Connections:
Follow #SLOWCHATED on twitter
If someone told you
they would give you a billion dollars but you wouldn't ever be able to be
around other people again would you do it?
Absolutely not right? This is because
we are social people. We need relationships in our lives to make us happy. We have family, friends, and work pals all
who we share our lives with. Life is not
worth living if you don’t have people to create memories with. That is why connecting with people is so
important. We need to build bonds and
create relationships. We need to matter
to other people. In Tara Brown’s article
entitled 7 Strategies for Teachers to Connect with Students
Teachers have contact with so many
people. Not just students, people. The mass number of students, teachers,
parents, administrators, support staff, and para professionals we interact with
and is staggering! Every interaction we
have is a chance to connect with another human being. How do we take advantage of every opportunity
to make connections? Sometimes it might
just be a smile and a quick greeting. You
have coworkers that you have worked with for years and have no idea what they
really are about We spend whole class periods teaching a student without
recognizing they are an individual. . We walk by the same people every day without
a clue who they really are.
You
see teachers all the time who lost the connection to their students. They forgot that tying your shoe really was
the most difficult thing to do when you are five. They forgot what it felt like to be nine and
scared that they didn't know the answer when asked to go to the board and
explain a problem in front of the class.
They forgot how good it felt when you were twelve and have the class
laugh at something you said or did that may have been slightly inappropriate. They forgot how important being and looking
cool is to a teenager. When you lose the
connection with students your teaching suffers.
How can we make
connections? The first step is to
realize that people matter. Every person
you interact with students, coworkers, custodians, parents or administrators
matter. Every time you have an
interaction with a person you leave them with a feeling. The most important feeling is
validation. The validation that they exist. This can be accomplished by remembering something
about them when you see them such as asking them how their son Jon did in his baseball
game? Maybe a conversation with the custodian about what a great job they
did. It could be as simple as asking a
student what their favorite music is.
The most impactful thing
I ever read was in one of the Chicken Soup books. They talked about being the first one to
smile. Be the first one to smile and say
hello to people. You will be amazed at
the responses you get back. It seems
that people are either scared or waiting for the other person to say something
first. Validate people. Remember details about their lives. Say hello
when you walk by people in the hallway. Say hello a hundred times in a row if
you walk by one hundred students. Just
make a connection in any way you can.
Living
is connecting. The great teachers show
the students they care. The inspiring administrators
connect to their staff by listening to them and supporting them as much as
possible. Prodigious schools consist of
workers who are connected with the belief that their work benefits students. Be a positive force in your school. Make
connections with students, staff, and stakeholders. You never know the impact you will have in
someone’s life.
Readings to for improving
connections with students:
http://goo.gl/v0Crv
Follow this weeks questions on #slowchated:
Q1What do you do to make
connections with your students?
Q2 What are some ways
that you connect with parents/guardians. What benefits have you seen from it?
Q3 What are the
challenges with connecting ur content to the real world. How do you make ur
subject authentic for the students?
Q4 How does your school
create connections amongst the staff?
Q5 How does your
administration positively connect with their staff?
Q6 What role does
empathy play in connecting with people? Do students need to be taught how to
form and maintain connections?
Q7
Why do you consider social networking connecting?
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