BUILDING POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS

I have come to a frightening conclusion. 
I am the decisive element in the classroom.
 It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher,
I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous
- Hiam Ginott

Building positive relationships with students.I only ever really had one bad teacher in primary school. This was in year 3.This teacher was much older than any other teacher I had previously. This teachers, teaching style was not very hands on and clearly did not understand the needs I had a student or a person (who had that time was struggling to learn effectively) and nor did they the other students in my class. She was strict and not fair, she did not accept a social responsibility for the students the class. In my opinion she did not really like teaching.
All my other teachers I had throughout primary school were great teachers they were positive role models to me and did more than teacher me the curriculum, they taught valuable life skills to me. These teacher assumed a social responsibility for the children they taught, they provide them individual attention and taught to the needs of the class. They saw that each student was different. Theses teacher provided positive feedback and would always be there to help if their student were struggling with their work or even issue within life. As well as teaching academic they focused on creative side of a student and having fun in the class, providing me with a positive reinforcement of what school is.

The specific attribute that these teachers had that impacted me positively included…

• Meets all learning styles, needs and cultural backgrounds - they were flexible.
• Approachable
• Friendly
• Assumed a social responsibility for students
• Engaging and relatable
• Active
• Understandable
• The want to teach you/passion as well - it is not just a job
• Serious and strict when necessary - someone you can relate to and be friendly with but then also respect their authority.
• Know the line between friend and teacher
• Inclusive
• Respectful

 
The teachers that I defined a 'bad' teachers were not necessarily bad, they had just be trained to be a teacher in a different time, where teachers did not assume a responsibility for the students within the class they were teachers. Their approach was towards the academic education rather than the creative and fun side of education.