Lesson 4

What does it mean to be relational as a teacher? How will you interact with your students to accomplish this?

Being relational means finding ways to interact and connect with your students.  Part of this entails letting down your guard and letting them see the less formal/structured teacher side.  Taking an interest in their music, the things they are reading, the movies they watch, the games they play, their extra-curricular activities - all these things contribute to being relational.  Keeping a balance between friend and teacher can be tricky and it is crucial to always remember you are the teacher first and must act as such at all times but you can do this while still connecting with them as a friend.  I unfortunately worked with a teacher who forgot she was a teacher and ended up becoming intimately involved with a student the year following the time I was in her classroom.  She was young and new to teaching. There were times in the classroom that you could tell that she was inexperienced and she would banter with her kids as if she was one of them - forgetting to maintain the professional boundary.  I did what I could as a parapro to model appropriate behavior with her but unfortunately did not have a significant enough impact. (I was a parapro for a special needs student that had her class for an hour each day). On the flip side another teacher I had opportunity to observe had what I would call a great example of being relational.  She was friend with her students but also stayed in the boundaries of being a teacher and adult.  She would laugh and joke with her students and was able to motivate them (including my own difficult child) to learn and study.  Her students loved her and you could tell she loved them as well.

Being a friend to a student creates a bond of trust but it is important that the bond still have appropriate boundaries because of the inherent nature of the teacher-student arrangement.  As a teacher I expect to joke and laugh with my students, take moments to have fun, discuss current events and entertainment and even listen to their music (and mine!) during the day when appropriate.  But I also expect to be firm when required and direct the days’ events to continue achieving the educational goals set together and by the standards.  I expect to treat them all as my children.  As a mother I think I’ve done a fairly good job at keeping the balance of friend and “authority” and expect to carry that over into the classroom.