HOW TO BUILD RAPPORT WITH THE STUDENTS?

Rapport is nothing more than a connection you make with your students based on their positive feelings for you. When they like you and trust you, and when you in turn like and believe in them, you’ll form a bond that makes classroom management a lot easier. 

Every teacher aims to establish a harmonious relationship with his or her students. Building rapport with the students is a work that is sometimes overlooked and undervalued by some teachers. This does not happen in just a snap of a finger. Doing such actually takes time and a lot of practice.

Indeed, building rapport with students is a process. It often takes weeks and months to establish a healthy student-teacher relationship, and such action can elevate the teaching-learning process that is taking place inside the classroom. Who wouldn’t want to end the school year with an effective and harmonious relationship with the students?

Here are the steps on how to effectively build such positive connection and relationship with the students.

1.   Never forget to smile genuinely.

In this way, students will be able to realize that the teacher in front of them is someone who is willing to connect with them.

2. Establish procedures and expectations on day one and enforce them consistently throughout the year. 

This would let the students know that you are serious in implementing the rules throughout the whole school year. 

3. Make time for non-academic discourse. 

With this step, you would be able to look into the other personalities of the students as you evade for a moment from the academic discussions.

4.   Tear down walls.

Some of the teachers have a hard time building rapport with the students, for they sometimes reprimand immediately the students who keep on misbehaving in the class. They show frustration, they scold, they lecture, and in so doing they erect a giant wall between themselves and their students. Indeed, building rapport is about tearing down walls, and some of which are put up by your students before you even meet them.

This process must be followed accordingly to draw your students to you and to build a genuine rapport. Such is indeed not an easy task for it takes patience, time, and effort to build this positive connection with the students. Building rapport with the students is truly beneficial not just for the teachers but also for the students since this is tantamount to creating positive emotional contexts for enhancing teaching and learning.