Respect. It has been an issue for teachers to gain students’ respect at some point in their career. At a stage where most teachers are in their teaching “groove,” some still haven’t mastered earning their students’ respect. But no matter what, it’s difficult to teach without it.

Without respect, students are not motivated and will essentially be a non-learner. They will have a dislike for the teacher. This leads to the teachers’ effectiveness going down and discipline problems going up.

As a Special Education teacher, I teach a small population of the student body. Nevertheless, I was voted by the student population, “teacher of the year” at my middle school. I felt this is because of the flow of respect I give which knowing I will receive back.

I know earning respect is hard to earn with some students than others. But the key components in the following list have proven to get student’s respect time and time again.

4 Ways to Earn Students’ Respect

Relationships 

Build a relationship. This is the single most important step that teachers need to build from day one. It will be hard to try and go back and build one in February so make sure you start in September. If you don’t try, students will not think you are genuine if you try to do this later in the school year.

I run my classroom, as I would run my home and I tell my students this on day one.  A family is a top priority to everyone in general so it is something students can relate to. And if students can treat their classroom as their home, disrespectfulness will decrease.

Although, some students might be missing a family member in their life, and this might lead to negative behaviors, step in and fill that void. This opens up lines of communication easily and builds relationships. Students just need someone to talk to if given the time.

Relationships builders-

*Try and share a personal story each day.

*Spend time with students outside of the classroom. Recess, game nights, etc. Also, make sure to spend a lot of time in the cafeteria, eating lunch with them, getting to know who their friends are and just being available.

Sense of Humor

I can’t tell you how many times I laughed so hard in my classroom I cried. A fart or some offbeat comment. These moments led me to have a laugh that opened my classroom to comfort and ease. It also shows you are not a robot teacher.

It’s important to have a sense of humor because you don’t want to take everything personally, especially with discipline. I had students upset at me and have been cussed at before. I’ve had students throw desks/chairs and fight in my room too!

But because I built those moments of laughter, I never took those discipline moments personally.  And we as a class, are able to start every day fresh. I talk about bringing jokes to school in my substitute teaching post. So take a joke and give it back!

Focus on Reality

This is for the hard to reach kids. For most of the time, students who are disrespectful in the classroom are because they are not motivated to learn. To change this, try to apply the lesson to real life so they can see a bigger picture.

Each year, I show a PowerPoint on how a reading level can affect the outcome of how much you make a year life, and how much you make a year depends on if you go to college or not. This gets students focused on reading with a purpose.

Overall, I try to sell education, like a salesman. I know they like nice things: clothes, shoes, cell phones, new cars, big houses…It’s like whatever their favorite celebrity is selling, they are buying or they want. So I reinforce they have to buy the education to get what they want. Which corresponds to, they need to learn in order to get to where they want to be.

Honesty

Be real. They want to earn your respect and you want theirs. I tell my students that anything I say to you, I would say in front of anybody. I make sure to let them know I talk to them just how I talk to my own son.

I don’t change (this is part of a relationship). There is never a time I communicate beyond their capacity of understanding. Remember, you are earning their respect by being real.

Once students know you are the same teacher always, they know you are an honest teacher and respect comes naturally. They will come to you for any needed advice and when there is a problem. This is what you want and this how respect is earned.

Final Thoughts

Once you have mastered these four skills to earn students’ respect you can then focus more on what you love: teaching. There will be less time writing infractions, or discipline reports because there won’t be any. You have already built the foundation of classroom management with respectfulness starting on day 1 of 180.

If you have other tips to share, please add them in the comment section below. Let’s get a conversation going!