Teacher to Student Interactions:
"All students have the right to a safe physical and emotional environment" (NSW DEC 2014, pg. 24)
It is important to understand that as teachers we are legally required to ensure students’ safety and wellbeing as stated in the Departments Protecting and Supporting Young Peoples Policy (NSW DEC 2011). This requires teachers to create a school environment that is safe, prevents harm to students and supports those who have been in situations of distress (NSW DEC 2011).
It is important to understand that as teachers we are legally required to ensure students’ safety and wellbeing as stated in the Departments Protecting and Supporting Young Peoples Policy (NSW DEC 2011). This requires teachers to create a school environment that is safe, prevents harm to students and supports those who have been in situations of distress (NSW DEC 2011).
Tips for creating professional teacher-student relationships
- Get to know your students, their interests and hobbies outside of school. This will help to create a positive teacher student relationship that is genuine and based on respect.
- If an event arises in which you will interact with a student in an informal setting such as sports events, mentoring or using informal communication systems for educational purposes (such as a class blog), it is important to gain parent consent. Clear professional boundaries should always be set in these situations.
- Be aware of cultural norms that may be interpreted differently. For example, eye contact in some cultures can be seen as a form of intimidation. Be aware and accepting of such cultural differences.
- In order to make sure all students feel fairly treated, praise and recognise students equally when appropriate.
- Only use physical contact that is appropriate such as shaking hands or a pat on the back. For younger students, a hug is appropriate if they are feeling distressed and seeking comfort.
- Be aware and alert to students social cues. This will help to assist you understand their level of comfort and confidence when participating across all Key Learning Areas. For example some students may not feel comfortable demonstrating a dance move in front of the class for Personal Development (NSW DEC 2014).
Areas of Conflict to Avoid
- If possible, try to avoid teaching a student who you already have a personal connection to. E.g. family members or family friends. If this situation arises, it is important to report this to a supervisor or your principal in order to avoid a conflict of interest. When decisions involving family members or close family friends, it important to make sure another member of staff makes or has input into significant decisions in order to maintain a fair and objective outlook.
- Teachers should always conduct conversations with students that are of a professional nature. The boundaries of a professional teacher student relationship will be breached if you have contact with a student via email, text messages, written messages, phone conversations or any type of electronic text.
- Personal social networking sites should have the highest privacy settings. It is important that teachers DO NOT accept or invite students on sites such as Facebook in order to maintain a professional relationship between teacher and student.
- Conversations between teacher and student should be kept professional. A teacher should not disclose personal information, inappropriate language or conversations of an intimate nature (NSW DEC 2014).
Role of positive teacher-student interactions
The teacher student relationship plays a major role in developing student engagement and motivation within the classroom environment. It is therefore important to create an environment that is supportive and encourages students to achieve their best across all areas of development (Liberante 2012). This provides a level of professionalism that presents teachers as a role model to students, as someone they can trust, feel safe around and respect. This provides students with a safe environment which positively influences their social, academic and personal development (NSW DEC 2014).
For further knowledge and advice on how to develop positive teacher-student relationships and how to deal with behaviour issues in the classroom, follow the link to “Building Positive Relationships’ (Campbell 2014).
http://www.education.com/reference/article/building-positive-relationships-students/
Liberante (2012) provides an interesting article which looks at the significance of developing a positive teacher-student relationship and the benefits it has for students. Follow the link below to take you to her article.
http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=jseem
Educational Blogs are a great way to keep up to date with new ideas and provide inspiration to your classroom. Dabbs (2012) has written a fantastic blog for new teachers to help build strong teacher-student relationships in the classroom. To visit her blog follow the link below.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/new-teacher-building-relationships-lisa-dabbs
For further knowledge and advice on how to develop positive teacher-student relationships and how to deal with behaviour issues in the classroom, follow the link to “Building Positive Relationships’ (Campbell 2014).
http://www.education.com/reference/article/building-positive-relationships-students/
Liberante (2012) provides an interesting article which looks at the significance of developing a positive teacher-student relationship and the benefits it has for students. Follow the link below to take you to her article.
http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=jseem
Educational Blogs are a great way to keep up to date with new ideas and provide inspiration to your classroom. Dabbs (2012) has written a fantastic blog for new teachers to help build strong teacher-student relationships in the classroom. To visit her blog follow the link below.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/new-teacher-building-relationships-lisa-dabbs