Today I received a great email from a teacher commenting on my last post on building relationships. Take a look at what this teacher wrote (below in italics). I have to tell you, I am incredibly impressed by the self-awareness of this teacher and the willingness to objectively view their behavior. Take a look.
I liked the article.
This is something I definitely need to work on. With some students,
this is easy and I can see how it has helped. However, I think that ***** thinks
I dislike her. Her attention is very low and I am constantly redirecting
her. Also, she is afraid of showing me her work because I usually end up
pointing out a mistake she made. I end up having too
many negative comments toward her and not enough positive. This
effects her behavior to me. I need to work on building our relationship and focusing
more on the positive.
I found this email refreshing and spot-on. I plan on using it with my staff at the end of the year and during back-to-school workshops. Imagine how much better we would be as professionals if we all took the time to look within ourselves and we carefully and honestly audited our words and actions with the students we serve--we would be primed for improvement! Moreover, what if as school leaders we could make these behaviors a fundamental part of our building's culture; I believe we would significantly improve our effectiveness as educators and we would have families knocking down the doors to get into our schools. This change must start with us because the current status quo in our industry does not encourage such behaviors.
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