You’re back in the classroom?! Fantastic! It’s time to shake off that rust and connect in person! Despite having worked with your students digitally, that doesn’t mean your teacher-student relationships will immediately carry over. Before jumping into new material, give your students (and yourself!) time to communicate and reconnect as a class.

Why is this important? Your students aren’t going to learn from you unless they respect you as an educator and as a human being. And that’s goes for students of all ages. (To learn more about how happiness is one of the best learning tools, click here!).

Did I feel a disconnect after in-person began? Of course! At the start of in-person learning, I had students who were more withdrawn than they had been digitally just days before. I’m sure it was a combination of emotions related to the return to the classroom, but instead of ignoring their quiet shift or calling them out on it, I decided to take the pressure off for everyone by incorporating activities that would strengthen our teacher-student, student-student relationships and recreate our classroom culture.

How did I reinstitute our classroom bond? I put questions into a hat and had students answer those questions in front of the class or at their seats. I incorporated target foreign language when I felt the age group could handle it. But in the beginning, I was more concerned with helping my students feel safe and confident, before revisiting material. To reshape their comfort levels, I began with simple questions about their ideal pizza toppings and destination vacations. And as we became more comfortable, I asked about their families and what the students are enjoying and not enjoying about being back in person (some in private settings, some in group settings depending on the student and question). And not all of the answers were positive and beautiful, but they were thoughtful and honest. And as my students shared about themselves, we not only learned about one another, but I assessed how best to approach them and how to teach them. The more we shared as a class, the safer the learning environment became. And I feel comforted by that. So before getting back to the planning, remember that we learn best when we feel our best, so get reconnected!