My ten-year old son heard me 'lecturing' online to a set of students in May 2020 and said to me that he wished he was in my class because I am obviously such a great teacher. Wondering if he meant that I was knowledgeable or gave clear explanations, I asked him why he thought that. He said "because you are so kind and respectful to your students all the time and my pre-K teacher told me that you should treat others how you want to be treated." It hit me hard that at ten he already knew that when it comes to teaching, if you want to get respect and participation from your students that you have to give it to them. Setting up a classroom that is welcoming and inclusive can be a challenge so here are a few quick and easy tips: 

• Learn their names! You expect them to learn yours. Whether you do a seating chart, photo board, or name tents, the number one way to communicate to students that you care about them, that they are not just a number in a seat, and that therefore they should care about you and your course and to build rapport is to learn their names.  
• Show up to class on time, or better still early. Use the “extra” time to talk informally with your students. Start a conversation with a student in your class that you do not know well. If you are able to, showing up early allows students to ask questions and chat with you in an informal way which is often an easier place to address questions than during or after class, or in an official meeting. Reach out to a student in your class who appears withdrawn or doesn’t seem to be included in classmate’s friendship groups.
• Respect their contributions to class. They may not have it right yet, but if you are respectful to them as they are working on building those new thinking-patterns with your guidance, they will know that their learning matters to you.
• Be flexible. This is the hardest for many faculty who love to have hard deadlines, but if you are flexible with when you accept work so long as students are progressing through the course, then if you do have to take a couple of points off, students will be more likely to own the responsibility.
• Praise publicly, criticize privately. It is so hard when you see a student being disrespectful during class not to call them out, but to do so can make everyone uncomfortable. Take the time to acknowledge students who demonstrate kindness, consideration, and support for fellow students and model positive classroom behavior for your students.    
• Use positive humor, not sarcasm.
• Choose your words carefully. “I don’t care” can be used by instructors in an attempt to demonstrate flexibility but can also come across as if you genuinely don’t care about them.

Developing positive and respectful classrooms relationships is an important part of a student’s emotional and social development, promotes self-esteem, and assists them in developing a sense of belonging, which is known to be critical for persistence to graduation. Teaching students about positive and respectful relationships by modeling them in your classroom sets expectations and supports them as they experience the challenge of learning. Creating a positive and respectful classroom community can be a constant work in progress but implementing any one of these strategies will assist your students where they are.

To follow up on any of these ideas, please contact me at fglazer@nyit.edu. This Weekly Teaching Note was adapted from a contribution to the Teaching and Learning Writing Consortium hosted at Western Kentucky University.

Contributor:
Marina G. Smitherman, D.Phil., MPH.
Chair, Department of Life Science
Coordinator, Committee on Academic Excellence
Professor of Biology
Dalton State College