2 Relationships
Guiding Questions
- How does the instructor foster relationships between students, peers, and the learning community?
- Are the relationships reciprocal and do they foster personal growth?
What “Relationships” Means
Relationships are reciprocal between teacher and student, and should foster connection to community and self. As an educator, before you can begin to teach the content, you need to foster and embrace a relationship at some level with each of your students. They need to feel like they are valued in your class and respected as an individual. Online learners can feel disconnected and harnessing a personal relationship to their peers and instructor can be a bit unfamiliar, compared to the in-person learning environment.
For learners, interacting through video conferencing tools such as Zoom [website] or Microsoft Teams [website] could be a bit intimidating at first, and can cause some familiar first day of school jitters. Being patient with your learners and giving them time and different options to interact and reply can create a positive experience for them in the classroom. Give them space to reply when asking questions, and reiterate that options to reply could include using their microphone, video, or typing their replies in the chat box. Be mindful of how people may feel turning their camera on, and take time to address the option to turn off their cameras when they feel, using an avatar on screen, or offering a recording of the session to those students who don’t feel comfortable connecting in a synchronous manner.
This section highlights tools and techniques to embrace the online environment and establish authentic connections and relationships with your students.
How to Integrate Relationship into Online Learning
The first week of teaching and learning should be about building relationships through whole class and small group breakout sessions. In order to maintain and/or encourage student engagement, we need to create a learning environment in which they feel a sense of belonging. Through our teaching experience, we have found that it is often easier to make connections with students face-to-face, compared to online learning. However, we can still recreate a classroom experience by the use of synchronous and asynchronous interactive tools and by utilizing digital tools to increase connections among students and facilitator/educator(s).
We have developed a week-long module centered around relationship-building through the use of interactive digital platforms. There is a module that is appropriate for grades 4-10, and another for grades 11-post-secondary. These modules are available as both a PDF and as a Google Document, and are free for you to make copies and share with anyone and everyone.
Grade 4-10 Relationship Building Lesson Plan Google Document
Grade 4-10 Relationship Building Lesson Plan PDF
Grade 11-Post-Secondary Relationship Building Lesson Plan Google Document
Grade 11-Post Secondary Relationship Build