Relationship and Life Skills

Welcome to Turtle Shells Online! How Do I Learn? Self Advocacy Turtle Shells Online Guestbook Problem-Solving Skills Communication  Relationship and Life Skills Links to Online Learning and Teaching Sites Online Learning and Teaching Articles Books Related to Learning and Teaching My Online Learning Experiences My Online Teaching Experiences Poetry About Learning Online Poetry About Teaching Online Students Teachers Online Opinions Online Learning Blog Learning the Online Way Online Vs. Face-to-Face Learning Lifelong Learning More Online Opinions Purpose More Student Thoughts... I Read It, But... Final Thoughts-Beyond the Turtle's Shell

In the onine classroom the relationship the students have with their teacher, their classmates an their family and others outside of the classroom all come into play and all are factors regarding how well the student does in the learning process.

Students will be affected either positively or negatively by relationship issues in the online classroom, just as in the regular, traditional classroom situation.  When students are having issues with family members or friends, for example, they might not feel so much like doing their work.  In order to motivate them the online teacher can try to find something they are interested in, or they can try to cheer the student up.  By the same token students who are doing well in their outside relationships will do well in their classes because they will have confidence and will be happy.  That will cause them to have a good outlook and attitude toward their work that they are doing in class.

If you have students who have parents who are going through a divorce, or those who have had a death in the family or of another loved one, it will, as in the regular classroom, be challenging for you as a teacher.  Try to have patience with such students and realize that they are not at their best and will eventually come around.  Try to talk about the situation, but only if they want to and only if they bring it up. Some people want an escape and are not yet ready to communicate regarding their given situation.  Give your student the time he or she needs.

Online teachers must be clear in their instructions. Check your audio and make sure that it is working well, that the volume is up, and that your students can hear you. Have your students check and adjust their volumes accordingly as well.

If possible, it is nice in the online situation if students can have at least some time either at the beginning of class or at the end or both, to communicate somehow with each other. This provides your students with a sense of community and feeds the social outlet involved in education and learning.

Sometimes when online teaching I have had cases where students have not been able to see their lessons.  Usually in such cases it is best to have students log out, but as a teacher make sure that the lesson is properly loaded.  Usually what I do is load the lesson again.  Sometimes this works and then the student can see the lesson, other times it does not and then the student has to log out.  Sometimes even logging out does not work.  Then a quick restart of the computer might work, but typically if the situation escalates this far the student has to then contact technical support. 

How teachers realate to their students and vice versa are crucial situations in online learning.  Teachers should be patient and let students know that they are on their side and are their to help them.  Many students do not have positive prior experience with teachers, and being nice will quickly put such students at ease.

Getting to know your students and showing your concern for them will go a long way toward building positive teacher/student relations in the online classroom situation.

Teachers who relate lessons to the lives of their students will be helping their students a lot because students will be more engaged.  Also setting a purpose for each lesson and sharing that purpose with students is a good idea because then students will understand why they are learning a certain concept.