Building Teacher-Student Relationships During Online Learning

Building Teacher-Student Relationships During Online Learning

Our first day with students is almost here and one of the questions we're all asking ourselves is, "How do we build relationships with students while teaching online?" 

Strong teacher-student relationships are known to be instrumental to student success, and building and sustaining those relationships goes far beyond being "cool" or "liked." Strong teacher-student relationships require planning and purposeful actions, making it no different than differentiation of instruction, providing feedback or other teaching skills and strategies. 

Here are some purposeful actions we can take to foster meaningful relationships with our students while online. What would you add? 

Teacher Clarity

Fisher and Frey refer to teacher clarity as, "when learning is organized and intentional, and when the learner knows what he/she is learning, great things can happen." While at first glance this might not seem like a variable in student-teacher or student-student relationships, students need clarity to lighten the cognitive load and help manage the stressors of a new way of learning. It will not be easy to build a relationship with a frustrated student. 

Some ways to ensure clarity:
  • Establishing classroom norms
  • Clarity of learning expectations
  • Accommodating learning differences
  • Ensuring all students have access to what they need to be successful 
  • Teaching at an appropriate pace 
  • Frequently checking for student understanding and adjusting instruction accordingly 
  • Creating an organized learning environment with smooth transitions 

Introduce Yourself

Think about how you will introduce yourself to your students. Will your introduction reflect who you are and your passions? As we strive to create relationships with our students, students also need to get to know their teachers. It is reciprocal. 

When I was still in the classroom, one of my first day "assignments" required students to draw. On a whim, I modeled some examples by drawing on the board. But, I am a horrible artist. When I turned around, snickering students were unsure of how to respond and they quickly grew silent. "Look, I know I'm a horrible drawer and because it's me, it's OK to laugh. But, I want you to be comfortable stretching yourselves this year and taking risks. Now let's take 30 seconds to make fun of my drawings." 

This year, each AP created an introduction about themselves to send to our students and families. Mine combined some low-tech and some high-tech aspects, but here's the thing, you don't have to be fancy. As part of our introductions, we included a form for students and families. While compared to the Teresa and Will's introductions, mine was the most elaborate, I had the lowest form return rate by far. In essence, the tech was a distraction. Your introduction need not be anything fancy. 

Strength-based Approach

The start of every school year is challenging for students, but this is especially true for students who don't like school or haven't experienced academic success. George Couros shares these 5 Questions to Reveal Your Student's Strengths and Interests: 
  1. What are the qualities you look for in a teacher?
  2. What are you passionate about? 
  3. What is the one BIG question you have for this year? 
  4. What are your strengths and how can we utilize them? 
  5. What does success at the end of the year look like to you? 
As he suggests, you could definitely start off by sharing your own answers to these questions as a means of the students getting to know a little about you. 

Icebreakers/Connectors

A new favorite icebreaker/connector of mine is having each person share one object that means something to them. This could be a family picture, an artifact, something symbolic, etc. Pretty much anything. Have each student present his/her object and share why they chose that object. As they do so, take notes (maybe even have students take notes) and follow-up with students later. This could be done whole class or in breakout groups and you could also turn them into Kahoot! or Quizziz games later on. 

Some other ideas:
  • Two Truths, One Lie: This one might work best by giving students a day to prepare and placing them in breakout rooms. Then have one student report back the most amazing thing they learned in their breakout group.
  • Create a survey for students and share with the students that the purpose of the survey is to get to know them better. The survey may include closed or open-ended questions. After the survey is completed, construct a chart showing the class responses and share this with them. Use the results to foster positive relationships with students and follow-up on their responses, "Steve, I remember you saying you liked to watch Survivor, what is it you like about it?" Another idea is to group students in common interest groups but to not tell them what their common interest is. Challenge each group to find their common interest. 
  • Create a FlipGrid where students respond with videos/oral comments asynchronously. It is helpful to have questions or stems for students to respond to. 

Classroom Structures

As a classroom teacher, I included a shout-out time every day.  Every day students could share something positive about a classmate or something they were personally proud of accomplishing. At the beginning of the year, it was mostly me doing the shout outs, but slowly the students bought into it and we incorporated a series of different student-created claps and celebrations that ranged from the golf clap (quietly clapping) to some pretty elaborate moves. Although this only took a minute or two out of class every day, it established a positive class community. 

While many teachers may elect to use open circles, this might be too elaborate or time-consuming for some. But it can easily be modified, to a one-question do now type of activity to start every class (again you could use Kahoot! or Google Forms to collect and share responses). Another idea is to pose a sign-off question for students to answer before leaving class. These can be as lighthearted or as serious as you choose. 

Think about using a soft start for each class. Although, I'm a stickler for starting everything on time, using a soft start might be a means of helping students transition into class and engage students as they trickle in. Ideas for a soft start include watching a short video, playing a game or providing a challenge question or riddle, a magic trick, etc. 

Another idea is to have some means of checking in on students on a daily or weekly basis through a Google Form or some other means. These can easily be incorporated into your do now or exit activities and should include both academic and personal questions. Some example non-academic questions: 
  • In general, how are things outside of school? 
  • Is there anything that I can help you with? 
  • What's bothering you most right now? What's causing the most stress right now? 
  • How are you taking care of yourself right now?
  • On a scale of 1-5, 1 being really negative and 5 being extremely positive, how do you feel right now? 
By including at least one social-emotional learning experience each day for our students in every class, we will build relationships with students and ensure their personal growth. 

Other Tips

  • At the beginning of the year, to foster more meaningful relationships and provide some consistency for students, think about keeping students in the same groups for a couple of weeks. 
  • Incorporate group and partner work into your class as much as possible. 
  • In addition to providing feedback, seek student feedback. 
  • Greet each student every day (have them unmute to greet you as well). 
  • Use Friday "office hours" to schedule 1:1 time with students (rotating throughout the semester for 3-5 minute conversations)

Tasks/Important Information

Monday, August 31 and Wednesday, September 2: Teacher Work Day

Tuesday, September 1: PLC Meetings and Open House 

Introduce yourself, discuss traditional information (grading, syllabus, late work), student/family-teacher communication, screen share how your schoology course is organized. 

Students and families are concerned about what  online learning will look like, we're ready for this! Be confident but also share that we're in this together and we're all learning. 

Have this spreadsheet available to help students and families find their next class.


Wednesday, September 2: Freshman Orientation at 11am (Seminar Teachers Only) 

Thursday, September 3: Division-wide PLCs and Teacher Work Day

Friday, September 4: All Staff Meeting at 9am

Pizza! Don't forget to pick up your 14-inch, 2-topping pizza from Sal's (Wednesday-Friday)

By September 8: Complete Covid-19 Training found here


Information from Alfred
Optional activity: Zoom Management at 02:30 PM Eastern Time (US and https://k12albemarle.zoom.us/j/97211366227?pwd=dWxrYTBtcnRZK3hSWkNQa1BJNzBmUT09 Meeting ID: 972 1136 6227 Passcode: WAHS

Resources

Managing your Zoom session slide deck https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1VVqVBON__En-XKsz_S2Ptfp8YeyYRnmtidmZiAYDvd0/edit?usp=drivesdk

Managing your Zoom session notes https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ERA59tw4SK7jYR_XQbURd9MmJOgsOt2Iip3is4t8cP8/edit?usp=drivesdk

Managing your Zoom session recording https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PYXzx-uyAzfMxg0HWMxavw55vQmCFps8/view?usp=drivesdk

The breakout room session starts with a similar setup before focusing on breakout rooms.

The Zoom breakout room slide deck https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/178yBNQAhxiYXOyvaGfe-90AAM46UZSwWVCNVnv3heGM/edit?usp=drivesdk

The Zoom breakout room notes https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lnlML9mIwQ0IH6WKyVnILnBixD9Irau8lPXjt-9sUKw/edit?usp=drivesdk

The Zoom  breakout room session recording
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bgFTm0U5pJ0vbKb3uhluC8vDFj1NoEe9/view?usp=drivesdk

Birthdays

September 5: Tom Harrison

Resources




Worth Your Time

Virtual Station Rotation:  This is a template for how stations can be used in a virtual world. I love the mix of online and offline learning. Remember that the 45 minute online/synchronous portion does not need to be consecutive. Several teachers shared that they will be have a portion of the time at the beginning of the class and then reconvene for 10 minutes at the end. Of course, it does not need to be 45 minutes either. 

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