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Too often, we all come across teachers talk about how helpless they feel when it comes to making that connection with their students and reaching out to them. The days of being the person whose only job included to exclusively provide students with an education are long over.
 

If you are a teacher-counsellor of today’s 21st century inclusive classrooms, it's important for you to understand that there are many other aspects in a student’s life outside the classroom and how essential it is to show interest in a student other than studies. Moreover, educators can also develop their educational counseling techniques by pursuing child counselling courses for teachers.
 

Some of the ways to develop individual connections with students are discussed as below:
 

Be Available
 

Letting students know that you are available to them will definitely help you build that much-needed connection with your students. You can be available for some time before school starts. Let your students know that you are there for a specific time where they can come to you with prior intimation and talk to you about anything they feel like.
 

Use Duty Assignments to Make Student Connections
 

Most teachers have an assigned duty station before and/or after school. In that case, use this to your advantage. That could be early morning/afternoon duty in the hallway, in the extra-curricular activity classes or places other than the classroom, where the students are most likely to be themselves.
 

Share A Meal
 

You can also have breakfast/ lunch together. This need not be an everyday affair, on occasions, try having your food in the room with the kids. This gives scope for you and your students to talk about stuff, tell jokes, discuss about friends and family, fight with siblings, argue about video games, and other topics.
 

Use Data to Make Student Connections
 

Have a look at the attendance, achievement, and discipline data of your students to identify them who may need some personal attention and time with you, so that when intervention is necessary, you already know the student. They may include the frequently absent student, the low performing student, or the student with multiple socio-emotional offenses. The students would definitely benefit from this sort of positive interactions with you.
 

Sponsor a Club
 

Extra-curricular activities are indeed a great way to make positive connections with students. It certainly does take additional time out of your day, but the net result can be very rewarding in growing relationships. It gives students a different perspective outside of your regular role as an educator.
 

Remember Student Birthdays
 

Student birthday is a simple yet effective way to connect with each student. Create a master student list to sort students by date of birth to get organized for each month. Surprise your students with this small gesture and see the lovely gestures that your students come up with.