The Significant Impact of Teacher Student Relationships

Kids Don’t Learn From People They Don’t Like!

Watch this wonderful  TED talk by Rita F. Pierson who spent her entire life in or around the classroom, having followed both her parents and grandparents into a career as an educator.

As the daughter and granddaughter of educators, teaching is in Rita Pierson’s blood. In this talk — Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion a teaser of next Tuesday’s TED Talks Education on PBS — Pierson is going to make you wish you had been lucky enough to be her student. Pierson believes deeply in forming strong bonds with her students: through simple things like apologizing, laughing and just acknowledging their successes, even in times when they are technically failing.

Pierson challenges other teachers to understand the power of relationships.

Every child deserves a champion – an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.

Teachers become great actors and great actresses. … We come to work when we don’t feel like it, and we’re listening to policy that doesn’t make sense – and we teach anyway.