TL;DR:
- Recognition Matters: To ensure students feel valued, learn and use their names correctly from day one. Names are an important part of their identity.
- Warm Welcomes: Greet students at the door with personalized gestures, like high fives or hugs, setting a positive tone and reinforcing that they are loved.
- Encourage Expression: Create opportunities for students to share their voices and stories, building trust and community through activities like morning meetings and group discussions.
- Connect with each student on a personal level by learning about their interests and engaging in intentional conversations. These practices foster a caring and supportive classroom environment where every child can thrive socially and academically.
As I prepare to start my 29th year of teaching elementary school, I think about my students and their needs. I think about my responsibility as an educator to ensure I build a safe and caring environment where they all will thrive.
So I ponder this question: When my students walk into my classroom, what do they want?
They want to be seen.
They want to be heard.
They want to know you care.
They want to be loved.
They want to know they matter.
Then, how do we make sure that we do that?
I will share four ways to nurture relationships that so all children in your classroom know they are important and valued.
Tip #1 to Nurture Your Teacher-Student Relationships: Learn their names.
Names are so important. They are part of one’s identity, and children desire to share their identity. When a student enters your classroom, take the time to learn their name and its pronunciation. They hold value in their name and feel that importance when you take the time to honor them in that way.
These relationships are built on trust and care. They become the building blocks for a caring and supportive classroom community within a safe space for each child to thrive socially and academically. Click To TweetOn the first day of school, I always introduce myself to each student as they walk in. I ask their names and repeat them with my greeting. By the end of day one, I make sure that I have learned all their names. This carries on each day of the school year as I greet them by name in the morning.
Tip #2 to Nurture Your Teacher-Student Relationships: Greet them at the door.
When you greet students at the door, you set the tone for the day, sending them the message, “ I am loved.”
Creating a routine of giving a high five, handshake, hug, wave, or fist bump helps to build a community where students feel seen. Meeting them at their comfort level is always important. Some students may just want to give you a wave, and some may need a hug that day.
Morning greetings are also suitable for daily check-in. You can assess by seeing and listening to where they may be that day. This allows you time to be intentional throughout the day with them. You may realize that a student seems down one day, and the informal check-in helps you know who you may need to check in with multiple times during the day. Morning greetings also teach the students how important it is to recognize people and that a simple hello can set the tone for the day.
Tip #3 to Nurture Your Teacher-Student Relationships: Let them share their voices.
Children want to know that you hear their stories. They want to know you are listening. Allowing for that during the school day is important to build community and trust. Morning meetings are an excellent time to let this happen. Ask them a question where everyone can share a response or allow them to share with a partner or in groups. This creates moments where some students who typically do not share or are too shy to communicate can have that opportunity. In the beginning, those shy students may not want to, but the more they see that it is safe, the more they begin to trust, and their comfort level will grow.
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Tip #4 to Nurture Your Teacher-Student Relationships: Connect with them.
Find a way to connect with them. Create activities for the first few days where you learn about each student. Take those moments as an opportunity to take notes. Observe how they interact, who they talk to, and what they talk about. Learn their interests. Ask their parents to share things about their child to help you connect with them. Once you learn about them, create intentional moments when you spend time with them. Doing your morning greetings, morning meetings, check-ins, and other times during the day, create intentional conversations that will engage them and make them feel empowered to carry on the exchange.
These ways are the foundation for building a solid relationship with each student. These relationships are built on trust and care. They become the building blocks for a caring and supportive classroom community within a safe space for each child to thrive socially and academically.
And when that happens, a transformation in your classroom creates magic and joy like no other.
About Bridget Gengler
Bridget Gengler is a fourth grade teacher in Long Beach, California. She has taught bilingual education, general education, and GATE for the past 26 years. She’s passionate about building relationships and a strong classroom community that opens up doors of success for her students. She strives to empower all students to share their voices and their stories. Her class motto is “ You matter! You are important! You have a story to tell and we want to hear it!” She brings her love of reading and writing to the classroom in the hopes that it will promote lifelong readers and writers.
Bridget believes that self-care is essential in an educator’s life. She takes time to focus on gratitude, mindfulness and kindness during the day. She contributes this balance to her success in the classroom.
Family is number one for her! Her most precious job is being a mom to four young adults, an energetic lab puppy, and a wife to a wonderful husband. When she is not teaching, writing or reading she is creating memories with them. They love to travel, discover new restaurants, and watch professional baseball.
