Building Trusting Relationships Starts Here

Building Trusting Relationships: A Strong Start to the New School Year

This month we’re sharing some special insights and resources from our Director of Transformative Practice Integration, Rachel Bacosa. Read below for her reflections on building trust with students in order to strengthen relationships, and learning. Valuable practices and resource included!

Have you ever heard or seen something in your classroom and immediately thought you knew what was happening?

I have. It was the second week of September and my 24 first graders were rotating through math stations. I was working with a small group when I heard laughter coming from across the room. Before I even looked up, my mind had already decided: “They’re off task. They’re not taking this seriously. I need to redirect them.” This assumption took half a second. Maybe less. But what had I actually observed? Laughter. Talking. That was it. Everything else was the story I had added.

What else could have been true? Maybe they were talking through the problem out loud. Maybe the laughter was how they were working through something hard. Maybe there was a whole world at that station I couldn’t see from across the room.
That question has stayed with me—in classrooms, coaching conversations, and other spaces where certainty can arrive before curiosity.

Curiosity changes the response.
Moments like this are why I keep returning to the importance of our Anchor Competencies Framework, and the anchor competency ‘Building Trusting Relationships’. At CRTWC, we view Building Trusting Relationships as foundational to the creation of spaces where learners feel safe, valued, respected, and supported—and spaces where teachers understand enough about their context to let that knowledge shape how we teach, respond, and connect.

Below are 3 practices to use alongside our Framework. Reflect on these practices and how you might implement them in your life and work as the school year begins.

3 Practices to Keep Close

Weave Connection and Context Into What You’re Already Teaching
Connection doesn’t have to become “one more thing.” It can be woven into the routines and learning already happening. Keep getting curious about what matters to your students, what they want you to know about them, and the contexts they bring into the classroom.

Build Trust Through Consistency
Trust grows through what students experience from us repeatedly—not simply through what we say. Clear expectations, following through on commitments, and responding to mistakes with care and respect can help students know what they can expect from us.

Explore Assumptions & Beliefs
Remember: Curiosity before conclusion. Building trusting relationships also requires us to examine ourselves. When we notice ourselves quickly interpreting a student’s behavior, it can help to pause and ask:

What am I actually observing?
What story am I adding?
What else could be true?

Go Deeper Into Building Connection

The three practices are only a starting point. In our latest blog post, I go deeper into building:

connection, context, and consistency
reciprocal vulnerability
examining assumptions and beliefs
helping students build relationships with one another

This is all part of continuing to develop our Social, Emotional, and Cultural lens throughout the year. So if you’re wondering how to keep building trust without adding “one more thing” to your plate, I invite you to keep reading for further insights and a NEW resource

Read: Building Trusting Relationships

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