There is a lot of research that tells us
that every child needs an adult in their school that cares about them.
Dr. Brokenleg talks about the need to belong as the greatest need for all
of us, students need adults that help them belong, and need to be surrounded
and supported by schools and students that respect and care for them. Dr.
Gordon Neufeld talks about attachment and how kids need to feel that their
teacher is there for them. We know this, but it has always been a
struggle in school to build a relationship with every student who comes through
the door.
One of the most interesting things we
found in the data in this project from the 2011-12 year was that students who
were in classes where the teachers were working hard to provide choice, look at
the students strengths, support them, and teach in more interactive ways - felt
cared about. When we looked at the surveys both pre- and post-, we noted
a big change in the number of students who felt they had a positive
relationship with their teacher. In the pre-survey, 107 of the 561
students disagreed or strongly disagreed that they had a good relationship with
their teacher. That is 19%. Nineteen percent of the students said
they did not have a good relationship with their teacher. In the
post-survey only 34 students said they did not have a good relationship (6%).
That is a big difference.
There were a number of things the
teachers did explicitly to build relationships, especially with their students
at risk.
• Some used the "2 x 10"
strategy, where the teacher spends 2 minutes of uninterrupted class time with a
student they were concerned about for 10 consecutive classes. "I
felt like I had to earn her trust, so I spent time early in the term trying to
connect with her. I tried the 2 x 10 strategy, which I felt was very
effective. I took extra time with her when she asked for help. As a
result she seemed to ask for help more often and responded positively when it
was provided." (gr 12)
• Some teachers
greeted the student each day and talked informally with them. "When
he first came into the classroom he had his head down, his hat down, and a big
cloud around him. When I would say hello in the morning he would just nod
and go to the back of the class with his buddies, or he would proceed to swear,
fight with his friends... in a joking way but still be quite aggressive... Over
the course of the first month, I did the meet and greet, and every day when he
walked in the classroom I would say "hello, how are you?" and ask him
one or two things about his day. And it started off with grunts and
groans and very little acknowledgement. By the end of September, he would
at least say 'Hello'. In October I learned a strategy called "2 x
10" where you spend 2 minutes 10 consecutive classes... I think that was a
bit of a turning point. ... He started to put his head up, started to
smile a bit more... and was becoming more engaged." (gr. 10)
• Some teachers
found out what the students passion / interest was and then went out of their
way to learn about it so they could converse about it, and in some cases bring
it into the course material. Sometimes it was an interest like
"zoombies" or a computer games. In one case it was the teacher
taking an interest in the students stories of her culture. The student
felt listened to and acknowledged by the teacher.
These were some of the explicit efforts
on the part of the teacher to get to know their student and help them feel part
of the classroom culture. However, other factors seemed to come forward
in both teacher and student comments. Positive relationships seemed to
grow out building a culture where strengths were honoured and choice was given.
Teachers and students were regularly having discussions about work ...
ways to differentiate, ideas on how to represent their knowledge, how much was
needed to show their understanding. Some students felt better about school,
their classroom community and their teacher when they were seen as having
something to offer to others - their artistic talent, their verbal abilities,
their interests in technology, acting skills, or their abilities to be
creative. Some students began to take risks because the teacher was building
safe conditions in the classroom.
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