'I’ve been teaching for 15 years and this is honestly the best thing I’ve ever done.'

The teacher-student relationship is known for being extremely important, yet also for being difficult to maintain at times. So when one teacher shared how she managed to break through to her students and successfully encourage them to open up to her about their personal struggles in the classroom, it is no wonder that it went completely viral, with fellow teachers labelling it “genius”.

It’s an idea that is so simple and so easy to implement in any classroom, yet so clever; the results speak for themselves.

Julia Brown, a high school teacher for 15 years, recently introduced an ‘I need’ box into her classroom and shared with her Facebook friends the impressive results.

“It was a way for my students to ask for help without having to come directly to me,” she explained. “They would write it on a card and leave it in the box.”

After one week of the box being introduced, the Texas teacher was amazed by how quickly the students had accepted the new method of communication with their teacher.

“The first week, two boys let me know about a bullying situation. We got it taken care of.”

In the following week, Ms Brown changed the format slightly so that every student was encouraged to try the new practice. She told her students that every one of them must put a card in the box every day.

“They didn’t have to write on it, but every student visits the box daily.

“Since then, I’ve had a plethora of ‘needs’ submitted,” Ms Brown said in her Facebook post. “They range from specific supply needs, seat changes, special handshakes when entering class, after school help, bullying situations, and even daily hugs.”

Ms Brown shared that what particularly surprised her was how many students began trusting her more, and started to go directly to her, “bypassing the box completely”.

“I’ve been teaching middle school for 15 years, and I can honestly say this is the best thing I’ve ever done to reach my kids this early in the school year.”

The post has garnered 92,000 reactions, and has been shared nearly 100,000 times.

Many teachers commented praising Ms Brown for her idea, and for sharing it so that other teachers can implement it into their own classrooms.

“This is the best thing I’ve ever seen a teacher do to help their class”, one woman said.

Others noted that this is a tool often used in the sex-education curriculum in primary schools, but that applying it to regular classes is a “brilliant” idea.

Ms Brown concluded her post by saying she hopes “many other teachers find it as successful as I have.”

Do you have any primary school teaching ideas that have worked in your classroom, or with your kids? Share in the comments section below!