Positive Teacher-Student Relationships
Importance
Having a positive relationship with your student is crucial for the implementation of interventions. When a student feels they are understood, respected, and supported by their teacher, they are more likely to engage in learning and respond to interventions. Additionally, understanding each student’s strengths, challenges, and needs will allow for more personalized and successful interventions.
Evaluation
To evaluate your relationship with your student, consider the following:
- Consider their behavior, how they follow classroom rules, and their language toward you.
- Does the student seek your guidance?
- Do you treat the student fairly compared to classmates?
- Does the student speak to you about their hobbies and interests?
- Do you provide frequent encouragement and praise to the student?
It is often difficult to evaluate your own relationship with students, especially those who you may have concerns about. It may be helpful to have another staff member observe your class or evaluate you on the questions above. An unbiased observer can help you see areas for improvement. The person you are consulting may want to utilize the behavioral consultation page.
Tips for Improving Teacher-Student Relationships (See Examples Below)
- Show genuine interest: Learn about your student’s interests and hobbies beyond the classroom.
- Be approachable and non-judgmental: Approach problems with curiosity and avoid directive or instructive comments. This helps the student know they can trust you with their concerns.
- Listen and validate their feelings: Use active listening skills. This will help students feel like their thoughts and feelings matter.
- Increase student involvement: Involve the student in decision-making opportunities such as class rules and activities to promote a sense of responsibility and connection.
- Make positive phone calls home: Identify any positive behavior to call home about. This will help to the student and family know you care about the student.
- Greet and provide praise often: Interventions such as Praise and Greetings are good interventions to start with if you would like to work on improving your relationship with the student.
- Reflect: Regularly take time to reflect on your interactions with the student and identify areas for improvement.
| Example | Examples of Positive Teacher-Student Relationship | Non Examples |
| Show genuine interest | Mr. Moor regularly checks in with a student who recently joined the soccer team, asking how practice and games are going. Their relationship has quickly improved as Mr. Moor shows interest in the student’s life beyond academics. | Mr. Moor knows that his student recently joined the soccer team but has never thought to asks her about it, even though he is a former player. This is a missed opportunity to form a connection about a shared interest. |
| Be approachable and non-judgmental | Mrs. Smith makes sure to use all-inclusive language in her classroom. (e.g., using preferred pronouns, saying “winter break” instead of “Christmas beak”, using “caregiver/guardian” rather than “mom/dad”). Her students often say she is a teacher they can go to if they need support. . | Mrs. Smith commented that her student’s parents must be proud of her for getting good grades. The student responded, “I live with my grandma”. |
| Listen and validate their feelings | Mr. Brown has noticed a student hasn’t been turning in her homework lately. He checks in with the student, shares with her his concern and asks if everything has been ok. When the student shares that she has been feeling overwhelmed with everything going on-schoolwork, extracurriculars, and stuff at home, he listens and validates her feelings. (e.g., “It makes sense that you’re feeling overwhelmed with so much going on. It’s completely okay to feel like that sometimes. I want you to know that it’s okay to ask for help.”) | Mr. Reed has noticed a student hasn’t been turning in her homework. When he gets to her desk, he notices she once again doesn’t have the assignment. He comments to her “you really need to be doing your homework because you are getting a D in my class right now”. |
| Increase student involvement | At the beginning of the year Ms. Ward does an activity with her students where she has them help come up with the classroom expectations. Throughout the year, she seeks their feedback on certain activities and has them reflect often on their experience in her classroom. | Ms. Ward rarely asks for student input and finds herself speaking for 20 minutes at a time without pausing for questions or discussion. |
| Make positive phone calls home | Mr. Cole has been wanting to improve his relationship with Jackson. He has been observing Jackson in class and noting any positive behaviors that he can praise to when he makes a phone call home to his parents. (e.g., Jackson always offers to help out in class, he is also responsible with supplies) | Mr. Cole only calls home when he has concerns about Jackson. |
| Greet and provide praise often | When students enter Mr. Jacob’s classroom they are greeted by the door. Once they start the warmup, he walks around praising students who have gotten started. During this time, he also does personalized check-ins with students. | When his class is behaving well, Mr. Jacob sits behind his desk and does not interact with his students. |
| Reflect | At the end of the quarter, Mrs. White has her students complete an end of the quarter reflection. She encourages students to be honest and to reflect on their experiences in her classroom. She notices that one of her students has said they don’t feel connected to anyone. She makes it a priority to try to get to know that student better by checking in with them and getting to know more about their interests. | Mrs. White has noticed that Liam might be having trouble in his classroom. But she thinks Liam would reach out if there truly was a problem. |
[AP1]Not sure if this is better, but I don’t know if I love wording negative teacher relationship