Building Connections with Students and Danny Kamps

Description:

Episode 2: In this episode, Danny Kamps, a Keene Middle School teacher, joins Edge of Leadership host, Anne Louise Wagner. The pair discuss how connecting with students is crucial for education to be impactful. Learn how these social events exceed just a teacher-student relationship and in fact, involve all facets of the school experience. This means the inclusion of both peers and other education staff as well. To gain further insight into this, Danny delves back into his own middle school experience to uncover what kind of impact building connections with his teachers had on him. 

Validating student experiences is the key to forming long last connections. Oftentimes, mainly due to generational differences, teachers will have difficulty understanding how an issue affects a student. The same goes for building connections through casual conversation and the differing interests that present themselves. Danny relates how he manages this challenge and goes beyond simply validating to providing a space where students don’t find themselves being invisible.

Lastly, learn more about how COVID-19 and remote learning impacts the ability of educators to build connections with students. Afterward, Danny shares what inspired him to be a teacher. To learn what other kinds of work High 5’s EOL program has accomplished with the Keene School District, click here.

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