Sometimes reflection can bring you full circle. I thought and thought, and what I found was what I've known all along - a simple truth that underscores everything that we do as educators and what most of us look for all of our lives - solid and meaningful relationships are the most critical things that teachers must establish before real instruction can take place. I take a lot of time preaching about the need for relationships - you may have heard me remark (at least once a week) that good teachers understand that you have to have a relationship with students before you can teach them anything!
Think for a moment about your favorite teacher and you probably can remember something that that teacher did or said that was above and beyond academics. Those teachers were able to create a drive for learning, even if the subjects were not your favorite subjects at all! I think that the power behind this is that strong teachers don't back away from opportunities to touch and connect, and this connection results in students who really, really want to learn!
What is all this relationship stuff that I'm talking about? It's simply taking the time to get to know the students that you're teaching, and getting them to know that you care about them. It's making sure that your students are more than a name in a grade book. I guarantee that once you make a meaningful connection, things will suddenly change. Test this theory out and see what happens! If necessary, start small - tell a joke, have a genuine laugh, give a sincere handshake, and see what happens!
Queen Bee
