Building Relationships

For those of you who don't know me in the physical face-to-face setting, I'll let you in on a little secret about me... I'm a huge lover of TED Talks!  (Not the kind of secret perhaps that you thought I'd share, but it's true.)

TED talks inspire me daily, usually on my commute to and from work (don't worry mom - it's Handsfree and BlueTooth worthy). Often they'll bring me to some sort of emotional state where I'm revved up and excited to venture onward or they even leave me with tear filled eyes and questions that linger long after a talk is through.

One of my all-time favourite TED talks is by Rita Pierson, a teacher for 40 years, who once heard a colleague say, "They don't pay me to like the kids."  Her response: "Kids don't learn from people they don't like."

Rita's TED Talk

I couldn't agree more with Rita.  Have you ever had to "learn" from someone you don't like?  The experience is unpleasant, the lesson most likely, not something that you can quickly recall, and when brought up again feelings of dislike or negativity most likely arise.  That's at least how I feel.

So, I'm blessed to have a new job, in a new role, and am learning new names and faces each time I turn another direction.  I am really trying to work on building relationships, making connections with others on a real, human, and personal level.

If I can take one thing from Rita with me as I begin this year, it's to remember this: "People, kids, adults, parents, ____________, don't learn from people they don't like."  

Today when I was invited into a grade six classroom to work with students who I knew nothing about before entering their room, I looked around and tried to make my nerves calm down.  I tried to make eye contact.  I asked for student names, I tried to go back and forth and use those student names and again, tried my hardest to connect my learning with their learning so that we could have a shared path, working towards building a tiny little fragment of a relationship.

As I continue to work on learning how to build intimate, meaningful relationships with both staff and students, here are just a few of the resources that I'm using to build my backpack of tools to grow and learn.

Today's focus was on just #1.  Tomorrow's and the next days will probably be too!

P.S. They were from my PLN on Twitter!  Thank you @JeffHiserBL (Jeff Hiser) for your post!

Here's the active link to 22 Ways to Build Relationships for Educational Success

What are some ways you intentionally build relationships with others?  I'd love for you to share!