Relationships

Relationships. From MTC's preaching to faculty meetings, everyone's talking about building relationships with your students. I listened, and I tried, but I just could not seem to build a relationship with every student. Throughout this school year there was one student who I felt completely hated me. She tuned me out, always put up a screen with me. If she did decided to listen one day, she had a smart comment to add after every word I said. She was a constant discipline problem; during my two weeks at the school, Lottie called me a bitch in front on the entire classroom; and she refused to listen to any directions I gave her. Also, she refused to do her work. This lovely person's name is Lottie.

I am not sure how Lottie and I started off on the wrong foot. Perhaps she was mad that she has just gotten a new teacher who actually required her to do work in class. Perhaps she was used to just doing and saying what she wanted to when her old teacher was there. Perhaps I will never know the real reason, however, I do know that Lottie and I began on a bad note.

I do not know how I started to build a relationship with Lottie, maybe it was during one of those many, many conferences we had together. I remember explaining to Lottie and her mother how much I care about Lottie and her progress in my classroom. I explained to Lottie that if I did not care about her, then I would not be on her to do better. Nothing happened immediately. Lottie was still up to being the same bad attitude Lottie. Changes started happening gradually. When it was her turn to read, she actually did instead of just sitting there or yelling, "I don't want to read that!" She started participating in class more, and I made it an extra effort to praise her more in class. I asked her softball games were going, and she would tell me about it. I also made some positive calls home to express how happy I was with Lottie's attitude change.

Lottie is not a perfect student, but she is improving. I'm at the point with her that I can give her a pat on the back, and she will smile and know that she is doing a good job in class. Once Lottie started doing her work, I learned that she is actually a very intelligent child. She actually completes assignments now and is not a behavior problem like she used to be. At times I allow Lottie to be a leader in the classroom and direct her responsibilities. She enjoys the attention and the praise.

I am really glad that I took the extra time and effort to pursue a relationship with Lottie. As a result of that effort, I have less behavior problem out of her and she is actually performing to her potential in class. Relationships are very, very important in the classroom, and I can say that Lottie helped me to really understand that fact.