Meet Laura Tollis, an 8th-grade teacher who co-teaches math, social studies, language arts and whose primary focus is supporting students with special needs. She describes how she builds relationships with all the students in her class, and offers tips to connect better with those who have diverse needs and invisible disabilities:

When I set out to build relationships with my students, I first recognize that I need to find space to learn something about them. My favorite saying is, “go slow to go fast.” I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the year just getting to know my students. I don’t really touch the curriculum until the second week of school. It’s so important to create a solid foundation.

Once we’ve gotten through the first month of school, I don’t drop the relationship-building. I implement a “get-to-know-you” moment at the start of the day. This year, I’ve been using a simple question in the morning: “What’s good?” It’s purposefully open-ended and encourages students to tell me what’s going on in their lives. 

They can share whatever they are looking forward to or something that is happening to them. Sometimes it’s as basic as letting me know that they had mac and cheese for lunch, or it can be a much bigger event. It starts class off on a positive note and gives me insight into where my students are coming from.