GETTING TO KNOW MY STUDENTS: A STUDENT TEACHER’S REPORT OF THE IMPORTANCE OF CONNECTING WITH YOUR STUDENTS IN A NEW CLASSROOM

open_access
Open Access
Author:
Gammel, Alyssa Marie
Area of Honors:
Secondary Education
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Mark Thomas Kissling, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Edith Frances Arbaugh, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Building Relationships
5th Grade
Deliberate Instances
Vulnerability
Consistent Communication
Global Citizens
Abstract:
The ability of teachers to build relationships with students has always been a topic in the field of education that has interested me. For my undergraduate honors thesis, I decided to conduct a self-study into my ability to build relationships with my new students as a pre-service student teacher. In my fall student teaching placement, I collected data of my ability to form relationships by journaling every day after my time in the school. Through analysis of these journals, I found that purposeful, deliberate, and conscious decision-making allowed me to consistently communicate and engage in student and teacher vulnerability to form relationships with my class of students. This discovery led to a conversation about how forming relationships, a social skill, can be helpful in forming students into citizens capable of being productive in a global community.