Tip 13: Remember the Three Types of Relationships in a Class

At any given moment, there are three types of relationships happening in your online classroom. 1. The relationship between the student and the teacher. 2. The relationship between the student and other students. 3. The relationship between the student and the content. (Believe me, I’ve been a middle school mathematics teacher for many years and have encountered many students with a less-than-ideal relationship with numbers!)

Understanding these three relationships can help us determine how we structure our online classrooms and content (see chapter 7, “Organizing Your Lessons,” on page 91 for more on that). And nurturing all three of these types of relationships helps create a thriving online classroom.

Some examples of what this looks like are as follows. • Having students post videos of themselves talking about something they’re learning about in class (on a program like Flipgrid) is a great way for students to build their relationship with the content. They can also use photo editing programs (such as Canva) to create photos with words overlayed to describe a particular piece of the content being covered. • When students are then directed to view their classmates’ work and provide replies (in either video or written form), we are giving them an opportunity to build their relationships with each other. Taking the time to allow them to chat in smaller groups (such as breakout rooms) also gives them this opportunity. • And of course, when we comment and provide replies, the studentteacher relationship continues to grow and strengthen. Whenever possible, referencing something a student has said or done in the past and relating it to something that is happening now is a powerful way to show students that we’re paying attention to them, and all they bring to our class!