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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Student's Confidence

As future teachers, we want our students to be comfortable and confident in our ability. We want our students to have faith in our abilities. Gaining students confidence will only help build up our personal confidence as teachers. 

There are many different ways in which we can help students establish confidence within us. To start off, we must be consistent, and aware of any prejudice or bias you might have in yourself. Students need to see that you have organization and you value yourself as a person. Along with this, teachers must be approachable and available. We can do this by giving students times and telephone numbers or places for further assistance. Get to know your students and make sure they understand you, too, are human! 

I found a particular website that did a great job of breaking down the ways in which you can help students build their confidence in you. 

I am going to list here some of the great examples they give!
Click here for the link!

  1. Do not criticize or complain.
  2. Give honest, sincere appreciation.
  3. Arouse in the other person an eager desire to know you.
  4. Become genuinely interested in people. 
  5. Smile.
  6. Remember that a person’s name is to him or her the sweetest and most important word in any language.
  7. Be a good listener; encourage people to talk about themselves.
  8. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
  9. Make the other person feel important, and do it sincerely.
All of these things will enable students to put more trust in your abilities. They want and need to feel comfortable around you. When this comfort level has been developed they will then be able to focus more readily on the content being covered in class! 
Building confidence in your students is a GREAT way to build confidence in yourself!

5 comments:

  1. This is entirely true!! And students aren't stupid- they pick up on who the "favorites" are. If you don't show your students respect, they don't have a single reason to respect you.
    In my classroom management class, we briefly touched upon TRIBES. TRIBES is a process used to develop mutual classroom respect as well as develop strong relationships in the classroom. For those of yo who want to learn more, here is a website with more information.
    http://www.tribes.com
    With TRIBES, everything is positive. My cooperating teachers in my kindergarten placement practice TRIBES in their classroom and it seems to keep the students positive. Rather than saying "Don't speak out of turn" and "Raise your hand", all of the rules are positive- "Mutual respect", "Right to Pass"...

    We also talked about some TRIBES strategies to use with students. One of these strategies was the "I notice..." strategy. Choose one student and create 6 "I notice..." statement for them. ell them one of your statements (Michelle, I notice you are wearing pink again today!) twice a week for 3 weeks. The student should make a change in behavior because they see that you are noticing them. I am interested in trying this with one of my students.

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  2. Ally,

    I think this is very true but also can be hard as a teacher sometimes. I think it will be important to stay positive, even though it can be hard at times because we are human as you said and we can't possibly be smiling and happy and positive all the time. Another important concept that goes along with this is that when you are having a bad day outside of the classroom it's important to not bring that negativity into your classroom. As you mentioned, our students will be able to pick up on that and think since that you're having a bad day, it will be a bad day at school for them too.

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  3. I feel that gaining students' respect and confidence is one of the main goals teachers should strive for in the first couple weeks of school. It is important that the students know you care about them, both in and out of school. Showing interest in their extra-curricular activites goes a long way.
    In my clinical placement, we have a morning meeting every day. Students are able to sign up to share on any particular day. When it is their time to share, they can tell the class anything they'd like (as long as it's appropriate) and are able to take comments/questions. I feel that this helps builds relationships/trust between the students and between the teacher and students.

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  4. Ally-
    I completely agree with you. Often times we become to self conscience about ourselves we don't step outside of the box and become corny. However, when I was in elementary school it was the corny things my teachers did in lessons that made their lessons remember-able to me. We are our toughest judge, often times the students don't judge us at all. It is important to show the students that you are confident in what you do, so they will become more confident in themselves as well. It is okay to step outside of the box every once and a while and be corny, after all the students love it!

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  5. Ally-
    Great point! I think that building postitive, trusting relationships with your students is one of the most essential elements in order to achieve a successful year. Students are more intuitive than we give them credit for. Students are more than aware of which teachers are there to help them and which teachers to stay clear from, as to not get yelled at or criticized. Especially in Science Inquiry, where students begin every lesson or unit with a question, students need to feel secure and safe in their learning environment beginning with a trusting relationship with their teachers. I also remember feeling most comfortable with teachers that could laugh at themselves and didn't try to be perfect all the time. Students love to see us laugh and joke around with them, and if students feel comfortable to laugh and joke around with you, they will feel comfortable to learn and ask questions.

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