UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Inquiry paper
EDUC 451B Section 306

Jessica Lockhart
1/29/2014




The relationship between teacher and student is something to cherish. The key to attaining and
continuing the relationship throughout the years of a student's time in high school can be very
challenging, but it can also be completely rewarding when you achieve the relationship. The six
components I have researched to build that relationship will help me in my teaching career. I
want my students to have the tools and the knowledge to do their best in anything they want to
accomplish. By establishing this relationship, I believe, students have a greater respect for the
teachers because they know that teachers do really care.
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In order to assist students and their learning, a teacher must ask themselves this big
question:
What is success?
The definition of success
To laugh much;
To win respect of intelligent persons
And the affections of children;
To earn the approbation of honest critics
And endure the betrayal of false friends
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To give oneself;
To leave the world a little better
Whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To have played and laughed with enthusiasm
And sung with exultation;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived-
This is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The last two lines of this poem describes clearly, the type of teacher that I want to emulate to my
students. I do think it is naive to think that I will be able to change the lives of every student I
come in contact with and teach. But, if I can be that impact, that drive, that determination, for
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one student even, I will have succeeded. My main interest and focus about teaching is how to
attain and continue the relationship built between teacher and student. Researching different
techniques, will not only benefit me in my own teaching practices, it will also help my students
by giving them the tools and knowledge they will need to succeed. The things that make the
quality of a teacher stand out can cover a wide range of characteristics, actions, words, and
experiences. The mark left on a student by a teacher, for good or bad, is written in an ink that
will last a lifetime (Kaufman, A.R., Warner, S.A., & Buechele, J.R., 2011). I have narrowed
down the techniques to what may contribute to building that teacher and student relationship. To
maintain the relationship, I have found that it is mainly concerned with engagement, assessment,
communication, and motivation.

I am a now teacher candidate at the University of British Columbia working at achieving my
Bachelors of Education. My major is in Technology Education, also known as shop: there is
always a misinterpretation about Technology Education being in relation to computers and
information technology. When in fact, Technology Education allows a teacher to specialize in
woodwork, metalwork, automotive, electronics, and drafting and design. Within each of those
subject areas there are an abundance of different opportunities one could pursue. I am in my
final year of my post-secondary education. My journey into this field has been challenging and
life changing, but I would not have it any other way. My background in Technology Education is
in woodwork. Throughout my high school career I had at least one block of woodwork each
semester: the wood shop was like my second home. I went into the shop every chance I could. I
would go into the younger graded/leveled classes and volunteer my time to help in any way I
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could. Although, I never knew what I wanted to do after graduation. I asked my shop teacher one
day, and he thought it would be an excellent idea for me to follow in his footsteps. So, I made an
appointment with my counsellor, retrieved the information I needed, and began my journey. I
applied straight after high school and I have never looked back. I am very excited, yet nervous,
to start my career as an educator. One of my school advisors gave me incredible encouragement
about my practicum next month. He said, "know in your heart you are a teacher and this is what
you are meant to do. This is what it's all about. You will not be perfect, you just have to be
prepaid."

My main concern though, I will be twenty-two when I start teaching. Some may look at that in a
positive way, some may look at it in a negative way. I am sure there are a number of teacher
candidates that are the same age as I am going into this career. However, I feel my case may be a
slight difference considering I am a female working in a dominantly male field. It may be more
challenging for me to create the teacher- student relationship. Maybe because I am female, or
young, or maybe that doesn't matter in the students eye. Maybe students just want a teacher who
is there when they need them, they want someone to care. This is where my inquiry question
came about. I am about three or four years older than the oldest person in high school. I feel I
will be able to relate a lot to my students in the first few years of my teaching career because I
am young. In the years to come however, the ability to relate to my students may be a bit
challenging. I feel I won't be hip, or "cool", or have swag (as the kids are saying these days). I
want to find out about other affects and contributions that effect the relationship between teacher
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and student besides age differences. "The mark [this is] left on a student by a teacher, for good or
bad is written in an ink that will last a lifetime " (Kaufman, Warner, & Buechele, p.25).
Keeping students engaged
The students care when the teachers care; passionate teachers can inspire their students. Student
engagement is essential for elective courses. Elective courses are a choice made by the student.
In any of the subject fields I will be teaching, keeping students engaged is a large part of what
keeps all our programs alive. If students do not sign up for my classes, my program gets shut
down, so keeping students engaged is the reason my programs will exist. When students are not
engaged in their learning, it will be difficult to keep their attention. If students feel I am a great
teacher, I keep their attention, I relate to the subject areas they are interested in, the chances are,
they are going want to take my courses and love coming to my class each day.
One very effective way to keep students engaged within your classes is to keep up with what
your students are interested in, even if you do not know much about the subject. Teaching is all
about the continuation of learning as well as teaching others the knowledge you carry. A
Technology Teacher named Tim Moore, did just that. "As a teacher, I get my biggest charge
from seeing students' eyes light up when I ask them a question related to a topic on which they
are the experts and I am the novice" (Moore, T, 2005). He decided to start up a project based on
what the students wanted and what they were most interested in, skateboarding. He developed a
project that the students loved. "Most of my students have a person interest and involvement in
skateboarding". Moore says that "[his] students were thrilled when we entered into an agreement
to investigate together ways to build a skateboard from plastic"( Moore, T, 2005). We, as
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teachers, need to be able to find that happy medium between keeping the interest while learning.
Moore managed to find that mediation. He was able to keep the learning process he originally
was planning but added the input and interest from his students. The students were having fun
while learning.
With this specific project both teacher and student were learning. The [s]tudents educate[d] the
teacher on different aspects of skateboarding and skateboard design[,] while the teacher brings in
related academic content (Moore, T, 2005).
The teacher role included showing illustrations of a PVC skateboard pattern, giving proper safety
and tool/machine use instruction, and questioning the students about skateboarding that would
elicit the affective and emotional domain responses. What is great with this project, is you could
get other teachers from other subjects on board. The parts to make this project more effect would
be the knowledge of other academic classes. For instance, Social Studies (culture, history),
Mathematics (costs, angles), and Health (safety gear, injuries). If students care about what they
are getting taught, they will not be hesitant to actually do the work you ask. To make this project
one step better, a teacher may set up and after-school trip to a local skateboard park.
Volunteering your time by encouraging students to love what they are doing can be a huge
contribution "to boost the engagement and morale of students who may not usually do after
school activities"(Moore, T, 2005). Making a class into an afterschool program, activity, or field
trip where students can come do what they love after school hours, will play a huge role in
keeping a good relationship with the students using engagement.

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Classroom Assessment
I believe that classroom assessment plays a role in the relationship between teacher and student. I
also believe that subconsciously students do realize this. Students know when I teacher is not
being fair. When a student has a teacher who isn't a "fair" marker, students are going to dislike
them. The students may not even know what fairness means when dealing with assessment, but
they know when they have been mistreated. [Students] can tell if you have favourites, and they
resent it very much. We all need to work on staying open-minded (Connelly, Robert, 1998).
When dealing with fairness, an assessment should allow for students of both genders and all
backgrounds to do equally well. All students should have an equal opportunity to demonstrate
their skills and knowledge being assessed. Interpretation of student results are not influenced by
race, gender, disability, etc. As teachers, it is important to remain unbiased, and keep your
opinions as such. Sometimes teachers will interpret cultural differences as deficits and having
lower expectations of students because of their race etc. Another feature to remember is do not
form biases based on socio-economic status. Keep focus on student performance and behaviour
and suspend all judgements (McMillan, Hellsten, & Klinger,108).

For example, when I was in high school, I disliked all my English courses. I was not a bad child
through my high school career, so I remember this incident being strange for me. This particular
instance was when I was in Grade 9. In all English courses, every Wednesday we would do what
was called 'YellowBook'. We would read an article or short story, answer five multiple choice
questions and one written question. I wasn't horrible at English, I usually pulled off 65-70% on
'YellowBook' assignments. This one 'YellowBook' assignment I had to do, from what I can
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remember, I didn't struggle with. I finished it with confidence that I did a pretty good job. Side
note, I was dating this guy, Cameron, who was in the same English class. We also sat next to
each other. Anyways, when I got the assignment back, I was a little surprised to see a 56% score.
What I saw next was more surprising. My teacher had left a comment on my paper written right
below my written response. It wrote, "maybe you should spend less time hanging out with
Cameron and be studying more in my class". I was quite angry. We had a school relationship, so
really, we were never together afterschool, at all. I never did confront her about it. So I'm
wondering now if I was given that mark due to her interpretation of my 'outside life' (which
really, she just assumed) or if I actually received that mark based on my responses. After this, I
remember I really disliked my teacher. It was definitely not fair to mark my work poorly based
on my outside-of-school life. Again, no bias should take plan when assessing anything. Students
know when a teacher has bias' about them when it comes to assessment.
Communication
Communication, in my opinion, plays the biggest role in relation to building the teacher- student
relationship. Communication can be interpreted in many ways. A few strategies to help build the
teacher-student relationship using communication would be being approachable, knowing your
students, engaging in frequent social conversations, being available, and clearly communicating
the expectations you have of them.
When a student feels that they can come to for anything, whether it be to talk about life, school,
or relationships, there is that sense of trust that they feel you are the best person to communicate
with. Talking with students about their lives outside of school is one way teachers can show an
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interest in and appreciation for students. It is important for teachers to show genuine interest in
students' responses by spending time listening, asking follow-up questions, and remembering key
information (such as the same of a sports team, or the class that the student is having a hard time
in) to ask about later (Hamre, B.K., & Pianta, R.C., 2006). Students appreciate the effort that you
put in. More often than not, students just want someone there to listen and understand.
Usually students appreciate the conversation more and feel more comfortable when there is
another task involved. Not just sitting down, teacher behind the desk, and student on the other
side. Students like being in a situation where they can communicate with you while multitasking.
That way you and the student can actually have multiple conversations without realizing it. An
example would be, firstly, you are a woodwork teacher and you and the student are talking about
his/hers weekend. They went down to the Mission Raceway, and then all of a sudden they have a
question about the project they are working on. You, as the teacher, have just made a connection.
You finish explaining their question and then tell the student that you actually loved going down
to the track when you were younger. That connection was just made with your student. You now
have something in common you can always talk about. But with the task at hand, you know that
the student needs to be working on their project. Teachers can easily convey interest without
sacrificing productivity by saying something such as, "I'm Really interesting in hearing more
about that. Let's talk about it some more after we are done this" (Hamre, B.K., & Pianta, R.C.,
2006).
When teachers put in the effort to care for the student, the relationship will be built in no time.
Another way to build the relationship with communication is being available to the students who
are having a hard time. Adults in schools can provide an important resource for students who are
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having difficulties, but often the school say is too busy for teachers to make themselves available
to the students in that way. By letting students know that they are available fifteen or thirty
minutes before or after school, even if it's just for a few days a week, teachers can provide an
important opening for students who need to talk with an adult (Hamre, B.K., & Pianta, R.C.,
2006). Taking that time out of your day to help and just be there for a student shows that you
care. It will make a huge impact on the student and they will appreciate it with all their heart
because you may be the only role model they look up to. Knowing your students is another
aspect of communication. A student could be having a horrible home life, and coming to school
to talk to you may be their saving grace.
Using behaviour management strategies that clearly communicate expectations and caring within
the classroom is key in the development of relationships. Students want and need boundaries in
life. Well-designed behaviour management systems provide clear limits and tolerances that help
regulate students behaviour, reinforce the idea that teachers will respond in expected (and fair)
ways, create opportunities to give students positive feedback about their behaviour, and are
implemented in a way that communicates care and respect of the students. Teachers can reduce
behaviour problems most effectively by spending more time with students. (Hamre, B.K., &
Pianta, R.C., 2006). When students know the rules and consequences, and know that the teacher
follows through with them, will have a mutual respect for the teacher.
Motivation

I am in a field of work where is not typically female dominant. That being said, when I was in
high school and being in woodwork classes, I consistently got teased from my peers that I
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couldn't do it. Now, usually that would make someone insecure and up and quite; not me. Don't
get me wrong, it hurt and was a little bit disheartening. But that made me push even harder to
prove them wrong. That is a sense of motivation that came negatively. So instead, teachers need
to keep positive motivation within the classroom. Your beliefs about your students are the most
powerful lesson they may learn from you.
Tell me I can do it
You said I couldn't do it
I believed just what you said
So I simply didn't try
The desire then left my head
And as I think about it
I wonder how you can know
What I can and can't accomplish
How I will or will not grow
But I'm just a little kid, you see,
I believe just what you say
Tell me I can do it
And maybe I will someday.
- Annette L. Breaux
Motivation has so many key aspects to yourself and to your students. It definitely plays a role in
building the teacher-student relationship. There are many ways to keep your students motivated,
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everything that I have previously talked about could play a part in student motivation. Also
feedback and rewards is another form of motivation.
Motivational feedback provide students with feedback that is designed to motivate rather than to
inform about the accuracy of answers. Motivation feedback deals with verbal encouragement,
such as "I know you can do this" or "Keep up the good work". Both words of encouragement do
indirectly communicate information about the competency, but the purpose of these words is to
get students to work on tasks and maintain productive task engagement (Paul R., Pintrich, D.
H.,2002). Students would rather much have that, then to have a teacher who speaks in a negative
connotation towards them. Students notice when teachers give them words of encouragement
and appreciate it. Once students become engaged in [a] task and experience success, this initial
sense of efficacy is sustained and motivation improves (Paul R., Pintrich, D. H.).
Rewards is another form of motivation. Teachers hand out a variety of rewards to students for
their behaviour and academic performance, such as, grades, priviledges, freetime, points or
tokens exchangeable for other things, sticks, etc. Rewarding good behaviour may strengthen the
behaviour and increase the liklihood of reoccuring. When negativity is removed, positivity steps
in, rewarding will help the positivity stay. Also telling students that they can earn rewards based
on what they accomplish instills a sense of self- efficacy for performing well, which is vaidated
as they work on the task and perceive they are making progress (Paul R., Pintrich, D. H., 2002).

There are many different approaches to creating a teacher-student relationship. The conclusion I
came to regarding building the relationship between teacher and student deals with keeping
students engaged in the classroom, the underlining meaning of assessment to students so that
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they feel they are fairly treated for hard work, communicating with students, and motivating
them to do better. These are strategies I plan to bring with me while I am on my practicum and
for the rest of my teaching career. The building and keeping the teacher- student relationship is a
huge part of being a teacher. When students feel comfortable and safe in your classroom, the
relationship is there. Even if its just a simple 'hello' every morning, students recognize this. Over
the years of my teaching career I hope to make multiple relationships with students for their
learning. I hope that after my students graduate they will come back and visit me and tell me
how they are doing in life.
I had a great relationship with my shop teacher. He has been my inpiration and the reason why I
am becoming a teacher. My wish is to have a student, multiple students, like me.












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