Chapter+7+Building+Relationships

Strategies for building relationships from Mendler text:

Display a picture of yourself from when you were the same age as your students. Tell the stories about yourself at that age. This humanizes you.

Send notes by mail to students praising them for accomplishments and letting them know of concerns.

Be open to student feedback.

2 minute intervention: Each day for 10 consecutive days, spend 2 focused minutes talking with a particular student about anything but the unmotivated behavior. You can find the 2 minutes during independent class activities; by "accidentally" running into them in the cafeteria at lunch; by finding them at their locker before school; etc.

In general, always focus on the person, not the behavior. They need to know that they are more important to us than their behaviors are.

Alternative strategy: In general, always make the time to find out about students' personal lives.