Blog Post #1

 Since I will be in a different department, school, and not in charge of a classroom, I will base my answers off of what I have done in the past. I did K-12 and so what I did to get to know my students varied. I also taught computers, PE, and Health so I had many different settings for my first week of school. In the computer setting we did a class kahoot to have everyone involved. In the gym, I would have everyone say their name and something interesting about them. After everyone would say it, I would go through each kid and repeat what they said. I did this at the end of the class too. For my 9th grade health class, I gave them the opportunity to decorate my room through posters and whatnot for extra credit. I walked around the room and talked to the students individually. I went to a very small school and so I knew my students coming in. Ways I keep up with the rapport of my students would include coaching. I felt like the students I coached, we had a better in class relationship than those I didn't. For younger students, I would always play the game/ activity with them in class. They love to get the teacher! I would also play with the students when I had recess duty. One thing I did in computer class was the riddle of the day to start class. It would get them engaged and give a student who may struggle in school a chance to answer a simple riddle. I think building rapport in PE was easy for me because of the physical part of it. I could play and interact with them. Razz them up and tease them. Showcase my passion for sports and being fit by actually playing. I definitely struggled more in the health classroom to build rapport, but I did more feedback this past year and significantly altered my lessons based on their opinions and it improved.

I think building rapport is important because it's not fun to listen to people you don't have a connection with. Doing those extra little things like going to the school musical, participating in the bake sale, doing a plate and bowl painting with students, or going to sporting events really shows students that you care about them outside of the classroom. Their eyes light up more in those scenarios then they do in school. I felt like doing that increased classroom engagement and behavior. It also fulfills my professional passion of building relationships with students when I partake in those extracurriculars. Students aren't too hard to figure out if you take the time show interest in what they're interested in.