Building Relationships

Since I am just jumping into the "blog" world there are lots of topics that I would like to share about. I think I will begin with a topic which was addressed at the last TF meeting. The take home message that I got was that building relationships with the students was the most critical aspect of being able to educate students.  In thinking about some of the suggestions and tactics given by our presenter I realize that I had actually been avoiding some of the more "intimidating" students in the class. This was a surprise to me since I am used to interacting with teenagers and high school students on many different levels and have even taught/ worked in a high school before. I guess I realized that just like the students are often afraid of being rejected or even not liked, we as TF, adults, and teachers have those same fears. I left that meeting deciding to make a SPECIFIC effort to overcome my inhibitions and to reach out more to the students that I had been afraid to talk to or interact with before. 

This was last month and I am happy to say that I have actually connected with some of the students that at first seemed most unreceptive to me. Of course, the challenge is that you want to get personal with the students BUT you have to remember not to take all of the behaviors of the students personally.  As long as I keep this in mind, I have been more comfortable to step out on a limb and usually the result is positive.