Give Trust a Chance

An article, "How to Trust Your Students," on the Edutopia website, was aimed at high school teachers, but the guidelines on how to develop trust (as opposed to following the carrot and stick approach) apply with modification to an early childhood classroom as well:

Give it away:  Trust must be given in order for trust to develop.  "You know that old stuff we learned about assigning students special duties and responsibilities?  It works — especially with tough-to-teach students," says high school teacher, Sara Davenport.

Slowly and deliberately get to know your students:  Exemplified by this story from urban high school teacher Michelle Connors:  "My students are like oysters.  Life has not been good to them.  Most of them have failed.  To protect themselves, they build this shell around themselves.  And as a teacher, what I have to do is wear away, literally by perseverance, wear away that shell to the point where I can get inside, or I have to make them open up . . . because once you show a student that they can succeed, you've found that pearl that is hidden deep inside."

Share power:  Seek student input about what is to be learned and how.

Explain to students how they can earn your trust:  Explicitly tell learners how they can impress you with honesty, academic effort, politeness, and consistency.

Adjust the learning environment:  Desks arranged into clusters demonstrate trust.  Rows do not.

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