“Good morning, Jamie! How are you doing today?”
Our morning greeting to our students has a more profound effect than just being nice and showing good manners in welcoming the students to the classroom day. We can make this morning greeting a valued time to deepen our connection with each of our students and to make sure that we are seeing them as important persons and not just as a class.
This feeling of being welcomed in such a loving and caring way will deepen the bonds of the developing relationship between teacher and student.
Building more depth into each child’s relationship with us, and thus getting to really know them, could become the most rewarding and best part of our job as their class teacher.
Maybe it is time for us to be more genuine and transparent in how we greet the students at the classroom door. There is a huge difference between making our early morning welcoming interactions thoughtful, meaningful and purposeful, in contrast to allowing them to become just functional and robotic. Students are very aware and feel much more deeply if this morning greeting is demonstrating that their teachers are developing an understanding of who they are and value them as a person and not just ‘one of the class members’.
Could our morning greeting be the benchmark that will support us to prioritise the building of strong relationships with our students? Not only is this deepening of relationships related to the morning greeting, we can make it our purpose to utilise many opportunities throughout the day to build on the connections we make with each child as they enter the classroom. It can be as simple as a smile when our eyes connect, a “you are amazing” accolade, a gentle hand on the shoulder can say a thousand words, even a joke, or a reminder about finishing a task. Students will clock these interactions as being validation of their unique presence in the classroom.
Developing relationships with our students starts from a teacher’s own honesty and transparency in how they see their role in the classroom. Do we send the picture that we know everything, that we are perfect, that we are always in control? And, if we do, that picture is not true – it's not a human trait that our students can warm to or feel comfortable and confident with. When students see that teachers have their challenges too, they can then participate in the relationship equally. It takes a lot of vulnerability on a teacher’s part to show this openness to their students! We will know and appreciate that as we feel more comfortable around our students, the more confident and open they will be in relating to us.
When a student knows that you care about them and they perceive that you genuinely value them as a unique member of their class, they feel the connection, thus our relationships naturally deepen.
As teachers we have observed that when our students are in a positive space, when they feel good about themselves and their teacher, then the opportunity for engaged learning opens up. It is when children are in this state of openness that their bodies release the oxytocin hormone, which encourages greater settlement in their bodies.
Research scientists tell us that oxytocin has many positive effects on the development of the brain and thus the learning processes. So, when we think about a relationship, we're not just talking about being nice to a child, we're talking about a child having feelings of trust and genuine nurturing of them as a person. In the presence of these qualities the students’ bodies are supported to release the oxytocin hormone.
There are now a considerable number of research articles being published showing that students who feel safe and supported by adults at school are better able to learn, and that the development of strong relationships are central to the learning process.
The power of relationships in schools is not a research topic – it is the truth!