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Teacher-Student Relationship Building | About the Author
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About the Author
You can say that my educational journey began at birth. My parents were educators and instilled in me at a young age that learning and experiencing new things was the greatest gift one could give oneself. I had each of my parents as a teacher, and their greatest talent was their ability to build authentic relationships with their students. They empowered them by showing their students that they could succeed in class with hard work and determination. What we call today is building student academic grit or self-efficacy. Because of this, my parents made teaching look easy, so I naively followed in their footsteps and became a teacher.
I have been in education for twenty-three years, and in that time, I have been a middle school and high school teacher, a high school curriculum reform coordinator, a middle and high school vice principal, and a high school principal. I didn’t know it then, but my TPACK journey started when I began teaching at Pittsburg High School in Pittsburg, California. Because my friend, who was teaching there at the time, told the principal I had a teaching credential, I was hired on the spot. The principal explained they needed a credentialed teacher because their ninth-grade Career Development teacher had abruptly quit for “unexplained” reasons. I quickly learned that teaching in a socio-economically diverse urban school was difficult. Successfully teaching my students required a skillset beyond my content knowledge and preparation. I remembered what had made my parents so successful as teachers was their ability to connect with their students. However, building relationships with students that lived in a community riddled with poverty, violence, and drugs well outside my cultural lens and lived experiences was hard. However, I endeavored to try to know my students and build strong, authentic relationships with them to teach them that they could achieve despite outside factors beyond their control.
As an administrator and instructional teacher coach, I have always tried to impress on teachers that teacher-student relationship-building is essential beyond instructional strategies and curriculum design, or what Zaretta Hammond (2015) refers to as creating “learning partnerships.” Post-pandemic, the need for Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum and Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) has never been more necessary. Although I have tried to stay on top of current methodologies aligned with the goals and objectives of my district, such as SEL, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and CRT, I would rank my understanding of them as very surface level. Touro’s GSOE Innovative Learning program has provided me with a deeper understanding of new best practices and assistive technology that has enhanced my skill set as an academic coach for my teachers and my understanding of how teacher-student relationships impact student engagement and motivation.
I have been in education for twenty-three years, and in that time, I have been a middle school and high school teacher, a high school curriculum reform coordinator, a middle and high school vice principal, and a high school principal. I didn’t know it then, but my TPACK journey started when I began teaching at Pittsburg High School in Pittsburg, California. Because my friend, who was teaching there at the time, told the principal I had a teaching credential, I was hired on the spot. The principal explained they needed a credentialed teacher because their ninth-grade Career Development teacher had abruptly quit for “unexplained” reasons. I quickly learned that teaching in a socio-economically diverse urban school was difficult. Successfully teaching my students required a skillset beyond my content knowledge and preparation. I remembered what had made my parents so successful as teachers was their ability to connect with their students. However, building relationships with students that lived in a community riddled with poverty, violence, and drugs well outside my cultural lens and lived experiences was hard. However, I endeavored to try to know my students and build strong, authentic relationships with them to teach them that they could achieve despite outside factors beyond their control.
As an administrator and instructional teacher coach, I have always tried to impress on teachers that teacher-student relationship-building is essential beyond instructional strategies and curriculum design, or what Zaretta Hammond (2015) refers to as creating “learning partnerships.” Post-pandemic, the need for Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum and Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) has never been more necessary. Although I have tried to stay on top of current methodologies aligned with the goals and objectives of my district, such as SEL, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and CRT, I would rank my understanding of them as very surface level. Touro’s GSOE Innovative Learning program has provided me with a deeper understanding of new best practices and assistive technology that has enhanced my skill set as an academic coach for my teachers and my understanding of how teacher-student relationships impact student engagement and motivation.
Reflections on your Journey
My GSOE Innovative Learning experience has been a gratifying and empowering experience for me. Through researching if a new digital tool could augment my high school’ established mentoring program’s ability to develop authentic teacher-student relationships (TSRs), I feel I have increased my overall knowledge of Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) instructional practices. During our Innovative course work, I read an article by Christopher A. Kubic (2021) titled "Recalibrating Warmth and Demandingness in the COVID Era." This article essentially started my action research on TSRs. Kubic asserts that school leaders should take on the teacher’s role as a warm demander and assist and support their teachers in recalibrating their instructional practices post-COVID.
Through my TSR building action research, I began to see that my focus needs to be on reassuring our teachers that it is not only ok to take a step back instructionally, but necessary due to the stress the pandemic has had on us all. I began to see that our teachers needed the time and capacity to adjust their instruction and curriculum to focus on building trusting relationships with their students from transitioning from virtual to in-person learning. In addition, I have learned that once TSRs are firmly established, more must be done to support teachers to help their students achieve their “Zone of Proximal Development” (ZPD). Zaretta Hammond defines ZPD as “the difference between what a learner can do without help and what they can do with help (Hammond, p.160).” In conclusion, my Innovative Learning journey and research have illustrated the positive impact technology can have on providing teachers the time and capacity to build authentic relationships; however, more work still needs to be done using TSRs to improve student engagement and motivation because no real learning can be accomplished without genuine relationships.
TPACK Reflection:
Understanding the elements of TPACK and the 21st Century Four C’s has helped me better understand how embracing new technology can assist teachers in enhancing their pedagogy and content development. My research on building successful teacher-student relationships (TSRs) has helped me to understand that building strong teacher-student connections is essential in increasing student motivation and engagement. Positive TSRs have been shown to lower student stress, thus enabling teachers to push students to think critically and problem-solve in a safe environment where failure is perceived as a natural part of the learning process. However, building successful TSRs can be extremely difficult for some teachers, especially teachers trying to connect with students outside their cultural lens. TSRs can improve pedagogy by empowering teachers to use their students’ interests and backgrounds to inform lesson design and content delivery. TPACK specifically applies to my research on building TSRs in that I used a new digital reflective tool to improve teacher-student connections in my school’s established mentoring program. Although the new tool did provide participating teachers the time and capacity to better connect with struggling students, the TPACK “sweet spot” can only be achieved when teachers leverage these positive relationships to re-engage students in the learning process.
Through my TSR building action research, I began to see that my focus needs to be on reassuring our teachers that it is not only ok to take a step back instructionally, but necessary due to the stress the pandemic has had on us all. I began to see that our teachers needed the time and capacity to adjust their instruction and curriculum to focus on building trusting relationships with their students from transitioning from virtual to in-person learning. In addition, I have learned that once TSRs are firmly established, more must be done to support teachers to help their students achieve their “Zone of Proximal Development” (ZPD). Zaretta Hammond defines ZPD as “the difference between what a learner can do without help and what they can do with help (Hammond, p.160).” In conclusion, my Innovative Learning journey and research have illustrated the positive impact technology can have on providing teachers the time and capacity to build authentic relationships; however, more work still needs to be done using TSRs to improve student engagement and motivation because no real learning can be accomplished without genuine relationships.
TPACK Reflection:
Understanding the elements of TPACK and the 21st Century Four C’s has helped me better understand how embracing new technology can assist teachers in enhancing their pedagogy and content development. My research on building successful teacher-student relationships (TSRs) has helped me to understand that building strong teacher-student connections is essential in increasing student motivation and engagement. Positive TSRs have been shown to lower student stress, thus enabling teachers to push students to think critically and problem-solve in a safe environment where failure is perceived as a natural part of the learning process. However, building successful TSRs can be extremely difficult for some teachers, especially teachers trying to connect with students outside their cultural lens. TSRs can improve pedagogy by empowering teachers to use their students’ interests and backgrounds to inform lesson design and content delivery. TPACK specifically applies to my research on building TSRs in that I used a new digital reflective tool to improve teacher-student connections in my school’s established mentoring program. Although the new tool did provide participating teachers the time and capacity to better connect with struggling students, the TPACK “sweet spot” can only be achieved when teachers leverage these positive relationships to re-engage students in the learning process.
Lasting Learning from the Innovative Learning program
- Technology can assist teachers in finding the time and capacity to build authentic connections with their students (TPACK).
- Technology can enable students to connect with their teachers on a deeper level.
- Successfully building teacher-student relationships (TSRs) depends a great deal on the motivation of the teacher.
- TSRs improve the classroom environment by lowering student stress, which lays the foundation for students to take risks and fully engage in learning.
- More must be done to leverage positive TSRs to cultivate student self-agency and growth mindset at the teacher and administration levels.
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Contact Information:
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Greg N. Fetters
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