Do You Want Your Students To Like You? Do These 2 Things Backed By Research

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"Why don't they like me?  I mean, we share the same students... why do they do your work and not mine...?"

I was embarrassed and felt awkward.  It was truly an uncomfortable moment.  A fellow educator, far my superior, quietly entered my classroom bordering on tears.  He had had one of those days.

"I don't know, they've all been a little distracted lately" I replied.

As unsettling as the situation was, it got my wheels spinning.

 What makes a teacher likable?

This article is not about the characteristics of effective teachers.  This article is about what makes an instructor favorable in the eyes of their students.  I began digging around looking for a concrete, research backed answer.

The path to the answer lead me from Daniel Willingham's awesome book Why Don't Students Like School to a paper from the 1960's where a definitive answer emerged.

This article will highlight the two characteristics that make an instructor likable.  Why do we care?

Because students will do the work for teachers they like.

Science Says You Can Think Better If You Dress Better

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Andre began wearing suits in high school.  He now wears them everyday of the week, even in his own home when alone.  Currently, he is in a very powerful position as an editor.  He is 21.

Ask Andre why we wears the suit and you'll hear the same response everyone has heard, "I feel more powerful and in control.  People take me more seriously and I think better."

I've always thought he was crazy.  

However, a recent article in The Atlantic got me thinking that Andre was onto something.

The article describes the work of Abraham Rutchick, a psychologist at California State University and led me into the rabbit hole that is the internet.  I dug myself out with three strange, but potentially important implications for education.

Keep reading to learn how we can use clothes to increase teacher and student effectiveness.

4 Ways To Make Thinking Easier For Your Students

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Students don't like school because thinking is difficult according to Daniel Willingham, author of Why Don't Students Like School.

Read it.

Thinking is a slow and tedious process and we don't like to do it for anything unnecessary for survival.  The brain and body have automatic responses to deal with life's most pressing issues.  Think of all the emotional and physical impulses associated with the key components of live: food, safety, and reproduction.

You feel hungry so you don't need to think about whether or not you need food.

When startled, you duck your head and bring your arms to your chest protecting your head and visceral organs.

And well, reproduction explains itself.

Thinking is what the brain does to deal with anything not essential for life and death.  It is combining external perceived stimuli with knowledge stored in long term memory to make sense of an ever-changing environment.

Deliberate thinking is not only effortful and laborious, it is often flawed.  It it filled with biases, judgements, and memories that are dynamic and ever-changing.  Read Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahnmen for more information on how the brain makes decisions.

Students don't like school because thinking is difficult.  If you want your students to like school, make thinking easier for them and facilitate the process.  In this article, you'll learn four ways to do just that.

How Not To Fail Lesson Implementation

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How many teaching professional development resources focus on what not to do rather than best practices?

None.

Try this thought experiment.  Take 45 seconds and identify the number one factor that makes you an effective educator.

According to Google Analytics, there are 1312 people who read The Pragmatic TV Teacher a month, and none of you just thought of the same answer.

There are infinite number of ways to be an effective educator.

But how many ways are there to FAIL?

5 Ways To "Sell" Your Activity To a Reluctant Education Crowd

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Selling is in Ron Popeil's genes.

You're not sure who he is?  Then chances are you're not an insomniac:

You're thinking "ohhh I get it, Public Education is going down the tubes and I'll have to find a new job in the near future..."

Wrong.  Ron Popeil is an inventor marketer: he develops new things and convinces people to buy them. As a school leader, that should sound familiar...

Change in a school is tough, almost as hard as selling people things they don't need.  We can learn a lot from Ron Popeil; stick with me through this post and you'll agree.

Relevant Reading List #5: The Future Landscape of Learning

The Future Landscape of Learning

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A unique occupation like teaching requires unconventional preparation.  The Relevant Reading Lists are a series of books that when read together convey a similar message imperative to teaching.  The books listed are not included in typical teacher preparation programs. The Pragmatic TV Teacher feels they should be.  Reading these will make you a better educator.

The world is changing and so is my philosophy on education.  I started here when beginning to redefine how I approached my profession.  These resources offer a fresh perspective on our future learners.  The ideas discussed in the books were discussed in the popular posts On Ants and Education: Part 1 and On Ants and Education: Part 2.

Consilience by E. O. Wilson
A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink
The World is Flat by Daniel Friedman

A Simple Technique To Get Out Of A Rut

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The school year ebbs and flows like a mountain stream in many respects; student behavior, parental involvement, and administrative decisions are just a few.  Educators rarely acknowledge the most important ebb and flow: their passion to be there.

Stop reading and reflect.  Think about your school year as a whole and think about how you feel about your profession in this moment.

We'd be silly and naive to say that our passion for education, our job, doesn't change.  There are aggressive rapids where it around every bend we careen into a rock and violently get thrown in a different direction.  You find yourself lacking support and reacting rather than being proactive.  Every moment is a problem solving situation and you're the only one available to put out the flames.  Learning objectives and lesson procedural steps are out of sync; activities lack the flow-like characteristic a properly planned lesson should have.  It's tough to be in school when you're a salmon always swimming upstream.  As a result, your passion is low.

However there are beautiful, serene runs where the school day flows into one continuous productive experience.  Your smile becomes the only necessary ingredient to solve a problem and your body language exudes confidence.  Students react with unparalleled enthusiasm and your lessons begin planning themselves.  You passion to educate is high.

This up and down cycle is natural, and we'll not spend time assigning its cause.

We arguably teach and lead better when our innate passion for education shines through.

How do we get out of a rut?  How do we regain our passion when all signs point to a stretch of violent water?

In this post you'll learn a powerful and simple technique to refocus your passion.