- Narrator: Building relationships with your students
is like building a block pyramid.
There are foundational pieces that provide support,
and without them, your relationship with that student
may not be strong enough to be effective.
The trick is figuring out which pieces are the correct ones
for those strong foundations,
because they're different for every student,
but community trust might be a centerpiece
that other aspects of your relationship can build upon.
[clicking]
- My name is Darnell Hamilton.
I am a resident of Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
a Milwaukee public school teacher now for nine years
as a special education math teacher in the district.
- Darnell believes that developing authentic,
close relationships with students
and their communities is key to student success.
- You can't really expect the child or their parents
to fully trust that you have their best interest at heart
if you have not met them head-on with a conversation
of "Who are you?
"What are the things that you need to become successful?
"What do you need from me to help you
actually do this school thing effectively?"
- Although many teachers ask these questions of students,
Darnell learned that often, these questions need to be asked
of the students' families or communities too.
- I started understanding like, how am I immersing myself
in my students' community?
Am I asking about their family?
Am I posting up at parent-teacher conferences?
You just have a sense of caring about not just one thing
and that one thing being how they perform
in your classroom, you know?
- Asking relational questions with genuine interest
can help create a sense of trust between you and your students
and their parents, especially if that student and family
have a background that's different from your own.
- When I look at my white colleagues,
both male and female, whether they live in a city
or they're in the suburbs, the thing that strikes me most
is just how hard and difficult they find it
to build a relationship with their Black students.
And I'm just like, "Why is that?"
"Well, you can do that because..."
Stop there.
Do not say it's easy for me because I'm Black
because that's a cop-out.
It becomes, “What inside of you is sort of hitting a wall
in that relationship dynamic with your students?"
There's a different approach for each family,
but what remains the same is your energy
and zest for helping your student get through high school.
But the thing about it is you have to be consistent.
You're gonna have great days and communication where,
"Hey, you had a great day.
Let me call your mom and dad and let them know how you did."
Not such a great day,
“So let me actually write you up and refer you
"and try to get you suspended without any communication
coming directly to you or ro your family."
Where is the consistency?
If you're doing that in one aspect of their academic life
and the school building,
you have to do it for the other as well.
- That consistency with the student and their family
can turn itself into dependability,
and that dependability can turn into trust.
- You gain a sense of trust from families,
like you are the parent away from home for them.
And that is essentially the role
you want to garner as an educator,
especially as an educator of Black and Brown children.
Because when we take a look at Black communities
and Latin communities of Mexican, Puerto Rican,
I could continue going.
In those dynamics, the familial education is very important.
That's a very important dynamic in those young people.
Like when we talk about the relationship
to their grandparents, their relationship to their cousina,
their relationship to very much extended family,
well, you become a part of that extended family.
- Being part of your students' community of trust
is one way to really help them thrive.
How are you creating trusting communities for your students?
[bright music]