Cultivating Healthy Relationships With Parents And Students
“Teachers who put relationships first don’t just have students for one year; they have students who view them as ‘their’ teacher for life.”- Educator Justin Tarte
When teachers develop a positive relationship with both students and their parents it can have a substantial and long lasting impact on a student's academic performance as well as their social-emotional development.
Some of the problems first-year and newer teachers face with their relationship with students and their parents are: they often find that students are disrespectful and will refuse to listen to them unless they contact an administrator, and out of fear they will be hostile and uncooperative they often do not contact parents. Making it a priority to develop positive relationships with students and their parents can be a solution to these problems. Having good relationships with your students can help to reduce classroom disruptions and distractions, and regular interactions with parents are a great way to gain their trust and support.
So how can new teachers build a positive relationship with their students?
These are a few tips to help:
Create a safe and nurturing classroom environment.
Clearly communicate your expectations of them.
Be sure your students feel valued and respected by you and their peers.
Interact with students regularly.
Give positive feedback to students when students reach their academic and/or behavioral goals.
When a positive relationship between teacher and students is cultivated, students feel emotional safety to take academic risks, students are more motivated academically and have higher achievement rates, students feel like a person, not a test score or as if they are just your job, and respect and trust can be built in your classroom.
To help build a positive relationship with parents, teachers can:
Communicate with parents early and regularly.
Listen without judgment.
Highlight good news.
Have fair, clear, and consistent expectations.
Accept and reflect on parent feedback.
It’s important for teachers to build a positive relationship with parents because you can then create a team for the student's academic success, build trust with the parents to help understand a student's academic needs, build a supportive bond between school and family, and show the student that both the teacher and parent have a healthy relationship based on their best interest.
The benefits of cultivating positive relationships with students and parents are extensive. Therefore, priority should be given to building and cultivating these relationships.