Building Relationships

Building Relationships.

 We began our classes at the beginning of the Term 3 from Monday to Thursday immediately after lunch. We had a dedicated room which was attached to my class so this certainly made it easy for transportation of equipment and for me to move from area to area.

 I ensured in the last week of the term 2 that I meet briefly with these children as a group to establish what we would be doing over the following term and to get to know me. These children are from the middle school and I teach in the senior area. I explained to them where they were at with math’s and they mostly agreed that they needed extra help. I told them that we had a special name; we were to be called the “Marvellous Mathematician’s”. I answered any questions they had and explained that we might try doing maths in a different way they would be used to.

 Feedback received from one teacher was interesting. He asked what I had told the children they would be doing because they were so excited when returning to class about the prospects of working on maths. This really made me think about the relationships that teachers build with students and how imperative it is for children to feel safe in the knowledge that, even if they are below where they should be, teachers are here to support them and want the best for them. Also that all children want to feel a little bit special and part of a group.