Build, work on and maintain relationships

Yes, curriculum is important but so is every interaction with your student. Although relationships will likely vary with different students, focus on building respect, trust and interest by appreciating their presence, promoting class interaction, listening, asking questions and being understanding of their situation. The more a student trusts and respects you, the more effort and interest you will see from them.

Outline expectations

Clearly indicate to students that you expect them to complete thorough work, put in effort and ask questions throughout their time in your class. Make it clear that your classroom will be one of respect, hard work and real learning.

Normalize mistakes

Students watch carefully how you react to mistakes they or fellow classmates make. In a classroom of learning and growth, we are bound to see numerous mistakes. Teach them (through your actions, your own mistakes and no shaming) that mistakes happen when we try something new and they are a great place to learn from. 

The more comfortable they become with making mistakes, the more likely they are to take risks and approach new challenges with a positive and committed approach.

Real-life connection

Although this is often mentioned, it can be difficult to connect high-school curriculum to students' lives. Start small by learning their interests and backgrounds and connect through acknowledging their lives (farms, or potential careers). Even if it doesn't connect to their personal lives, students love hearing a quick side note or story about oxygen lounges, how someonw you know uses a laser to calculate angles.

Personalized learning

Take notes on where your students are at and acknowledge their personal achievements. This doesn't have to be a fancy system of individual lessons for each student, it can simply be a sticky note with a comment how a student struggled with this question. Days later, you may notice that they have overcome that struggle and simply mention to them that they've learned that concept well. Every time a student realizes you notice and value their progress, they become more aware of the purpose of committing and persisting in their school work. 

Exit slips

These can be quick questions on a scrap piece of paper as students leave class or a Google Form survey in the middle of class. Students begin to understand they need to follow along and understand the material presented. Google Forms also provide a great opportunity to anonymously show the responses to students and talk about how to find the correct answer, providing immediate and personal feedback.

Move yourself to the background

Put students in control of their learning by taking a step back yourself. Ideas for this are to bring students into the lab to see for themselves how different ions result in various colours of solution (instead of telling them that Cu2+ creates a blue-coloured solution), give a task with minimal instructions (forcing them to think about the goal and what each step should achieve) or put them to the challenge of finding a way to prove the Law of Conservation of Mass using stoichiometry (some students may require a little more direction, but others dive in, discuss and thrive on a good challenge). When students have discovered and used their creative and problem solving skills, they are much more likely to remember the material and concepts.