The Ethic of Care
The “ethic of care” plays an essential role in educating all students. A recurring agent in ESL students’ academic success has been high expectations and caring teachers. Through “affirming relationships with their students, high expectations, and respect for students’ identity and their families”, teachers are making a significant contribution to students’ academic performance and an overall positive impact in their lives (Nieto & Bode, 2012,p 255). It is important that we, as effective and caring teachers, take time to build a positive relationship with our students.
School success and failure should be view as a combination of many factors such as “personal, cultural, familial, political, relational, and societal issues” (Nieto & Bode, 2012,p 277). As educators, we must build a positive relationship with our students in order to find out what factors put our students most at risk for academic failure. This knowledge will allow us to provide students with effective education that accurately targets their individual and collective needs.
One of the most effective ways of building a close relationship with students is by making the classroom a “learning community”. The first week of school, I work together with my students on creating our classroom rules. They take great pride in this, which leads them to foster a deeper sense of commitment to follow the classroom rules. We also collectively brainstorm a list of consequences for students that break the rules. This involvement makes students feel a sense of belonging and it’s a great foundation for building a positive teacher-student relationship.
At the beginning of the school year also make time to discuss character education and remember that modeling positive behavior in the classroom starts with you, the teacher. Pay attention to both the verbal and nonverbal cues you are sending out to your students. Let students know that you are available to speak to them about any problems or concerns they might be experiencing. This can be done by scheduling a time to privately speak to them while other students are engaged in independent work. Inform students about other resources available to them within the school like speaking to a social worker or the school psychologist.
References:
Nieto , S., & Bode , P. (2012). Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education. (6th ed.). Boston, MA : Pearson Education, Inc.
Please share some of the ideas and activities you have used in your classroom to build a positive relationship with your students.
