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!
Top Comments
I can say my sibling and I could have used such a box in the 1990s to report domestic violence... years alter we learned many adults around us (teachers, friend's parents etc) knew something was a bit off, felt sorry for us with our parent, but no one ever asked, offered help, stepped in. We needed it. We had no other family around.
Such a great idea. Sometimes it’s a lot easier to write something down than to say it out loud.
Yeah. I think the cool part is you can add a note anonymously which creates a sense to the kids that someone is listening and encourages them to directly engage with their teacher.
It does make me wonder though, how much are teachers today expected to care for the mental health or well being of a student besides being a teacher and simply teaching your particular subject, be it maths or geography or whatever.
Probably best for a full article later. I just found the thought interesting.
I have a few friends and family who are teachers, and you’re right, there’s a whole (looooong) article in all the extra support teachers are having to give.