​GETTING TO KNOW YOUR PUPILS. #starlingschool 

In Starling School, we believe one of the primary goals of a teacher is GETTING TO KNOW EACH ONE OF YOUR PUPILS. As you become acquainted with them you will know more about their personalities, strengths, weaknesses and inevitably create individual connections with them. When this is established, relating with them becomes easier.
As a teacher, how much what time and effort do you put into getting acquainted with your pupils?
Let’s consider these ideas:
Knowing the names of your students should be one of your initial goals. It doesn’t just end with knowing their names, but also learning how to correctly pronounce it, as this might be difficult in cases where the teacher is not familiar with names from that ethnic group or country.  It could be disheartening to pupils whose teachers can’t pronounce their names correctly, and might easily result to other pupils making fun of that pupil. 

Knowing the families of your pupils helps you as the teacher to understand them. You can ask parents vital questions about their children, what you should know about them. It is like studying ahead of an examination, because gaining the trust of a child could prove that difficult. 
Watch your pupils to observe how they interact and relate with others. This will help you as a teacher to handle each child according to their abilities. Look into their past school records, if possible, to have a sense of their current abilities. As you do, you’ll find areas where they might require extra support. 
Getting to know your pupils beyond academics could also be a way to treating them as human beings and not just PUPILS. Ask questions about their interests, background and many more. You could do this in form of a composition or a game. It doesn’t have to be like an interrogation where the pupil sits and the teacher hovers over them asking a hundred and one questions. Your students should be relaxed around you and not tensed up. Your love for them should be real and not superficial. When they develop a sense of belonging around you, they become easily teachable. 
There are lots of ways to know your students and to build a positive relationship with them. Work on these and build up from here.