TEACHERS AND STUDENTS SEPTEMBER 10th, 2014 Sylvia Patricia Benavides González
ESTABLISHING RAPPORT One of the most important elements of a successful lesson is the relationship between the teacher and the students. If this relationship goes wrong, learning is difficult because everyone is preocupied with emotions like nervousness, mistrust, anger, or boredom.
When the relationship is sastisfactory, everyone can concentrate on the lesson, rather than their negative feelings.
The teacher in the classroom Whatever our personality, we are always performing in class, playing different roles. So whatever our personality outside the classroom, it is how we behave in the class that matters.
Students expect to see teachers behave like professionals. The way we walk into lesson matters. The way we stand in class matters. The way we dress matters. We should think about where to stand or sit in the classroom. We should not always be at the front. We should be prepared to move around when the students are working in groups, etc.
Students like it when they can see clearly that we know what we are doing. Even if we have not prepared the lesson in detail, the students should have the sense that we have thought about an appropriate lesson just for them. We need to be able to react to what happens in the lesson. Students will respect teachers who can react quickly and appropriately
RESPECTING STUDENTS If we are to have good rapport with our students, the students need to feel that we respect them. We need to show that we are interested in our students. We create rapport with our eyes, our expressions and our gestures just as much as with our mouth and ears!
It is specially important to treat all students the same, particularly when we have discipline problems.
“Do what you can, St. Agustin says, “and then pray that God will give you the power to do what you cannot.” Father, speak to me about what You want me to do and, with Your strength, I will answer. Amen (A BOOK OF PRAYERS AND MEDITATIVE THOUGHTS)