Professional Developement

Peter Felten and Positive Relationships

Overview of Event

KSU's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) hosted this informative, collaborative, and heartwarming event with author, researcher, and fellow college-level educator Peter Felten. Felten's writing and research largely focuses on how college instructors can foster meaningful relationships amongst all participants within the classroom. The event itself was an hour long, and Felten spoke on the importance of academic relationships in improving student health and happiness; he pulled from examples within his own works and research, and he even practiced what he preached by having the audience members connect and share their own methods for making students feel like they are part of a safe and encouraging community.

My Takeaway

By creating an environment that is warm and welcoming on multiple levels, educators can build meaningful relationships both "with and among students," as Felten himself expressed. The most important way to begin these relationships, however, is to show students that you see them as a whole human being and to create opportunities where their classmates can actively see them as such as well. Something as simple as taking attendance--an act that many college-level educators forgo because it takes up time or is irrelevant to their grading policies--can show students that you care about them as you devote time to learning, saying, and promulgating their names. Small choices like these make all the difference in the classroom; they might even add up to the difference between some students dropping out and some students continuing their academic journeys. If you create an atmosphere where students feel like you value them as fellow intelligent persons, then that increases the likelihood that they will stick around and keep on learning.