ABSTRACT
A teacher once said, “They don’t know they are there until I notice them.” This insight holds true since students tend to see themselves as faces in the crowd and often behave accordingly. Personal contact between a teacher and each student at the beginning and end of a period, a lesson, a school day, a school year, and outside of the classroom will send the message that the teacher knows and cares about each person. Even eye contact at the beginning and during a lesson has a positive effect. Though this principle is not always possible to apply, allowing for independent and cooperative classwork makes this personal connecting more possible more of the time. Personal rapport between students and teacher and among students is the glue that holds the classroom together.
