How do your students treat one another in class? Do you hear gossip, rumors, or bullying? One key to reducing negative behavior towards one another is to increase empathy. Increasing empathy can be achieved when you start building relationships in the classroom.
Benefits of Building Classroom Relationships
Empathy. When students build relationships with one another they start developing empathy for each other. They start to humanize one another and can see that they are actually human and have feelings.
Understanding. Students begin to develop an understanding of what one another is going through. They might develop an understanding that a classmate is having a bad day or should be celebrated.
Behavior. Decrease petty rumors, bullying, and gossip in your classroom. Students are less likely to talk to one another in an unkind way when they have a relationship with one another. They will also stand up for one another when they witness them being mistreated.
How to Build Relationships in the Classroom
Morning meetings. Set up morning meetings. You can take a few minutes at the beginning of the day to talk to one another. Have specific questions to ask. For example on Friday have students give one positive and one thing to improve next week. They have the opportunity to talk about one good thing that happened that week and to share a goal they have for the following week.
Play games. Play get to know you games. This is an opportunity for the entire class to get to know one another. Make them silly and fun. Games are also a great way for students to have conversations with one another. Have a game day as a reward.
Family projects. Assign a family project. Have students create a project that describes their families. Show off their siblings and pets. If you know you have students with a difficult family life change your project to show off themselves. Make a collage of the things you like or words that describe you. Go online and create a word cloud that describes you.
Don’t forget to build relationships with your students. They need to know you care and your space is safe!
