Building & Managing Relationships

Building relationships with students & colleagues is essential to a school finding success in this storm of standardized testing.  Many times we do not take time to in invest in the relationships with others, because we feel that other things are more important.  Some believe that the subject content is the most important part of the school day.  Others may feel that intervention time, or another allotted amount of time is the most important.  I am not questioning whether these times throughout our day are important, because they are.  However the time you take each day to build relationships with your students is & should be the most important time of your day.

It takes less time to let a student know how much they mean to you then it does to teach your content material.  A simple handshake, pat on the shoulder, a word of encouragement goes along way in building relationships with your students.  Our students want to get to know us not just as their teachers, but as individual outside the classroom.  They want to know that you are real with them & not just playing teacher when you are in the classroom.  By building relationships with our students daily, we will not have to worry about the assessments being passed down by the powers that be.  Students will learn from those that they have developed relationships with, & exceed every expectation or assessment that comes before them.

We must also develop those same relationship with our colleagues.  If we all band together & work together as a team, student achievement will increase.  Educators are more willing to share their ideas & failures with those that they have an established relationship with.  Being able to go talk to other educators, to work through challenges together, & trusting their advice is invaluable.  I have been blessed to have formed some great relationships with colleagues both near & far.

Establishing those relationships are only the beginning.  They must be build with trust & acceptance for our differences.  Building relationships in your school climate & beyond is what will unlock the hidden door for student success.  These relationships must also be maintained & managed much like a garden.  If we never visit the seeds that we have sewn, how will we know when our garden needs tending?  We must work to keep our relationships ever growing & expanding.  Unfortunately, as any gardener knows, you must pull some weeds, prune some limbs, & even remove some relationships that have not produced positive outcomes.  But with removing those relationships, we now have more room in our garden to build new, positive, & exciting relationships that we can plant the seeds for!  Building & maintaining relationships is hard work, & they are not created or managed on their own.  However, putting the time & energy into your relationships, you will reap rewards that make all the work well worth it!