The most challenging part of a teacher’s job is building a relationship with students. The safer and more comfortable the students feel with their teachers, the easier it becomes for the teachers to educate them. But, this is easier said than done. Student engagement requires much more than just helping a student with their studies. 

Why is it necessary to have a positive student-teacher relationship?

Many researchers have found out several positive student outcomes as a result of a healthy and positive student-teacher relationship. As a whole, this takes care of different aspects like feelings, behaviors, education, attitude, achievements, and the personal life of a student. Here are the reasons why there should be a healthy relationship between a student and a teacher.

• Students become more engaged in class and tend to perform well academically. Also, it helps the student to become less absent at school.
• They become motivated to do better in everything in life. Inspiration from a teacher can help them to be consistent and hardworking.
• A positive student-teacher relationship can control the rebellious students and help them change their attitude towards others.
• If there are conflicts between a student and a teacher, it can leave a negative impact on the student. As a result, there can be issues related to discipline or behavior, or habits at an early age.
• Students are less likely to engage themselves in risky behaviors like substance abuse, suicide, or theft of any kind.
• There is a vital role of a teacher to shape up a student’s life. Students can take the teacher as their role model and motivate themselves to achieve greater things in life. Also, it will help them to be socially competent.
• Teachers even can benefit from this relationship. They can feel great and successful by making a difference in the lives of the youth. Also, it helps them to kill the monotony of a teacher’s job. 

How Can Teachers Build the Best Student-Teacher Relationship?

One of the vital points in a student-teacher relationship is to reach out on a personal level. Also, this needs to be cultivated with empathy, kindness, openness, and trust.

• Reach out to each student to understand their expectations, behavior, nature, and learning pattern.
• Make your class more interesting by sharing personal anecdotes.
• Give special attention to the poor performers. Spend time with them to understand and find out the root of the problem.
• Appreciate the students for their hard work and motivate them to continue doing it. Share motivational and inspirational stories to keep them positive in life.
• Set goals for each student and help them to build a path to achieve them.
• Never use any language or word that can have a negative impact on the students.
• There should not be any conflict between a student and a teacher. So, never hold grudges against any students and take negative feedback sportingly and work on them. 
• Handle difficult students with patience and dignity. Find out the ways to keep them engaged in the class. Give them some responsibilities from time to time to make them feel important. 
• The base of any relationship is trust. So, never share any secrets of a student with other teachers or students. 
• Organize small events like storytelling or DIY or game session in the classroom once in a while. This will help the students know your fun side.
• If you find something odd about any student, try the best possible ways to know the reason. Many a time, students open up about domestic abuse or sexual abuse to their teachers. If needed, you can take proper action with the help of the law of the country. 

The role of a teacher in a student’s life is as important as his parents. So, a student and a teacher must have a connection based on mutual trust and co-operation. After all, teachers hold the responsibility of shaping up the next generation. Therefore, positive student-teacher relationships can eventually bring out the very best of the youth year after year.