Building Relationships
"The focusing questions for effective teachers must be these: Who is this person before me? What is the measure of her hope and hurt? What are his interests and areas of wonder? How does she express herself and what is her awareness of herself as a learner? What effort and potential does she bring? These are the kinds of questions we need to attend to."
-William Ayers, To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher.
As Ayers's words remind us, teaching is ultimately about seeing students--not as grade point averages or projects or products or labels--but as the intricate and mysterious human beings they are. Teaching, and its counterpart learning, is relational.
In this website, we explore the different faces of positive learning relationships in the classroom between teachers and students and between students and their peers. Why are positive relationships important in the classroom? What makes a relationship positive for learning? As teachers and future teachers, how can we create environments in our classrooms that nurture positive learning relationships of all kinds? These are some of the questions we sift through on the following pages. Our hope is that, through scholarly and not so scholarly articles, tips from real classroom educators, and other multimedia searchings, we can begin to pin down more about the ins and outs of this essential, yet often elusive, classroom component.
Why it matters...
Because the research shows that adolescents need positive relationships with peers and adults in their lives; these relationships are critical in their development (Eccles, J., et al (1993)) and oftentimes essential in providing motivation (Wentzel, K. (1998)).
For information on adolescent developmental needs, see: Eccles, J., et al (1993). "Development during adolescence: the impact of stage-environment fit on young adolescents' experiences in schools and in families." American Pyschologist, 48(2), 90-101.
Below is the link to Wentzel's article on "Social Relationships and Motivation in Middle School: The Role of Parents, Teachers, and Peers" in The Journal of Education Pyschology. Wentzel discusses student motivation and perceived relationships with parents, peers, and teachers.
| relationshipsandmotivation.pdf |
The above video was posted on YouTube by a group called Teaching Tolerance. California High School teacher John Gunderson talks about why he cares about relationships in his classroom.
Practical Applications
Below, watch a two minute clip of Love and Logic speaker Betsy Geddes, Ed. D., talk about why relationships are critical in the classroom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74sNqalNDR0
For more from the people at the Love and Logic Institute, here is a link to their webpage: http://www.loveandlogic.com/educators.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74sNqalNDR0
For more from the people at the Love and Logic Institute, here is a link to their webpage: http://www.loveandlogic.com/educators.html
Who we are
We are a team of teacher candidates in our Master's of Teaching Program at the University of Washington. We bring you this website as a potential resource for building positive student-student and student-teacher relationships in your classroom. We don't claim to be experts, just curious, enthusiastic and concerned future teachers.
