{"id":117,"date":"2016-03-08T10:09:56","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T18:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gradsuccess\/?p=117"},"modified":"2016-03-09T10:42:36","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T18:42:36","slug":"building-connections-and-rapport-with-your-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gradsuccess\/2016\/03\/08\/building-connections-and-rapport-with-your-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Building connections and rapport with your students"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Broken<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo by Slack12 on Flickr<\/span><\/p>\n

The latest in a series of guest blog posts from students in the GCCUT program<\/a> course\u00a0GRAD 599. GRAD 599 is a self-directed learning experience, providing structure and context for professional development opportunities in teaching, such as workshops, seminars, webinars, symposia, and\u00a0other relevant programming.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Jafra Thomas<\/p>\n

Since last spring, I realized that I get nervous presenting in front of people. And it is even\u00a0worse if I do not know the audience members well. Recently, while covering a lecture for my major advisor, I realized the fear can show up even when presenting to students. The silence in the room was so awkward;\u00a0I just stammered through the lecture. Afterward, I felt defeated and was sure the students didn\u2019t learn anything that day. To my surprise,\u00a0a student came up and said I did a good job; he smiled, and we shook hands. At that moment, I realized two things:\u00a0I\u2019m not doing as bad of a job as I thought, and I appreciated the student treating me like a person.<\/p>\n

Connecting and building rapport\u00a0with students is\u00a0challenging. Both students and faculty have many things on their plate that can get in the way.\u00a0Students have busy\u00a0lives\u00a0and\u00a0attending class can sometimes just be something that they need to get through. Even for me, on that morning of my lecture\u00a0I was feeling pressured to complete several tasks with looming deadlines, and so going into the lecture I was already jittery and distracted. And then throw a hundred of silent faces looking at you as you wait for a response, but one is not given! Not fun.<\/p>\n

Luckily, during my second lecture, things were better, students smiled and even participated. I realized it was due to familiarity; they knew me and were more inclined to participate. Breaking the ice on the very first day can be challenging (even if that first day is midway through the term!) but as my experience showed me it\u00a0is important.<\/p>\n

Dave Ferreira\u00a0suggests<\/a> using ice-breakers to\u00a0build rapport with your students. These\u00a0can be done in a relatively short amount of time.\u00a0If I would have used an ice-breaker that took 5 minutes instead of jumping right into the lecture, then I\u2019m sure my experience would have been better.\u00a0The students wouldn\u2019t have seemed\u00a0so distant to me if we had spent\u00a0a few moments to\u00a0come\u00a0together and appreciate\u00a0one another. Who wouldn\u2019t want to take a moment to feel appreciated!\u00a0Ferreira\u00a0cites a research study that found both students and faculty had a desire to feel connected to each other but did not know how to express it.<\/p>\n

Take the time to build rapport with your students. How much effort and attention students are willing to give a lecture or professor is\u00a0partially influenced by their relationship. By feeling connected to the professor, students are more likely to\u00a0develop a sense of ownership over the course, and that the course is actively being shaped to support them by meeting their learning and personal needs.<\/p>\n

Beyond\u00a0feeling a connection to the instructor or professor, Ferreira states that\u00a0students also\u00a0want to know what is in the syllabus, how much work to expect, and what the instructor\u2019s policy on attendance is. By providing course expectations, personal stories, and including ice-breakers relevant to learning outcomes, or soon-to-be learning experiences, you can foster student interest and a desire for participation.<\/p>\n

Ferreria’s article\u00a0gave me some excellent\u00a0tools. Next time I\u00a0start a lecture, or an entire term, I’m going to make sure I include an\u00a0icebreaker. I think I owe it to my students, and myself.<\/p>\n

Reference<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ferreira, D. (n.d.) \u201cCollege faculty insider\u2019s guide to the first day of class.\u201d Three Reivers Community College. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.trcc.commnet.edu\/div_academics\/idea\/documents\/first_day_of_class.pdf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo by Slack12 on Flickr The latest in a series of guest blog posts from students in the GCCUT program course\u00a0GRAD 599. GRAD 599 is a self-directed learning experience, providing structure and context for professional development opportunities in teaching, such as workshops, seminars, webinars, symposia, and\u00a0other relevant programming. By Jafra Thomas Since last spring, I… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1393,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[819702,1000],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gccut","category-teaching"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6B7cp-1T","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gradsuccess\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gradsuccess\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gradsuccess\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gradsuccess\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gradsuccess\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gradsuccess\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gradsuccess\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions\/132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gradsuccess\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gradsuccess\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gradsuccess\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}