Student Relationships

Something that has been on my mind for some time now is the fact of student/teacher relationships. I am a very friendly person (or so I'd like to think), and I look forward to creating a very friendly, open, and enthusiastic classroom atmosphere. I am lucky enough to be surrounded by like-minded teachers at my placement school, who work almost as hard on their friendly relationships with their students as they do on what they are teaching.

I was told yesterday that I should be wary (to the point of paranoia) of how I interact with students. An example of a female coach of a female team at an away game was given. After the game there was one girl left who needed a ride home, and another parent asked the coach if she wouldnt mind as they were going the opposite way, but she said no because she was so worried about possible implications. I was shocked at this story. I plan to be a coach, and at the very least be involved in other after/out of school activities. If that had been me, i wouldn't have even hesitated. If it was a recurrent issue that would be different, but there is a VAST difference between being a friendly and caring person, and coming off as some sort of predator.

Along with my self-diagnosed friendliness, I would also say that I'm a fairly intelligent person, who won't be putting myself in questionable situations as a rule. I am not naive enough to think that situations won't arise that I feel surprised at, but I do think this one professor is scaring his students and attempting to pass on his own paranoia... I just hope that others are as skeptical about him as I am!