Two Simple Secrets to a Successful School Year

Want a better school year? Then you need to look at your relationships.

Forget curriculum. Forget better classroom management programs. Start looking at how you teach and the relationships you have with your students.

As an empowered teacher, you need to balance two things masterfully. You must balance important, meaningful relationships with your students with high expectations for them to do competent work. It is not only possible to have both; it is imperative.

As Dr. William Glasser says, “What people fight or resist is control; not education; not relationships." As an empowered teacher, you know the teachers you worked your hardest for were the ones you liked and who held you accountable for stretching and growing.

I know today’s students may make it seem difficult, if not impossible, to teach your curriculum. This is a very real challenge if you don’t take the time to get to really know your students, collectively and individually. There is an old expression that says, “People don’t care what they know until they know that you care.” Never is this more true than today in teaching students in our public school systems.

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