Getting to know your students

Something that has been popping up in a lot of my classes recently is the concept of getting to know your students and things that happen in their lives. It is important to get to know the students to some extent, as much as they are really willing to share with you as the teacher.

An example that came up in one of my classes was a student who couldn't do a homework problem because it said hamburger or cow in it. The student was from a religion that thinks of cows as sacred animals. The only thing the teacher had to do was rewrite the problem so it wouldn't bother the student.

Something else that came up is knowing the students home-life situation. If the student is homeless, they might not be able to work on homework at night because they don't have electricity. They could be from a divorced family, single parent family, or living with their grandparents.

As teachers we need to know our students. We shouldn't assume what is going on in their lives. It is up to the family though to I guess disclose what information they want to with the teacher and school system.

How I thought that I would do to get to know my students would be to just have them write me a letter or something the first day of school. I was trying to think how I could do something like this by using technology but I couldn't think of anything besides a Google Docs survey. That's about it, just make sure you get to know your students to an extent.

You might be that one person who makes a difference in their lives.