Student Building Strategies (PART 1) || Student's and teacher's bonding

Greetings Esteemed Steemians, Unique Teachers and creative students, nature smiles at us again as we will be unravelling one of the most important essence of life. Yes! Education is an important essence of life as they say it begins from cradle to tomb with it impact being felt across divers cultures, age range and time. With this, it is imperative to ensure that the best is invested into it so as to enhance maximum output.

In the same vein, since the effectiveness of education centers on the relationship between the teachers and students, permit me to thank our host for creating this wonderful opportunity where we will be considering how to build an effective bond between students and teachers.under the topic "Student Building Strategies (PART 1) || Student's and teacher's bonding".

My name is Marvelous Sunday Udofia, a Chemistry teacher here in Nigeria and we will be glad to provide answers to the following questions that will be listed below and I hope it will contribute immensely in enhancing a greater bond between teachers and students so as to ensure that the goals of education is attained. This piece of writing will be limited to the system of education as practiced in Nigeria as well as answering the following questions:

1. As a teacher, what do you think your understanding with the student should be?
2. As a teacher, do you differentiate between good and bad students, or do you give equal importance to both?
3. How is your relationship with your students, has it ever happened that you failed to convince your students?
4. If a student makes a mistake, how do you solve it as a teach.

AS A TEACHER, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR UNDERSTANDING WITH THE STUDENT SHOULD BE?

As stated earlier, the effectiveness of an education is saddle on the relationship existing between the teachers and students in the classroom setting and beyond the school premises. Personally, I have a culture which has turned to a philosophy to me and that is the culture of getting to know my students beyond their names. As a teacher, I see myself as a surrogate parent, guidance, spiritual leader, mentor, coach and friend to my students because, I strongly believe that students tend to act nicely, when their teacher is nice and roughly when their teacher pays little or no attention to his/her student.

Going my this, I feel that the relationship with my students should be such that will enhance continuous growth both in academic, socials, religiosity, and beyond. And I achieve this through the following ways;

1. Routine moment of insight where I and my students sit and discuss life just as it is. This Routine moment of insight makes them trust and have confidence in me to the extent that they feel free relating whatever interests them both in academic and non academic related issues this, empowering our bonds and giving room for counselling if need be.

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1. Our weekly motivational quotes is what inspires my students the most as the work to ensure that their activities go inline with our inspirational/motivational quotes for the week. Most of these quotes and motivation are always on academic excellence, personal growth and self development. This aspect of our activities makes our relationship more stronger as most of our quotes are always generated by my students.

In essence, as a teacher, my understanding with my students is a sine-qua-non. It is a two ways approach where both the teachers and the students benefits mutually. As such, I gear my activities towards boosting their strength and in the process eliminate their weaknesses. We have an understanding that as a teacher I am not an island of knowledge thus encourage and enhance their individual contributions in almost all areas of our school life. It may interest us to know that one of my students stopped me in the market to verify what she saw in a textbook. Though I advised her on how to approach such a situation when next it occurs, I never relented in providing answers to her burning questions. Therefore as a teacher, my relationship with my students is as open as a basket yet, we ensure not to step on our toes.

AS A TEACHER, DO YOU DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD STUDENTS, OR DO YOU GIVE EQUAL IMPORTANCE TO BOTH?

In other to bring clarity here, I want to quickly mention that the nature and quality of our students is the true reflection of their teacher. Going by this, in my experience as a teacher, I am yet to meet a "bad student" rather, i have met several students whose cognitive ability, affective ability and psychomotive ability differs in various ways. While others are termed "Gifted learners" due to their high processing rate, we also have the slow learner ( the very aspect of students that makes learning more fun to me). In essence, as a teacher I do not see students as being bad, rather I try to create a nexus between the gifted and slow learners through the use of innovation instructional strategies like snowball learning strategy, buzz learning strategy, reciprocal learning strategy among others. These innovative learning strategies promotes collaboration and iterative session which makes learning more comfortable and engaging.

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From my experience, it is pertinent that every teacher must diagnose his/her students using formative evaluation to know their abilities (strength and weakness). This is essential as it will enable the teacher to know which teaching strategies to adopt so as to carry everyone along. Going by this, differentiating your students in regards to their learning strength is not a bad approach. However, making it obvious such that a student feel this demarcation is what every teacher should guide against. To achieve this, I would rather identify my students in regards to their learning abilities rather than differentiating them.

After, identifying their strength and weaknesses, it is now my responsibility as a teacher to ensure that I carry everyone along by making the gifted more talented via brain storming questions, power test, and the likes while maintaining eye contact and routine checks on my slow learners who will as well become gifted through the use of effective learning strategies.

HOW IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR STUDENTS, HAS IT EVER HAPPENED THAT YOU FAILED TO CONVINCE YOUR STUDENTS?

As earlier mentioned in the first answer, the relationship between I and my students is a symbiotic relationship of give and take. It is the kind of relationship that exist between the cow and the white birds that fly with them. Where the birds supports the cow by eating their ticks and the cows as well benefits by being free of ticks that would harm them sooner or later.

In the aspect of my students, since we are all humans with different NEEDS, PERCEPTION, and VALUES, especially judging from the fact that our relationship is such that promote a learners centered atmosphere, there's bond to be disagreement between I and my students. When this happens, convincing them is not always my priority. Rather, I take a break, look through their lens, understand it from their angle then point at it not to my angle but to the ideal angle. I quickly remind them about what we tagged "supreme three" and that is To learn, Unlearn and Relearn. Sincerely, through out my experience as a teacher, convincing my students is never a priority but exposing them to the true situation helps me in convincing them with ease.

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However, if the situation becomes intense, bringing in a group project, seminar work or assignment for further research is always an option and guess what! At the end of the debates, during their reports most of them smiles and submit to the ideal situation while others may still try to defend themselves before appreciating the ideal situation. To call this a wrap, I have not failed to convince my students especially, having understood the essence of not forcing a change in behavior (learning).

If A STUDENT MAKES A MISTAKE, HOW DO YOU SOLVE It As A TEACHER?

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In other to answer this question, I would love to share the story of John my student. It was one faithful Monday when John's father came to visit me in my office, I was not surprised because, such visits were common for me. I was only surprised when he gifted me a parcel with an inscription, "You are a genius". I wish I had photographs on this regard.

What actually happened between I and John was during my Chemistry class. I gave my students a class activity on balancing of Redox equation only to discover that everyone could do it except John who continuously made similar mistakes in all the questions. When I noticed this, I switched my teaching strategy to "snowballing learning strategy" where students are paired for group discussions. It was after the John's discussion with some group of students who got the rest right that John corrected himself. Little did I know that John took it so personal that he had to tell his father about how I supported him to learn of which later prompted my parcel.

In essence, as a teacher I expect my students to make mistakes especially considering the abstract and complexity level of my subject Chemistry. However, when this happens, I correct the students based on the atmosphere because, sometimes correction may make the students feel bad thus, reducing their self esteem. In other to avoid this, I use one of the following methods to correct their mistakes

1. The play way method

In this method, If I should notice that many students made the same or similar mistakes, I would playfully take the position of an announcer by asking almost all the students to provide their final answers. The differing answers obtained triggers my students to pay attention to the corrections I would be giving with the aim of seeing who was actually correct. With this, they learn from their mistakes with ease

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1. The Invitation method

In this method, If I should notice that just a student or few students made the mistake, I would simply mark the scripts, return to them, then proceed in making the corrections on the board while using their names (ideas) emphatically during the corrections process. With this, the students correct their mistakes. However, if the mistake is so severe, such student(s) is always asked to see me during our prep period which comes up immediately after the normal school hours

Conclusions

For learning to make complete sense, my emphasis is always on students and teachers relationships of which is powered by our understanding of one another. This understanding enables me to discover the strength and weaknesses of my students, work on the slow learners, Power up the talented learners while ensuring that everyone is convinced of the ideal situation. However, should in case of any mistakes, My approach in correcting mistakes, are such that moulds the students rather than lowering their self esteems. It is such that brings my students closer to me as well as giving them more opportunities to Learn, Unlearn and Relearn.

I invite the following people to join the contest
@basil20
@dwings
@nsijoro