guest speaker: building rapport
As a librarian, I don't have my own class so I'm often in the role of the guest speaker.
I try to build rapport by:
* saying hello to students as the enter the classroom (or virtual classroom, in my case)
* taking time to introduce myself and tell students how and why to contact me with questions
* ending my visit by thanking the students for their time and reminding them who I am and how they can contact me.
Building rapport in such a short time is not easy. If anyone else has any ideas for me, I'd love to hear them!
Hi Laura,
These discussions and sharing can really help to establish a strong connection between students and instructor. It helps to get them settled into the course for the day and ready to learn.
Gary
Great ideas! I like to ask them about their day or week, too. It can be really interesting when some of the students are already working in their field but they are also a student in some other field. Their perspective on their day can really impact some of the discussions in the classroom and spark others to open up about their life events.
The method that I use in order to build rapport with students is to have a round the table discussion. After learning names I try to learn something specifically about each student and relate to their experiences. Each week I make a point to first greet students,acknowledge their affords in the class basically providing feedback, and ask questions on their perspective pertaining to the course subject (Part of active learning).
I try to build rapport by asking them their backgrounds the first class; by calling them by their names; by asking them if something significant happened to them during the past week which relates to the course materials; by asking them their opinion on certain issues.
Elaine,
What a great suite of tools to build rapport when a guest speaker. Yes, being a visitor in an online classroom can be a challenge to building rapport. I have found that the librarians who are willing to give stories and examples of how students APA reference and cite in their field of study (i.e. IT, business, etc.) are more apt to be harassed by my students! ;)
