January, 2020
Dear RBT Community,
How well do you know your students? I mean,
really
know your students - beyond their grades, or where they like to sit in class, or what it might say on their IEP?? Let’s find out. Go grab a piece of paper. Go ahead, I’ll wait...
In the next minute, list the names of your students
in the order that you remember them
.
Now, look at each name. For each one, write something next to their name that has nothing to do with school. Maybe they have pets, or they recently went on a vacation, or they have an after school job. Whatever it is, write it down.
Here’s the last request. Place a checkmark next to each student who you’ve had a conversation with over this “non-school” thing.
Are you surprised? Shocked? Upset? Pleased? Perhaps you see trends or patterns in your list that reaffirm the fact that you’ve built positive, strong relationships with your students, or maybe you see the opposite.
Here’s the good news...it’s January and you still have a lot of time left to build those strong personal relationships with your students. In many ways this time of year, after the bustle of the holidays, when many of us are returning to the classroom after a well-deserved break, is an ideal time to take stock of the climate we’ve created in our classrooms and purposefully design activities that foster relationships. Relationships, as many of us know and can attest to, are the backbone of learning and, as James Comer states, “no significant learning occurs without a significant relationship.” Students deserve to feel welcomed and loved and known and, when that happens, a climate of safety allows for academic risks and significant achievement. Building relationships is, and always will be, the heart of teaching and we, as educators, must never lose sight of that. For a good reminder of the importance of personal relationships, watch Rita Peirson’s TEDTalk
“Every Kid Needs A Champion
," below.
Best,
Chris Olansen-Rilli
RBT Consultant
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Personal Relationship Building Resources
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Every kid needs a champion | Rita Pierson
Rita Pierson, a teacher for 40 years, once heard a colleague say, "They don't pay me to like the kids." Her response: "Kids don't learn from people they don't like.'" A rousing call to educators to believe in their students and actually connect with them on a real, human, personal level.
TedTalk
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Essential 1: Create and Maintain a Safe, Healthy, and Sustaining Learning Environment
Students need to feel safe and supported in order to learn. Without safe, healthy and sustaining learning environments, the mind can struggle to focus on content, making learning nearly impossible (Parrett and Budge 2012; Hammond 2015). Educators in high-performing, high-poverty schools have long recognized the critical importance of providing a healthy, safe, and supportive classroom and school environment (Parrett and Budge 2012).
Boston Public Schools
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The Power of Relationships in Schools
Research shows that students who feel safe and supported by adults at school are better able to learn.
Edutopia
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Expectations Messages
Just before class starts, certain teachers take advantage of being able to contact students in the hallway for expectations messages, personal relationship building, and coaching about the behaviors that will work best in class that day.
RBTeach.com
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By Christopher Pugliese and Eran Magen
Every student has a "bank" of relationships, with an "account" for every teacher the student interacts with. The balance in your relational account with a student represents the amount of goodwill that the student has toward you—or, put differently, the extent to which the student will inconvenience him- or herself to cooperate with you.
By Maurice J. Elias
Discovering your students’ answers to these questions can help you create positive conditions for learning.
Use these questions throughout the school year, followed by supportive discussions, to continue to get to know your students, build their reflection skills, and positively influence their resiliency.
- What is your contribution to the school?
- Who believes you can succeed?
- What happens in school that makes you afraid? Frustrated? Defeated?
- When do you feel challenged and supported?
- What inspires you in school?
- Who helps you bounce back from setbacks?
- Who is always happy to speak with you?
- When do you feel it’s OK to make a mistake, or show that you don’t know something or how to do something?
By Rebecca Alber
C
ommunity building in the classroom starts on day one. Try these strategies to begin forging strong relationships.
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Eight Key Teacher Traits and Behaviors
"When students are interviewed about their relationship with teachers, there is a cluster of teacher characteristics or traits and certain classes of teacher behaviors student repeatedly mention as important."
p. 392 of The Skillful Teacher, 7th Edition
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Contribute to our Newsletter!
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February's newsletter topic will be on
Cultural Proficiency
. If you have an experience or resource you would like to share on the topic, click the link below. We will feature a selection of reader-submitted material in each newsletter
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Open Enrollment Opportunities
Space is limited! Sign up today!
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New online version of our
MSTV course
Beginning in January
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Not seeing the open enrollment opportunity you're interested in?
Every summer RBT offers open enrollment courses at our offices in Acton, MA. RBT's Open Enrollment Programs are open to the public, and we accept registrations on a rolling basis. Decisions to run a course will be made based on enrollment numbers two weeks prior to the start date of the course.
Please let us know of your interested in attending a course by filling out the form linked below and we'll alert you once we release the course dates. You can find information about all of our offerings
here
.
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The Skillful Teacher Video Contest
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DEADLINE EXTENDED UNTIL MARCH 1, 2020!
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“A Skillful Teacher is made, not born.”
Nominate a skillful teacher today!
Do you know someone who is an amazing teacher,
but may need a little push to enter the contest?
Get our your video camera and offer to tape them!
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Follow us on Social Media for all the latest updates!
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