Getting to Know Your Students
Getting to know your students is an experience that can be fun and enjoyable.
By Elisa Jackson
In order to get to know other people, you have to relate to them in a personal way. This is particularly important when you are working with children. There are many ways to do this that can be fun and enjoyable for everyone. Here are some ways to quickly bond with the students that are in your classroom.
Bonding Activities
You can give students interest surveys, or interviewing activities to complete. You can have them list their favorite sports, books, or even type of cupcake. This is a great way to do some community building as well.
You can also learn a lot about your students by watching them interact with their classmates. By paying attention to what your students talk about with each other, you can get to know them on another level. Listen to what they are saying about sports, clothes, and other activities. In this way, you can talk to them about those activities and find things you may have in common with them. This will show them that you are not just a teacher, but a person with interests just like them.
Invest, Invest, Invest
Students also have an important life that exists outside of school. Some students have excellent home lives, and some do not. It is important to know about home lives so that you can be more understanding about situations that may come up. Maybe a student moves between their two divorced parents and forgot something at one house that they were supposed to turn in, but they are currently at the other house. Or maybe their parents work odd hours and are not easy to reach during the school day. The more you know about their home lives, the better you will be able to relate and bond with your students about many different issues they may have to deal with.
An important way you can get to know a student is by paying close attention to them. Look at their clothing, pictures they may have on their binders, or music they may listen to. You can even share your favorite things with them. While it is important to make sure that your students respect and defer to your authority, that doesn’t mean you cannot be a friend and provide a support system for your students. By relating to them, and sharing information about yourself, you can create a lasting bond. Here are some suggestions to help you get to know your students better.
Getting-to-Know-You Activities:
Students pick a name plate to decorate with their name and personalize it to fit their style.
Students complete a Back-to-School scavenger hunt that allows them to get to know you, each other, and the classroom. You can modify this hunt for different times during the school year. You can even create season-related hunts.
This is a series of activities in which students complete projects about themselves that they share with the class and teacher.
In this lesson, students place pictures of themselves that they brought from home in chronological order and draw pictures depicting the future. This will help you see where they have been and where they want to go.