“Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
In today’s exercise we will go out of our way to connect with one of our students. Our goal will be to show that we genuinely care about a student and his or her life. This is such a simple exercise and there isn’t much else to say. If you will see students in class today, then make sure you are in the classroom early or able to stay late so you can talk to one of your students.
Ask them questions.
Listen rather than talk.
Get them to share something interesting or something they are excited about. You might even record some of what you heard in your strengths chart that you completed on day 9.
If you won’t see your students today, write a letter or an email that starts a conversation. Make it short and ask lots of questions. The goal should be to spark a conversation to help them open up to you. Tell them a story about yourself, but only if you think it will help them talk more about something going on in their lives.
Once you finish brainstorming or pre-writing the letter, write it out by hand or type it up to hand to the student next time you see them. Otherwise, use the letter to guide the conversation you will have before or after class.
