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I think it's very important for teachers to get to know their students. There are many different ways to do that. Icebreakers are a great way to start getting to know your students and is also a great way for them to learn about each other. Getting to know your students is an ongoing thing that you have to constantly keep working at, but when you talk to your students about yourself I feel like it'll make it a lot easier for them to open up as well. If there's any down time in the classroom something I want to try and do is have weekly check-in's with my students just to see how they're doing and just give them the opportunity to talk to me about anything they want. It could be about school, home, or anything that they are interested in and want to talk about. This way I am constantly being able to get to know them and their habits and interests.  - Sophia Gonzalez

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In order to get to know my students, I would like to use direct and indirect ways. For the most simple way is to ask them to introduce themselves. For helping them develop the introduction, I would give them some key words or topics. For example, what they will do in the spare time or share a quick fact about yourself. Another way is to give them a questionnaire or a inventory. I would choose simple questions so the students will think their answers promptly. A learning style inventory might be a good option. Besides, for the indirect way, I can also just observe my students quietly. For example, when students working independently on the assignments, some looks frustrated while others might be bored. Frustrations indicate that students feel struggled with the assignment. The boredom can be a evidence that the assignment is too easy for them. Interacting with students parents can be a way to get to know my students as well since their parents have been always accompanying their kids.                   -Wei Long

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Engaging students in group activities provides a good way to get to know students. One can get an overall view of who tends to contribute, who tends to take the lead, and who likes to stay in the back seat during group discussions. Creating projects where students can write about themselves is always a great way to get to know them. For instance, students can create and maintain a blog about themselves as part of an English curriculum. Students can also share what inspires them through art projects that tap into their life experiences (i.e. drawing and coloring a one-page comic about a significant day in their life).

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Another way to get to know our students is to discuss trendy things that they like, or interesting things that are happening in real time. For example, teacher could discuss super-bowl LIII that was played on this Sunday when we get back to class on Monday, and ask students how they feel about New England Patriots defeated Los Angeles Rams. For students don't like football, teacher could also play some interesting advertising videos at the beginning of the class, and ask students to share the advertising video they like. -Jimmy(Heyang) Liu

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Assessment for each class is an effective way we can get to know our students. One approach is to create a "Post-it” activity during the end of class. Teacher could ask students to use academic language and notation to write down the most important thing they learn and one concern/question they have in mind on the post-it. Students will stick the post-it on the blackboard when they leave the classroom, and teacher will give feedback by writing comments and questions for each post-it. Students will need to response to the feedback during the next class by writing their thoughts or answers on the same post-t, and post it again before they leave the classroom. This method is effective and practicable because teacher can get to know each students, and teacher can modify the lecture based on the real-time progress of each students. Also, students will attach importance to this assessment activity, since they know teacher will read the post-it.  -Jimmy(Heyang) Liu

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There are multiple ways that I can get to know my students. Directly asking students to do self-introductions is the most direct way, and at the same time, students can also have an opportunity to know each other.  However, this may just provides me  general information about my students. In order to know my students  better, I would like to build some one-to-one communications, for example, I can communicate with my students through assessments. Every time I grade their works, I would like to leave some comments or write something down, then I will ask my students to reply my notes telling me their thoughts.This is at the same time good for me to know how mastered my students understand the material. Before every class or after class, I would like to chat with my students any topics they interested. Though there are usually only several minutes, cumulating every day helps me know my students a lot better. Students are more relaxed during these time than in class I think. After weekend, I will give my students some time sharing their weekends with the class. From the stories they share, I will get to know their hobbies, personalities, etc. Other students can also know their peers better. The last but not least, every time my students want to talk with me about their life or class material, I will be a good listener. I will let my students know that I am alsways being there when they need me.

Meng Lu

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For getting to know my students, I like to simply ask them introduce themselves, including their names and stories. For example, they can tell the class some interesting facts about themselves, a fun traveling experience, or stories with their best friend. Ice-breakers are necessary for students who tend to be shyer, while most students are willing to share about themselves. To be more specific, one ice-breaker game that on top of my mind would be sending out different color cards to students randomly, including red, orange, yellow, green, purple. Each color card will has a number on it, and each number will lead to a specific question that students need to talk about. Questions such as your favorite summer memory, what do you like the most about this school, or the funniest things that ever happened to you, etc. Students will be grouped by colors, and each of them will take turns to talk about a specific topic within the group, according to the number they are assigned. They will then stand in a big circle, and they can raise their hands to share the stories of other group members to the class. This way, it will not only help the teacher to get to know each student, but also help the students get to know each other. From the stories that students share, and the ways they share, it helps me to get a good idea of each individual student in different ways. I will get to know their personalities, hobbies, abilities to express themselves, etc. Other activities that help to get to know students would be asking them to write a short summary about themselves, or playing games to move around in order to build friendship, ease the tension, and have more conversations with each other.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                - Tongya (Rachel) Jia

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An important first step in getting to know your students is naturally their names. And depending on the age level and maturity, you can make that process as intricate and fun or straightforward and efficient as is appropriate. But in terms of getting to know them on a deeper level like their personality and core self, one potential idea is having each student take on a small role in the class. Once again, for younger students, this might be as simple as line leader or handout distribution. Older students can take on roles with slightly more responsibility or investment. Of course, icebreakers are a classic tool for getting to know your students because they’re typically fun and actively engaging. If your icebreaker is designed to make students think quickly, creatively, and critically, they’re then using so much of their brain to engage with the exercise. And when a student truly commits and engages authentically, they will usually let any facade or mask fall away, allowing you to get to know their most authentic self. However, an important aspect of long-term relationship building with your students involves active investment, observation, and listening so that you can pick up on things that students may not openly share, things like their home life or areas they’re struggling. Because of the default student/teacher dynamic, students tend to only show a fraction of their comprehensive life, which puts teachers at a disadvantage in terms of a holistic awareness of their individual students. One idea which I think can help fuel this two-way relationship is when teachers choose to be open and vulnerable and not try to conceal so much about life or the world or what people experience. Obviously there are standards of what is appropriate to share with a student, but I believe treating them as tiny adults can empower them to feel comfortable challenging themselves and taking on more than we usually give them as well as being open and vulnerable in return. - Jack Sutorius

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An important aspect of becoming an educator is knowing about your students beyond surface level. This is essential for students to become more personable with their teacher as well as finding comfort in any situation, especially through academics. Icebreakers are the easiest but most sufficient ways for teachers to better understand their students as well as their students getting to know their classmates. An icebreaker activity that students can participate in is providing questions cards such as, favorite color, animal, and explaining why. The students can either find another classmate who has the same question or talk to the person next to them answering those questions. Another icebreaker that would be really beneficial would be Two Truths and One Wish, which allows students to either go in front of the class, be with a partner, or with a group of classmates, and they would each state two truths about themselves and one wish and their classmates would have to guess what their wish is. Having the teacher play in this activity would be very interactive for the students because they would get to know more about them through their wishes along with their truths about themselves.

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One can do ice-breaking exercise like having a simple question and everyone sharing that with the class like: Tell us a bit about yourself, like where you are from and what your major is. The class can also be broken into groups and then students pose a question to another student and respond, creating a quick social interaction between the new students that the teacher can then observe. The teacher can go around to the groups and see how their progress is and meet with the small groups in a more personalized way.

Having One-on-One Student conferences is a great way to assess a student’s work and communicate to the student in a way that is more personalized and private. The student can then bring more specific observations about the class and the instructor can address these questions, concerns or opinions in an understanding, calm and private environment.

One great way to get to know your students for an English teacher is ask them to write something. A personalized in-class essay with a writing prompt or question can make students open up. The English teacher also gets a clear insight into the student’s voice or style of writing and can begin to build a social relationship through giving written and verbal feedback on the student’s work. Building a social relationship through a student’s writing can make a task that seems isolating and boring for the student into an interactive experience. Peer review can also be helpful in student’s getting to know one another.

Asking questions of the student like: How did this aspect of the book resonate with you? Is a great way to see if the student enjoyed the reading. A negative or positive response should be respected either way and the teacher can begin to understand the student by what they like to read, what they do not like to read, how much they can read, what their level of reading is and create a more personalized approach to helping the student learn to write and read in a way that is beneficial for the student and creates an open pathway of communication that creates a positive student-teacher relationship.                                   John Rogan

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For high school English, one way to get to know your students could be to assign them a weekly journal to complete, simply talking about what they did or any stories that stand out to them from the week. Having this informal reflection weekly journals that could even go toward a small percent of their class grade (as part of class participation perhaps) is a pretty effortless way for the teacher to get their know their students.Another informal practice could be, at the start of the semester, simply pose this question to the class: "What do you hope to get out of this class?" and maybe having students write out those answers and post them on a wall in the classroom, as a constant reminder of what the students really do hope to get out of a class, and it also might help inform their learning styles, as well. Lastly, you could promote office hours in your classroom to be available to students outside the period to come speak to you about anything on their mind; having this open forum would allow you to get to know students on a person-to-person basis and even allowing on occasion your classroom as a space for students to congregate outside classes (though set limits, of course) because even watching how students engage and interact with each other on a social setting can allow you to learn a lot about them as people.

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One of the most important things you can do when getting to know your students is to learn their names. It sounds simple but the connection means so much to a child when you can address them personally. An activity the students can do on the first day of class is to write their name vertically on a piece of colorful construction paper. Have them choose a different color marker for each letter, and provide fun extras like pompoms, and beads for decorating. The students will be asked to think of a word or two to go along with each letter in their name that describes them. For example, if the student’s name is Mary, she might choose Mighty, Athlete, Runner, Younger sister. Each student can take turns sharing their name boards with the class, which will then be hung and displayed as the first pieces of art on the classroom gallery wall.

Student ice-breaker bingo can help you learn about your students, help them learn about you, and the students learn about each other. You can create a custom bingo game board that contains fun facts in each square. For example, “I have a cat”, “I have a dog”, “I have a brother”, “I like chocolate”, “I like to swim”, “I play baseball”, “I like to go to the beach”, etc. Everyone will receive a copy of the game and the object is to go around the room and talk to each other until you find the matches. When a student or teacher finds someone who matches the description, that person has to sign their name in the corresponding square. The first student to find all of the matches and fills up the page gets BINGO! At the end, you can collect the game boards and review to see which student names were listed in the specific squares. This can give you some insight into their hobbies, siblings and outside activities.

An idea for a journal writing activity is to ask the class “If I found $100, I would…?” There are no limits, and they can choose what they would like to do with the money. It would be interesting to see the responses but to also get some insight into their personalities.

You can learn a lot about a student through their family, culture, and the types of traditions they have.  This can also be a learning moment for the other students in class, since they may be introduced to new cultures. For this activity, students would be given an opportunity to share a favorite family tradition or family activity. The students would each write a short story about their choice and draw a picture to go along with it. If the students are sharing a family tradition, they can bring in an artifact or picture to show the class. If the student is discussing a family activity, they can also bring in a picture or souvenir to share. The students can take turns telling their stories and sharing pictures. These will be added to a family gallery along with any pictures or objects the students would like to display.     - Karen Thomas

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Different activities for getting to know students can include various icebreakers that focus on different aspects of each students personality, interest or background. An icebreaker such as classroom bingo; that includes number of siblings, favorite ice cream flavor is strawberry, or a grandparent from another country. Enticing the students to interact and ask questions to their fellow classmates that they might not find out in daily classroom conversation. Each bingo game could be topic specific or include multiple depending on how in depth you want to go that week.  Another idea is a weekly check in after the weekend, so those that want to share what they did with the class can, starting with your own. Giving the students a glimpse into your own weekend can often entice them to share about theirs.  An "All About Me" assignment at the beginning of the year to get to know your students can really help. It can evolve based on grade level. Including any information they want; such as details on their family, pets, favorite color, books, food, places traveled or interested in traveling to. These can be drawn, made into a collage or even written.