How Do You Help Your Students Feel Valued? 6 Best Tips

Loneliness. Isolation. Disconnected. Withdrawn. Such a gloomy environment makes students hate school. Students can get overwhelmed and feel like they don’t belong.

helping students feel they belong

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As they go along with their routines each day, they may feel exhausted and they tend to feel unsupported and unappreciated. Well, these students need authentic appreciation. They need to belong.

Students should feel better in the learning environment. They should feel valued. Thus, may I ask how do you help your students feel valued?

In this post, I will gladly share practical tips to help students feel their worth and create a sense of belonging in the classroom. You should consider these extra tips to make your students feel valued so they can become more engaged in learning.

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How Do You Help Your Students Feel Valued?

How do you show you care for your students? Do you put in extra effort to show that your students experience a sense of belonging in the classroom?

When students feel that they are well-supported and that they belong to a safe learning environment, their motivation increases and their performance improves.

Students are more likely to get involved in classroom and school activities if they feel that they are being appreciated and assisted.

Fostering a sense of belonging is critical in student learning. Students will be more engaged if they experience this in the classroom. It is about acknowledging their strengths and recognizing their weaknesses.

Your choice and decision on inclusivity in the classroom should be made consistent and should be felt by everyone in the classroom and just by a chosen few.

6 Best Tips for Helping Students Feel Valued

Try to consider these practical and leading tips in fostering a sense of belonging in the classroom to strengthen good relationships in the classroom and magnify student engagement.

Orchestrating a learning environment that promotes inclusive education will heighten a sense of belonging and will help make students feel valued. How will you do it?  Try these best practices.

1. Provide timely and constructive feedback

Have you tried providing regular feedback to your students? How does it work? How do you express your lines of thought that a particular student’s work needs improvement? Do you give your students opportunities to improve their work based on your constructive evaluation?

More and more studies have shown the impact of effective and timely feedback on student performance as it increases learning opportunities in the classroom.

Feedback is important in learning.  Crafting helpful feedback requires practice and honing your inspiring words so students won’t get disconnected or intimidated.

The words should make sense to your students. Every word you say serves as an effective guide for the students to do better and improve their outputs. Hence, it should be given on time. It should be crafted effectively.

Additionally, timely feedback provides an opportunity for growth, and students should not be deprived of their great privilege.

By giving timely feedback, students will feel supported. They feel that they matter and this boosts their confidence and keeps them engaged in doing varied learning tasks given to them.

Hearing that they’re doing a great job and it can be more effective when they do this and that, will make them feel that their efforts are worth it and so they grow.

2. Open quality lines of communication

In an educational cycle, among other things, communication is very important. You should know the perfect line to reach out to your students. On the other hand, your students should know exactly how and when to express their ideas and their feelings.

This is effective communication. Opening quality lines of communication will make the students feel they belong because they have been given enriching opportunities to be heard.

When a lesson is quite challenging and students really feel intense for support, do you make sure that they are self-assured to approach you?

You can communicate their worth by giving them opportunities to interact and share with you their ideas and opinions. It really matters. Your students should not feel intimidated to open up and say their piece.  Make them feel that you accommodate their ideas and you can listen.

After class, you can set up a portion of your time interacting with your students and it should be felt by everyone. Or you can create a Group Chat or any social media platform where students feel safe to bring about their concerns and issues.

You should know how they feel and they should know as well how to express it!

3. Get to know students very well

Know their interests, likes, and dislikes. What is it that keeps them excited? What about their learning styles? Do you even bother profiling your students so you will know their learning preferences? Do you bother to know their birthdays and celebrate them?

If you know your students very well, you can make adjustments to your instructions and embrace individualization.  This is not just about knowing and pronouncing their names correctly, but it’s more in-depth.

Take time to know each of your students. Dig into what interests them. Delve into what keeps them excited. Investigate what makes them exhausted.

Getting to know your students very well is providing them equal opportunities for growth. When you know each one of them. You can tailor-fit your instructions and modify the learning tasks to ensure that each one can learn best.

When you know your students very well, you know exactly when to differentiate instruction and when to make adjustments to learning activities. You will have an idea of how to make things work in the classroom and how to make your students learn effectively. This way you can help your students feel that they are valued.

4. Listen to them and give them opportunities to share their ideas

Your students have practically wanted to share their insights. They have these little voices in their minds that they want to let out. But do you give them opportunities to share these little voices?

It’s about interaction. Giving students opportunities to interact and share what they think will make them feel valued. When you listen to their insights, you are giving them the best chance to improve their performance, do better, and accept challenging tasks.

As you listen to them, they will feel that they are appreciated and supported. Their worth is given importance and they will feel it.  This can enhance their confidence in sharing and communicating their thoughts. They will trust you because you appreciate them.

By giving the students the chance to express their thoughts and by listening to them, you are also teaching them how to enhance active listening which they can also utilize in learning.

Model active listening and your students will do the same. Hence, this particular is strengthened at the same time.  It’s a pathway to enriching interactions in the classroom and to making students feel valued.

5. Build positive relationships

building positive relationships

All four practical tips mentioned above will lead to building positive relationships in the classroom and will help students feel they are valued. When strong relationships develop, your students develop mutual trust.

Thus, you should take the lead in building trust and confidence in the classroom to build a sense of community.

Building positive relationships in the classroom should be the responsibility of everyone in the classroom. You should make your students feel its importance.

When we talk about relationships in the classroom, it is not only about how you deal with your students but it is about the connections of everyone in the learning space.

But everything starts with a strong teacher-student relationship and the rest of the extra attachments in the classroom will follow.

You establish strong connections with your students by interacting with them and by being so responsive to their academic and social needs, you are engaging them to learn and making them excited to learn.

As a teacher, one of the most significant influences you can make is how you make your students feel. When your students can feel your efforts that you care for them and you are doing your best to make things work for everyone, they feel that they are valued.

More likely, students will work harder as they are more engaged. With the strong relationships you have built in the classroom, your students will collaborate and perform at their best.

6. Celebrate differences

Each child is unique. Most misunderstandings are caused by one’s failure to acknowledge and appreciate their differences. Yet, we continue and we never recognize how it affects our students.

Classrooms nowadays are becoming increasingly diverse. As a teacher, you should perceive the differences in the classroom and recognize the capabilities of your students.

Addressing the differences in the classroom by structuring your lessons accordingly and intensifying connections.

Your inclusive decisions in the classroom will help the students develop deeper engagement with the school.

<<<To give you inspiration on how to celebrate student differences and appreciate their unique capabilities, watch this video.

Conclusion

When students feel connections in the classroom, they feel that they are valued.  The sense of belonging in the classroom can do magic! It decreases the occurrence of disruptive behaviors and promotes positive interactions.

Developing a greater sense of belonging in the school can impact student performance.  Their well-being is of the essence. Practically, it’s a way of encouraging students to work hard and collaborate.

If you want your students to learn better, then you should help them feel valued. Have I missed important points? Feel free to share your thoughts below.