Thursday, February 02, 2017

This is Cool! #handshakes

A teacher in a North Carolina has a novel way of greetign students to his class - personalized handshhakes for each student. What a great way to start class - Barry White, Jr., a fifth grade English teacher at Ashley Park Pre K-8 School does this with every single student in his class. Check out the video...



Of course there is a reason behind all this. According to White, when they "start doing the moves and that brings them excitement and pumps them up for a high-energy class". He started doing this after noticing his favorite basketball player, LeBron James, doing the same thing with his teammates. What he is doing is building trust, and creating a deep and meaningful relationship with his students. When students know their teacher cares, they are attentive, engaged and driven to be successful.

At third level things are a bit different. I have up to 70 students in some of my classes and it would be very difficult to do something like what Barry White is doing in his class. There isn't the same relationship with students at third-level as there is at other levels. Most of the time I do not know students' names, and I certainly don't have a personalized relationship with any of them. While this is a pity, it is unavoidable with so many students who I have in class for just three hours per week. It doesn't mean that I don't care - but building trust and meaning is a lot harder.

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