Building Supportive Relationships with Students

I am an AACPS: Teacher, Marley Middle School | 2020 Teacher of the Year Finalist

Disconnected. Lost. Unmotivated. These words described me when I dropped out of high school. Thankfully, an important role model told me I needed to go back to earn my diploma. That role model was an educator, my mother, who helped instill my beliefs in education today. I believe building relationships with my students is the most crucial part of the job. I take time to get to know who my students are, where they come from, and what makes them unique. When a student knows you genuinely care, they are more motivated to make educational gains. I strive to see the good in every child; to see what makes the light within them shine bright, and then help them internalize their positive characteristics. Although building relationships with students is my top priority, I also believe that establishing relationships with families is just as important. This helps create buy-in to support home and school with speaking the same language to foster consistency for students. Being transparent with my students allows them to see that even adults will make mistakes and can learn something from them. Education should be equitable for all students, meaning they are provided with individualized supports to meet the standards successfully. Being a reflective practitioner ensures that I am reaching all students. I believe I can meet students where they are academically by providing them with small group instruction where content and process are differentiated based on their needs. An effective classroom is student-centered where I facilitate the learning while my students work together collaboratively to meet the learning outcome. Finally, I feel that using data to assess where my students are in their educational process is invaluable; I recognize that the data is only one part of the journey of reaching the whole child. My goal for students is to have them leave my classroom with more knowledge and self-awareness than they had at the start of the year.