Getting to know your students

It's #firstdayofschool time! Well, not quite. But it's never too early to start planning for next year, and it's never too late to be getting to know your students. I'm going to talk about some of the ways I engage with my students. This helps my students feel cared about and have a safe learning space which leads to higher retention rates and better academic understanding, and it helps me plan my lessons more effectively and really make a difference in my students' lives. I may go more in-depth on some of these in the future, but this is my "brief" overview to get you started.

Handshakes

Handshakes are something I've done since day one of my teaching career. Every day, every class period (even study hall and homeroom!), I greet my students at the door with a handshake. And I greet every single one of them by name every day. Even during those few weeks when I screw up all of their names and they have to correct me.

I don't do high fives or fist bumps or secret handshakes. I teach secondary students (grades 7 and up), and I want to treat them more like adults. They want to be treated more like adults, too, and I inform them of my reasoning for handshakes. Make sure to explain why - students don't always understand why we do what we do unless we explicitly tell them. And they always respect the process more with a thorough explanation, meaning everyone gets more out of it.

That being said, I do have a few exceptions. Number one exception is illness. I don't want to spread germs as school is already a life-sized petri dish. To prevent illness, I have giant bottles of hand sanitizer in several places throughout my room. Students are trained as part of classroom procedures to get hand sanitizer or wash their hands first thing upon entering the room. If another student is sick, they can either refuse a handshake or do what we call "elbows," meaning we bump elbows as a more modified high five (I actually stole that trick from the tattoo industry). This also teaches students proper hygiene and responsibility about being sick. If I am sick, I may just hold out my elbow as an indicator (followed by saying I'm sick all day long), or I might hold a sign saying I'm sick. Either way, I always still greet my students by name and welcome them to class.

Number two exception is their hands are full. You know which students I'm talking about - the ones that carry literally everything with them (and then some) all day long. They need at least two hands if not more to get from one room to the next. I don't make them try to balance everything just to shake my hand. We just do elbows. Or a nice head nod. The last exception is special ed. Some of my sped students don't like to be touched or struggle with the social aspects of a handshake. In which case, they usually just walk by, but I still always greet them by name and welcome them to class.

Handshakes are an everyday thing. Yes, it's easier to start doing it on day one, but if you don't currently have a way to greet students - every student - almost everyday, this is a great one. I know you miss that three minutes between classes to prep for the next period, but I'm a science teacher with labs and activities and all kinds of craziness. I promise you can do it! And it's so worth the few minutes you "give up" each day.

End of class downtime

This is another one you can start right away. I know as teachers, we oftentimes dread those last couple minutes or even seconds of downtime before the bell rings. Some teachers assign extra work just so that downtime doesn't happen. (DO NOT DO THIS. PLEASE. I BEG YOU.) But as a science teacher, I've really had to learn to embrace that downtime. Some classes can clean a lab in two minutes. Some classes could be there all day and it still wouldn't be clean. So it's hard to judge when to throw out the, "Stop working! Three minutes to clean your station!" Plus I do activities almost every single day. They're hard to time just right.

So instead of dreading those last few minutes, embrace them! Walk around, talk to your students. Ask them about their weekend plans. Ask about that English grammar test they're all cramming for. Ask what they're doing after school that day. Ask what's for lunch (even if you already know). Students will tell you anything, you just have to ask.

Don't hide behind your desk or yell at them to sit there and be quiet. It's impossible for them. We don't even do that during our own meetings and professional developments. Teach them how to utilize that time. Heck, challenge them to find out everyone at their table's birthday, or have a class-wide discussion about which are better: dogs or cats. Ask them what movies you should check out over the weekend or what books you should read. Even if you'll never actually take their suggestions - ask.

Get to know you bingo

This one really is better for the first day or week, but really you can do it anytime. It makes a great homeroom activity. Or a back-up lesson for when (not if, when) technology craps out on you. Or a sub lesson for when you had to go to the ER at 4 a.m. with no time, energy, or mental acuity to plan anything. Or whenever you darn well feel like it. It's never too late to get to know someone.

You can make your own bingo sheet if you want, or you can download my FREE resource from Teachers Pay Teachers! Get it here! Or just grab some inspiration from it. Give each student their own bingo sheet, and have them walk around trying to find people who match the descriptions in each bingo box. My big rule for this is that the sheet's owner can be the only one to write on it. This means they have to actually learn the name of the person who fits a particular box's description and ask how to spell their name properly, not just hand it to the other person to fill out. This is getting to know people! Yes, you can totally make it a competition for how many someone can find or how many they get in a certain amount of time, but don't forget the ultimate goal. Go to the link above for more detailed instructions if you want them, but I think you get the gist. And don't forget to participate with them!!!

Student conferences

This is probably the most time consuming one, but it is my favorite. I only started doing this last year, but I will definitely do it multiple times a year in the future.

I know there are parent-teacher conferences, and sometimes even students attend these, but I wanted more. So during a project, I had an individual conference with every. single. student. All 130 of them last year.

During a project is probably the best time to do this because there's a lot of down time on your part as students are working on the project. I gave students a paper to fill out for their conferences with questions like, "How do I stay on task during class?", "Am I respectful to my peers while they work?" "Am I respectful to my peers outside of class?" "What are my concerns about this project?" Things like that. Sometimes I just had them rank their answers on a scale from 1-6 (use an even number - it means they can't just pick the middle number), and sometimes they had to provide a description. But it involved questions about the project as well as questions about their behavior on a day-to-day basis. Sure, sometimes they'll lie right to you, but usually students are very honest, especially in a one-on-one setting.

Then the last question on the paper was always, "Write on the back anything else you would like to discuss with Mrs. Shilvock." This led to really interesting insight into my students, and allowed them to really open up if they so chose. Sometimes they just needed to rant about something. Other times, they wanted my advice on things like not being a jerk or overcoming a rumor that had spread about them. And a few just had jokes they wanted to share! But for every student who wanted to discuss more than what was on that sheet, it was a really special moment of building relationships with that student.

Logistics. Meeting with 130 students for about five minutes each was a lot. I couldn't get it all done during class. Some came in during homeroom, others after school or on their way to lunch. But I had my student list, and just went alphabetically (you can use any system you like for calling students over). I set up a small table with two chairs in a secluded part of my room. Not totally private, but just an area with little chance of other students hearing our conversation and where I can still keep an eye on everyone.

At the start and end of class, students could get questions about the project answered, but other than that, I was only to be disturbed during an emergency. (I already had a system for going to the bathroom without bothering me which worked brilliantly - I'll write about that later.) Students were encouraged to ask their tablemates if they had questions during class. Added bonus: that boosted their interpersonal skills which is always good. Then, I would call students to my table, and they brought their laptop with their project and the paper I had them fill out. We'd go over their project so I could see their progress, give them preliminary feedback, and answer questions and then go over the sheet they filled out. Some conferences only took a couple minutes, and I think my longest one was about ten minutes. I'd cross their names off the list when they finished, and called up the next person. I kept their papers in case I had something I needed to inform a counselor about, and that way students felt they could actually write down their thoughts since they weren't going to accidentally lose the paper if I gave it back. It wasn't perfect, but it was one of the most worth it things I did all year.

If you made it this far: thank you. You are my hero. And you must really care about your students which means so much!!! In closing, the logistics of all of these will look different for every classroom. But the idea of building a relationship with your student is universal, and it works universally. Students want to have a relationship with you, whether they show it or not. They want to have that one-on-one moment where they are the only one who matters to you at a given time. It makes them feel cared about. It makes them feel worth it. It makes them try. So we can definitely try these small things to help them improve not just as students but as human beings.

What do YOU try?! In what ways do you engage your students and build relationships with them? Please comment below so we can get an awesome list going for you and other teachers to try in their classrooms!