Teaching and Coaching

I would tend to agree with you about the fact that teachers who coach/sponsor ANY type of extra-curricular seem to have a better connections with the students. In many cases I have seen that there are less discipline issues as well. The flip side to this is there is more of an issue with students overstepping boundaries (i.e. talking about sports when they should be talking about verbs). I think the reason that the students seem to be, as you put it, "closer" to the students is because the students are afforded an opportunity to see the teachers outside of the classroom setting. The students begin to see that you are passionate about some of the same things as they are be it football, theater, or debate (and the list goes on...).