Connecting with Learners

Relationships are at the heart of learning and this article certainly illustrates this. We recently held interviews for teaching positions and one of the questions was about what you would do if you realised that a child was not reaching potential in your class. This article, by Lisa Medoff, is full of fantastic ideas that are centred on improving the relationship with the child. The child the author references has ADHD but I believe the suggestions would work with most learners.

Click here for the full article.

• Ask the student to help you figure out what he needs and how you can help him. 
• Frame new strategies as experiments, not decrees.
• Teach students how to question and challenge in a manner that will get them heard.
• Rather than trying to clamp down on off-task behaviours, use them to get to know students better. 
• Share stories with students about your own struggles.
• Make deals with students about behaviours that you both want to change. 
• Try as hard as you can to limit negativity in your interactions with a challenging student.
• Have students teach you something. 
• Take a beat to stop and acknowledge that a student may have the right answer even though it is different from what you were expecting.
• If a student seems to be off-task or is having trouble getting started, don't assume he hasn't been paying attention; 
• Allow students to work just outside the classroom door.
• Be patient.