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Relationship Building Activities

Noah A. Shepherd

Old Dominion University

TLED360

Dr. Jori Beck

11 October 2023
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Activity 1: Class Constitution

https://www.learningforjustice.org/professional-development/a-new-set-of-rules

As a future history teacher, choosing this activity to do with my class at the beginning of

the school year was a no-brainer. I want to either teach civics or world history, and I will be able

to apply this activity to either of these history focus areas. I want to do this activity correctly

because the purpose of this activity is to achieve high dominance and high cooperation in

student-teacher relationships. According to Marzano and colleagues (2003), the “optimal

student-teacher relationship for avoiding disciplinary issues is high dominance and high

cooperation” (p. 42). If I do this activity correctly, I will have a good foundation for managing

some of the disruptive types of behavior I will certainly encounter.

The first thing I would have the students do is write down two rules or expectations for

the classroom on an index card. Next, I will write down each student’s two suggestions for class

expectations on the board or a large sheet of poster paper. After that, I will teach them and

eventually have them employ the “keep-scratch” method to help them narrow down their

suggestions and ideas.

“Keep-scratch” is a method I learned during Leadership Workshop that helps narrow

down a wide range of collaborative ideas. This method requires every idea contributed by the

group to be listed and read out loud. After the first reading of the list, I will go through the list

with the students and have them say either “keep” to the ideas they want to stay on the list or

remain silent for ideas they deem unnecessary until we have gone through the entire list. Once

the entire list has been deliberated on once, the students will have a chance to make any

comments about the remaining ideas on the list.

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I plan on repeating this process with my students until I have reached a quantity of about

10-15 amendments for the Class Constitution. Even though I plan on doing this activity at the

beginning of the year, amendments can be made throughout the school year using the same

process if necessary. My biggest reason for wanting to employ this activity in my class is

because it requires collaboration and cooperation between students to achieve a common goal. I

will also get a sample of how my students communicate with meyself and each other.

Activity 2: Introduction of the Teacher Video

https://animoto.com/play/oKrlDj2YeAizNvaD6hBWXg

Another activity I would like to do on the first day of class is play a little introductory

video about myself. Animoto is a hybrid between a presentation and a video, so the application

was perfect for creating a video to give a little peeak into my personality and personal life. In the

video, I included information about who I am, where I am from, and what my interests are. I

have pictures of meyself, my family, and other things that are important to me. A personal twist I

have added to this traditional “first-day-of-class” activity is before I show my students the video,

I want each of them to come up with 3 adjectives they think best describe me. I will let them

know that I will be the only person to see what adjectives they come up with. After they have

watched my self-introduction video, I will ask them to come up with 3 more adjectives to

describe me after watching the video. By doing this activity, I am humanizing myself rather than

portraying myself as the “scary and mean new teacher.”. Most importantly, I will get immediate

first impressions about myself from my students and make any alterations to my communication

or teaching style from the beginning.

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Activity 3: Check-Up Rewards

https://www.teachforamerica.org/stories/the-power-of-first-impressions

The third activity I plan on doing to improve my relationship with students involves them

signing up for brief meetings with me where they can talk to me about anything. Throughout the

school year, I want to have “activity centers” where students would complete multiple activities

or formative assignments for about 10 minutes during a 60-minute window set by me. I will

have a sign-up sheet where students can sign up for a 10-minute appointment where they can talk

to me or ask me about anything they want to. I plan on encouraging the students to use these

appointments for educational or mental health needs, but this activity is designed so students

have the choice and ability to have direct communication with their teacher. To encourage

participation in this activity, I will reward the student with the most time spent at appointments at

the end of the year with a small gift card of their choice. Additionally, rewarding this type of

behavior promotes expressing your feelings or problems in a healthy manner and demonstrates

positive actions taken being rewarded.

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References

Marzano, R. J., Marzano, J. S., & Pickering, D. J. (2003). Classroom Management That Works.

Research-Based Strategies for Every Teacher. Pearson Education, 1(1), 41-64.

Rabadi, S. (2014, 13 March). 25 attention-grabbing tips for the classroom. Edutopia.

https://www.edutopia.org/groups/classroom-management/737576

Zingg, L. (2019, 12 August), The power of first impressions. Teach for America.

https://www.teachforamerica.org/stories/the-power-of-first-impressions

Exceeds Meets Does Not Meet Below

Expectations Expectations Expectations Expectations
(15 points) (10 points) (5 points) (0 points)
Research Course readings Course readings Course readings Course
Base are accurately are somewhat are somewhat readings are
used to convey accurately used to inaccurately used used
the importance of convey the to convey the inaccurately or
relationships. importance of importance of are absent.
relationships relationships.
Relationship Author clearly Author clearly Connection Connection
Building connects connects research between research between
Activity #1 research to to practice through and practice is research and
practice through including an unclear or practice is
including an artifact and incomplete. absent.
artifact and explanation of the
explanation of research-to-practice
the research-to- connection. Artifact
practice or explanation may
connection. be incomplete or
unclear.
Relationship Author clearly Author clearly Connection Connection
Building connects research connects research between research between
Activity #2 to practice to practice and practice is research and
through including through including unclear or practice is
an artifact and an artifact and incomplete. absent.
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explanation of the explanation of the

research-to- research-to-
practice practice
connection. connection.
Artifact or
explanation may
be incomplete or
unclear.
Relationship Author clearly Author clearly Connection Connection
Building connects research connects research between research between
Activity #3 to practice to practice and practice is research and
through including through including unclear or practice is
an artifact and an artifact and incomplete. absent.
explanation of the explanation of the
research-to- research-to-
practice practice
connection. connection.
Artifact or
explanation may
be incomplete or
unclear.
APA and APA style is APA style is used APA style is used APA style is
Clarity used consistently consistently and inconsistently not used.
and correctly mostly correctly and somewhat And/or the
throughout the throughout the correctly paper is
paper. The paper. The paper is throughout the unclear or
paper is clear clear and easy to paper. The paper difficult to
and easy to follow. is somewhat follow.
follow. clear and easy to
follow.
Total points: 60/75

Noah, your ideas for building relationships were great. However, the writing in this

paper could have used a bit more polish and was one of the reasons I had to take points off.

For example, you didn’t have an introduction and this would have set the stage for this

paper and the importance of relationships. I also made some comments on APA style and

other issues I saw. Please also note the comments I made about the viability of some of your

activities. Kids can take things really seriously and your incentive make backfire—just a

thought. The main reason I had to deduct points was simply because I didn’t see a clear
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connection to the research in your last two activities (i.e., citations). Overall, I appreciate

your efforts at relationship building outlined here.