The academic schedule’s cyclical nature offers teachers a chance to hit the restart button at the beginning of each school year. To prepare, teachers take on a number of tasks, from decorating their classrooms to devising new lesson plans. But the real work happens when students show up.
From the very first day of school, teachers set the tone for the rest of the year. What should it look like?
We asked readers via our social media channels: What are the best strategies to start the school year strong? We offered three choices—form relationships, set class norms, and establish a routine—and also invited respondents to share their own best practices.
“Forming relationships” received the most votes: 45% of the 527 respondents to EdWeek’s (unscientific) social media survey chose that answer.
Some survey respondents offered comments that further validated their responses, including the following:
Talk to your kids! Listen to your kids! Get comfortable! (This is my 32nd year.)
Get to know your kids! Smile, laugh, and ask them questions! They want to know you care about them, not just what you’re teaching.
Trust, consistency, and relationship-building will be your safety net on tough days with kids!
The call to build strong relationships with students isn’t just feel-good advice. Research shows that effective student-teacher relationships are central to combating some of the biggest challenges that today’s teachers confront, such as chronic absenteeism, disciplinary issues, and general student disengagement.
Students learn better when they have strong relationships with their teachers
Michael C. Reichert, a child psychologist and the executive director at the Center for the Study of Boys’ and Girls’ Lives at the University of Pennsylvania, has spent the bulk of his professional career studying how students learn. And he’s concluded that all students are relational learners; that is, they learn best when they have a positive relationship with their teachers.
Boys, in particular, thrive in the classroom when they experience positive student-teacher relationships, noted Reichert, whose research on the subject involved interviewing thousands of adolescent male students and their teachers across six countries.
Strong student-teacher relationships strengthen students’ feelings of connection to school overall. And when students feel connected to school, they’re more likely to show up regularly, perform well academically, and be less inclined to misbehave, according to a growing body of evidence.
Strategies that build rapport with students
Building positive student-teacher relationships may seem daunting, especially as data show that classroom misbehavior, absenteeism, and a lack of engagement have, in many instances, hit all-time highs in recent years. But setting a positive tone and demonstrating openness to building rapport with students from the onset of the school year can help teachers form these valuable connections.
Teachers can start with these five evidence-based strategies:
- Inquire about your students’ interests outside of the classroom.
- Share your own vulnerabilities as a learner with students.
- Set and maintain clear and high standards of classroom conduct and academic work—and offer assurance that students can achieve them.
- Respond to uncooperative behavior with emotional restraint and civility.
- Make yourself available to students and their families outside of classroom time.
