Kindergarteners chant each others’ names in morning greeting. Third and fourth graders learn what kind of candy they each like (split between sour and chocolate). High schoolers share adventures they’d like to have and qualities they value in a friend. Across schools and classrooms everyone is getting to know each other.

All the things we know and can learn about our students to personalize their experiences and build partnerships is what we call a “learner profile” in Spring Lake Park Schools. Especially at the beginning of a new school year, the process of getting to know each student can take a variety of engaging and fun forms.

The power of names

Anne Stewart Gunay, academic specialist, focuses on personalization right from the start and treating students with the same respect she wants from them. She may comment on a student’s bright smile, a sports jersey they're wearing, a new hair color or something else uniquely them, but there’s nothing like using their name.

"The simple act of using a student's name is powerful whether or not I am their teacher,” says Anne. “It's beautiful to see how using a student's name when greeting them brings a smile to their face or even makes them walk a bit taller and more confidently as they start the day.”

Jody Wenum’s kindergarteners love hearing their names chanted and being greeted by peers during morning meeting.

“A daily morning meeting does a good job of creating a familiar routine while building that sense of belonging for the students,” says Jody Wenum, kindergarten teacher. “They are able to share fun facts about themselves from favorite animals to something that makes them laugh. Many connections are made with classmates.”

Outside Dash Johnson’s classroom, the question of the day on the whiteboard is “What is your favorite candy?” There is a column for sour and one for chocolate. The results are fairly evenly split among the names of the third and fourth graders. The question of the day has been a great way to get to know each other and generate conversations. 

Mel Tuve teaches child development at the high school. She uses the “ABC’s of me” activity to get to know students and help them get to know each other. Students complete 26 statements, one for each letter of the alphabet from “A” - “An adventure I would like to have would be ________” all the way to “Z” - “If I were a zoo animal I would be a _______ because _______”

“This helps me to get to know students' interests, gain insight into what they value and who they are as people,” says Mel. “Creating these connections early is beneficial because we have a lot of discussion in this class and building community early enables students to share their thoughts and ideas more freely.” 

From connection to collaboration

Getting to know each other and make connections is the first step toward collaboration – one of the career and life competencies students are working to develop and master.

Dash’s goal from day one is to not only to get to know each other but to start learning how to work together. For one activity, students lined up on one side of a long piece of string on the ground. Everyone had to cross the line at the same time without speaking.

“At first everyone jumped over independently all at different times,” says Dash. “Eventually numerous students began counting on their fingers acting as a countdown before everyone jumped over the line. Students learned that numerous people counting was confusing and eventually settled on one person to be the countdown. It was a very cool activity.” 

Paige Hosley’s third and fourth graders, also spent time collaborating right away as they worked to develop a treatment agreement. 

“As a class, we established ways we want to treat each other. We split a chart paper into quadrants. In ‘teacher to student,’ we talked about how they wanted me to treat them. In ‘student to teacher,’ I told them how I wanted them to treat me. In ‘student to student,’ we talked about how we wanted to treat each other. Lastly, we did ‘class to guest.”

The co-authored treatment agreement hangs in the classroom. The class used it to create a basic set of rules for their classroom that make it a learner-centered environment they’ve co-created.

Special approaches for special kids

Megan Blakeley is an elementary special education teacher working with students identified with developmental cognitive disabilities. While the students she works with have Individual Education Plans and specific needs, it’s important to Megan that they have similar experiences to other grade-level peers.

“I try to replicate a lot of the same activities general education homeroom teachers are doing, including activities that allow the students to identify their favorites and tell us a bit more about themselves,” says Megan. “For our nonverbal students, we use a speech-production application on their iPads where they can select pictures to indicate their answers.”

Once Megan knows the students better, she is able to adapt various activities to fit each individual student’s level of engagement.

“Each student may be in a different place, and it is my job to meet them where they are at,” she says. “I also try to figure out early on what is motivating to the students. Knowing these things helps me spark excitement in each student to engage them in learning.”

Impacts to learning

The investments teachers make in getting to know students makes a difference in the learning.

“Knowing students as unique individuals helps me recognize their strengths, what they want to improve in, and how they learn best,” says Anne. “I can then scaffold my teaching and choose activities that best suit their learning preferences and personality to maximize their performance and belief in their capabilities.”

Christina Rivera Delgado teaches sixth grade Spanish Immersion students. She quickly builds on students’ backgrounds and interests to more deeply engage them in their learning.

“Knowing the student's interests and learning strengths and needs helps me be able to adapt the activities to support their learning progress,” says Christina. “If a student may want to be a veterinarian in the future, then I can modify the learning by adding their interest into the learning experience to support the student in making connections.”

What may seem silly or fun is often the most critical to the entire success of a school year.

As teachers, getting to know our students is imperative to how and what they learn from us. Unless they feel seen, safe, and secure socially, emotionally and physically, their academic knowledge won't grow as much as it could. Making connections and building rapport with each student has to be the cornerstone of the work we do with them - in every grade. Anne Stewart Gunay, academic specialist