Establishing a good relationship with all the children it’s of great importance. In my opinion, listening, it’s one of the most efficient ways in with to establish a respectful and professional relationship with children. You have to give to the children full attention when listening to them. Using body language, facial expression, speech and gesture helps a lot achieving this goal. The process of listening, without interruption, to what the children has to say, shows them that you are interested in what he wants to say , in their views, opinions related to an event, and encourages them to interact with you.
Another key of importance it’s to treat all the children as an equal. The teacher must not make differences between the children. You have to show the same interest to all of them, to treat them with love and deduction. For example, finding out about some of their interests and hobbies will also show them that you are really interested in. Learning all the children names, how to spell them and how to pronounce them it’s an effort to be taken in order to establish a good communication between. Professionally this is very important; being able to put a face to a name will ensure the child’s safety.
Fairness it’s another point to be considered. Children have a great respect for fairness; ‘it’s not fair’ is a common phrase in the classroom.
In order to be fair in a classroom situation, you should allow the children to explain their version of events; again this shows that you are willing to listen to them carefully. However it is important to be consistent in situations, if two children break the same rule it would be unfair to punish one and not the other, this would result in lack of respect from the children. It would also be unfair if you were to show favouritism, like letting your ‘favourites’ get away with things that you would punish other children for.
The teacher it’s a role model for the children. Children always have stories to tell and being interested and polite shows them that you have listened to them. Being polite not only shows respect but as an adult being polite is a good role model for the children. Children mimic the behaviour of adults, if you are polite, honest, fair and respectful to children there is more chance that they will be act the same towards you.