By Kelly Knudsen

I recently finished my first year of teaching English to mostly sophomores at a large high school in central Wisconsin. One important and valuable lesson I’ve learned is that connecting with the students is key.

My classes were small (I only taught part-time) and it was easy to get to know each of the students, asking them about their families, their favorites (music, movies, websites, etc.), their beliefs and their dreams. It was from their writing and blogging about their lives that we formed a sort of family, respecting each other’s differences and savoring our similarities. (Of course, there is a line that has to be drawn between too much information and appropriate teacher–student relations, but that is a whole different subject that will be covered in a later blog.)

During my second semester, I had students from my previous classes telling me that they missed my class and one student from first semester’s reading class kept popping in to our second semester writing class just to say “hi” and see what we were working on. There were some students that I wished would have opened up more and I now realize that those students are the ones that need to make connections most of all.

Because most of the students were able to connect with each other and with me, we were able to learn together and make some real progress in the classroom. After each semester advanced, I had students recommending movies and books to use in the classroom as well as helping each other with difficult assignments and concepts.

My first year teaching was challenging but I know that because of the connections we all made with each other, learning came naturally and the students were able to gain the most from their educational experience.

One tool that I use in order to stay “hip” and allow for some modern influences in my lesson planning is the website Making Curriculum Pop which is subtitled: “A resource sharing community for educators in better practices and teaching with pop culture.” If I was starting a unit and I wanted to “HOOK” the students, I would type a question on the blog and would usually have a great idea within an hour or two. And almost always the students were engaged and interested in what was presented.

If you have something to share or questions about making connections with students, please leave a comment below.