Year 12

Building Connection With Students

The IB Dunia Indonesia conference was held on Friday 27th November, with the theme of ‘Innovation in Education. The online conference attracted many IB teachers from various schools in Indonesia.

I was fortunate enough to participate in the conference as a session facilitator, along with my colleagues: Andi Elisa (Deputy Head Teacher & IBDP coordinator - Singapore Intercultural School South Jakarta) and Martaki Aryoseko (IB MYP Design, Individual & Societies teacher - Global Jaya School). Our topic was “Building Connection With Students during Home Based and Blended Learning.”

Based on our research, the benefit of building relationships with students is that these relationships impact both short and long-term improvement on academic and social performance.

The pandemic has forced us as teachers and students to constantly be adapting to ever-changing learning environments. After adjusting to the digital learning environment we then had to figure out how to build relationships with students when some students were in front of you in the physical classroom whilst some students attended their lesson through a google meet. These kinds of learning environments can present obstacles when it comes to building relationships between the teacher and the student.

Below are some relationship-building strategies that I have discovered as a DP Business Management teacher and also as the Head of Year 12:

• DP Business Management.

  • The student is the center of the lesson plan. Making sure to use a relatable example in the topic is important. For example, using companies such as Netflix or Netflix helps students to engage with the learning as these brands are more familiar to them. Helping students to make these authentic connections in their learning supports more meaningful in-class discussions.

  • It’s okay to make mistakes. It is important for students to know that it’s okay if they make mistakes. Students should own their mistakes because when we are admitting our mistakes it builds trust and shows integrity. What is important is that they know that we are there all the way to support them.

  • Meaningful feedback. Giving feedback is not just about positive reinforcement, but also constructive criticism. Constructive criticism focuses on providing constructive feedback, supported by specific examples.

• Head of Year 12

  • Personal challenges. As their head of year, it is important for me to find out what kind of challenges the students are facing, so that I can give the most appropriate support that can help them to overcome the challenge. In order to do that, I need to be ready to open up about myself. So that students know that it’s a safe place for them to share. What I usually do is send them an email that starts the conversation with something simple yet personal, for example: Tell me something about you that most people don’t know about? Something that most people don’t know about me is that I don’t drink coffee. With that strategy, I share something about myself first.

  • Building up routine. This strategy is related to the previous one, routine and consistency are crucial. Students know that I will send them a check-in email every first week of the month. A personalized email based on students’ interests will help build trust and a sense of belonging. Below are some examples of check-in emails:

    • Question prompt that can start a conversation. “Tell me your go-to song when you're feeling sad.” Example of student response: “My go-to song when I'm sad or down is The Kill by 30 seconds to Mars. I have a lot of go-to sad songs, which I will list you some (even though you did not ask for more than one): Congratulations (Eng. Ver) by Day6, Menghilang by Andira, I smile by Day6. But honestly, I can cry to any song if I want to or I am in my feelings. Thank you for listening to my TedTalk. Have a good day!”

    • Question prompt for students that love art. “Give me 1 reason why I should admire Art?” Example of a student response: “AHAHAHAHAHHh Hi Pak !! One reason why YOU SHOULD admire art is the fact that art is like history; has depth to it. There's no reason to not enjoy it because it tells a story. And life is about stories. Ew, that's deep.”

    • Question prompt for students that enjoy Korean drama. “Give me 1 reason why I should watch Korean drama?” Example student response: “I am glad that you asked about why you should watch a Kdrama! One reason I can give you is that through watching more and more dramas, you can pick up a new language! I can recommend to you some that are related to school such as Sky Castle. However, if you want to watch a family drama, Reply 1988 is a good show!”

  • Or whenever I meet them in class, I will start the conversation with this question: How are you doing, how’s life? By building up routine and maintaining consistency helps our students to understand and build up trust.