Building relationships with students is something we always hear about. It is a key antecedent strategy to overall student success. However, it can be really difficult to find the time or fun and engaging strategies to building those strong relationships with our students. In this episode I get to chat with Whitney from @rootedinresource all about building relationships with students and what she does to build strong relationships with her students. Whitney is a special education teacher teaching students in third and forth grade in a resource setting. She has some great strategies we can use to help build our students success through building relationships with our students. In this episode we talk about what to do on the first week of school to build those relationships. She mentions going over the classroom expectations but also having a lot of fun with your students the first couple of days so you are able to build that relationship right from the start. Whitney also discusses her strategies for incorporating student interest into her lessons. She likes to learn about what her students like and then finds materials related to those topics to keep her lessons fun and engaging which can really help build that relationship. We also talk about making sure we learn about our students outside of just academics. Whitney takes note of things that are important to her students and then reminds herself to bring those topics up later so that relationship continues to build overtime. She also talks about remembering when big and important things are happening for our students like a sporting event or a birthday. It can go such a long way when someone remembers something important to you and it is no different for our students. They absolutely love it when you remember to ask them about their basketball game or their birthday! Whitney also shares with us how she makes time for each of her students. It can be so important to connect with your students one on one but at the same time it can be hard to find the time to do this. We talk about different strategies she uses, so that the time fits seamlessly into her sessions with her students. If you have a student who struggles with behavior in your classroom, someone has probably come into your classroom and recommend starting with building a relationship with that student. This can be so daunting as that is such as abstract concept. There is no playbook for building relationships with your students and there can be so many different things you have to fit into a day that this may fall through the cracks. But this can be invaluable to overall student success. If you are looking for new and fun ways to build relationships with your students this is the episode for you! Listen today and learn all the strategies you can start working into your daily teaching that will go such a long way toward building relationships with your students! Join the Teaching Behavior Together CommunityGrab a FREE behavior guide for feasible classroom based behavioral interventions (Click Here)Visit my website for more strategies and interventions you can use daily in your classroom. (Click Here)Follow me on Instagram for daily behavior and social emotional learning tips (Click Here)Follow me over on Pinterest for all things behavior and social emotional learning (Click Here)