Building relationships is one of the most valuable tools a teacher can have. When students feel like they have a relationship with the person teaching them, they are more likely to learn from them. Getting to know your student shouldn’t stop with what their interests are but should extend further into their home lives, cultures, and families. I will do things like having a new spotlight student every week to learn more about my students. This allows students the opportunity to share with the class all about their interests, families, birthplace, and spoken languages. This will teach me what I need to know about my students and connect them to other students in the classroom.

For students to feel welcome, they must see themselves in the classroom. I will have books that reflect my students' race, culture, and home lives. I will allow my students ample opportunities to write and speak about their race, culture, and home lives. Another way I will make my students feel welcome is by inviting family members or guardians to come and read to the class. During my student teaching placement, we had a student whose family moved to Michigan from Brazil at the beginning of the school year. His mother came in and read us a book written by a famous Brazilian author that was translated into English. She then taught the students some words in Portuguese. These words included greetings and goodbyes, and the class used them frequently in our morning meeting and the goodbye circle. 

Building relationships with students' families and persons at home is just as crucial as building those relationships with students. Educators and parents must collaborate to ensure their students achieve their highest educational potential. I built relationships with my parents by sending them a letter informing them of who I was and what I would do in their student’s classroom at the beginning of my student-teaching semester. I sent emails to parents informing them of any time I was concerned with their student’s performance in school and anything positive I noticed from their students. You must send home positive emails to parents because relationships are hard to build if all parents receive is negative news. In my future classroom, I will send home letters that are translated into the language students speak at home because parents who are informed are involved parents. 

Student's writing sample about their perfect spring break.

Get to know me letter