Building and Maintaining Student Relationships

I always find myself reflecting back on each month and finding things that I can do better. This month, I realized that I had not been spending enough time "talking" with my students. Yes, we talk a lot throughout each school day. But..when I say talk..I really mean connecting and chatting. Yes! Chatting with your students is important!

I talk all about it in my Monday's Moment video on my Facebook page or watch it below.

Our students deserve to know that we care, and talking with them about their interests, hobbies, home lives, friend drama, and favorite books are all apart of building strong relationships with our students. As teachers, it is essential that we create, build, and maintain a strong and inviting classroom culture. It is vital that our students feel safe, valued, and important in our classrooms and that connection has to start with YOU. 

Make eye contact with your kiddos. Say hello. Talk to them about the little things like what they ate for breakfast and what their favorite TV show is. Listen to them when they want to tell you stories, tell them jokes, compliment their outfits and hair styles, ask their opinion, tell them about your life, smile, and just TALK to them.

I found myself really slacking in this during the past month. I got a little too focused on the fact that the first half of the school year is gone and time is really running out. My little kiddos will be moving on to bigger and better things soon(I know..I still have 4 months) and growing up without me. But, time is flying by(HELLO?!? January..where did you go?) and I don't want to miss out on spending time with my students to just talk about life. 

One of the challenges that I have given myself this month is to meet with each of my students once a month and have a "Teacher Chat".  I threw together this little form to help us stay on track and hold me accountable. There are 3 major parts of our Teacher Chat. Students will be asked to tell me something good. I will either record it or ask them to write it down. Then, I will give them a compliment and let them know that I am proud of them for something that they are doing in the classroom. And lastly, I am going to draw for/with them. I am a horrible artist, but I love to draw. I thought it would be a fun way to connect with my second graders. 

So...that is my challenge for the month, and I hope that you will try it out, too! Feel free to download it, and give it a try. Let me know how it goes. Just click here to download the editable version. 

Oh..and here is a new favorite quote of mine. I think it goes perfectly with this challenge.