the influence minimum of 0.40. Since this is the case, we as educators must make an effort to reach out. Especially to quiet students, who may go a whole day without teacher interaction (Goodwin & Hubbell, 2013).
Here are some good tips on how to connect with students daily, from the article “Connections, Not Consequences” by Dr. Allen Mendler:
Give students a friendly greeting; “Nice to see you.”
Get to know who they are outside of school; “What do you like to do when you aren’t here?”
Find out what their hopes are; “Who would you spend more time with if you had more time?”
Find out what their dreams are; “I remember wanting to create something to help people. What do you want to create?”
Share your own successes and failures.
Meaningful Interaction Resources
References
Goodwin, B., & Hubble, E. R. (2013). The 12 touchstones of good teaching: a checklist for staying focused every day. ASCD, McREL International.
Hattie, J. (2018). Hattie effect size list - 256 Influences Related To Achievement . Retrieved from http://visible-learning.org/hattie-ranking-influences-effect-sizes-learning-achievement/.
Mendler, A. (2016, February 16). Connections, Not Consequences. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/connections-not-consequences-allen-mendler