I think one of the best tools to get 100% student participation is being genuine with your students.
When we're genuine, we can build relationships of trust with our students.
When I talk about social media and the importance of building relationships, I often say, "You don't want to buy a product that would effect your families well being from a perfect stranger. You'd want to buy it from someone that you trusted (a company or person)" This is true for our students.
As educators we're selling the product of education and ourselves as instructors. I had a wise administrator Phil Moore who said to me, when I first started teaching, "Make your students hire you as their teacher." After he told me what he meant, I started to realize that I had to be true to myself as well as my students. Before that time I was focused on curriculum, teaching techniques, teaching strategies and classroom management.
I switched my focus, after Phil Moore's wise words, to being a real person and not just a teacher; I shared with my students my struggles with learning, my rough upbringing, I listened to my students as they spoke to me about their difficulties....etc.
I knew I was being successful when one night during teacher-parent conferences, one of my students said of me to her sister "She be Real"
Due to being "Real" I was able, with the assistance of a student, stop a student suicide as well as help other students with other very "real" problems. Besides being able to help these students with their personal problems, I saw my students argue/fight over who was going to be able to put their answers on the board. I also saw my class of students who had never passed the state exam, pass (99%)----and it all came down to being genuine with my students and myself. I was being a person and not just a machine.
Besides my professional success I also felt great about teaching, it was a reward to teach. I was excited to go to work. I felt like I had finally found my niche, it felt incredible and it still feels pretty darn good.
Picture: http://logoart.vn/english/how-to-convince-clients-to-hire-you/
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