Students spend many hours with their teachers in a typical school year. That is enough time to build a relationship that could ignite a student’s lifetime love of learning—and it’s enough time for the same dynamic relationship to go totally off the rails. Therefore, what is required is that both sides make equal efforts to enhance the student-teacher relationship.

An important role is played by the teachers to mold a student’s personality. A positive relationship means creating an encouraging learning environment where the students can freely interact and discuss with the teachers and their fellow mates. Along with that, the teacher should put forth efforts to know about their students. Like some students are hardworking but are introverts, some are aggressive and distract other students’ learning environment too. Therefore, students have varied personality traits that a teacher needs to understand and address patiently. They should try and act leniently as well as be strict at the same time. Excess of any form can hamper the learning process among the students.

There are many ways through which the student-teacher relationship can be evolved. A major part of knowing the students is to know about their likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc. Therefore, what the teacher can do is to provide a worksheet or questionnaire requiring them to explain their interests and hobbies. This will help the teacher understand their students in a better way and engage in conversations about things that the students enjoy talking and listening about. Active listening and engaging in a meaningful dialogue with the students can also help the teacher understand the opinion of their students in a better way. This can be done by making eye contact with the students, not doing any other activity, and actively listening to the students when they are communicating and responding to their gestures and verbal cues. 

Along with that, teachers can share their personal humorous experiences that would entertain students and convey a strong life lesson. The teacher can tie their stories to the lesson plan and core curriculum, which can help the students in remembering the information. The same can be done by the students where they share their personal experiences and stories, helping the students open up a bit more to the teacher and their classmates too. Apart from that, maintain an open-door policy with the students where they feel welcomed for any kind of assistance, at academic or the personal front. This can be done by the teachers by making time to offer individualized support before or after the class. This can also help the teacher discover any weakness or strength that a student has. 

Building a positive relationship with students makes students think positively about the school too. They become free to make mistakes and correct them too, knowing that they would not be judged by the teachers. A constructive teacher-student relationship helps the child improve academically and helps him/her evolve in an overall manner. The kind of relationship a teacher has with his/her students affects their socioeconomic status in the future along with their professional development. Thus, any teacher who wants to make a lasting difference among his/her students should put more effort into building high-performance students by creating a conducive learning environment for all the students.

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