Reach then to Teach them

At the core of my philosophy of teaching lies an unveiling truth. If you can reach you students, then you can teach your students.  If you dig deep into the nooks and cranies you too shall find this to be self evident and very true. You as the teacher should become invested in your learner, not only as your student inside the classroom, but also as a person outside the four walls of the classroom. You will find that the window of opportunity to teach them will be opened. If we are to motivate, and captivate our learners then we must know what their interests are etc. Before we attempt to teach content we must learn their contents so to speak. 
At the beginning of the year I do an activity called interest inventories for my students. I also allow them to share personal journal entries for expressive writing. This allows me to build my lesson plans around my students interest as well as gain a better understanding of who they are, why they are they way they are, and how to better accommodate their individual needs. When an issue arises, knowing your students allows you to know how to better deal with the issue. One can never arrive at a solution to an unknown problem. My notion is that being proactive yields more effective than being reactive. To bring this into perspective, look at it from this point of view. If you have dinner guests, you want to serve them food they like to eat. In order to know what they like eat you must either  know their eating habits or inquire about them. Or you could simply prepare a meal in hopes of them liking whatever it is you may prepare. Now in doing this you are preparing a meal that may or may not be palatable for the dinner guests. Now all of the hard work of preparation is in vain. There is the possibility that they like what you prepare, but there is also the possibility of the dinner guest being allergic, or them being a vegetarian. So would you not say that it is best to inquire, if you aren't familiar with their likes or dislikes or what they can or can't eat.  It is the same way with our students and our lesson planning, if we plan without our students interest and learning abilities in mind, we have prepared in hope of yielding the desired outcome, but with no certainty. There is the possibility of concepts being grasped, but there is also the possibility of lack of interest, learning disabilities, emotional distress, lack of motivation etc. In saying all of that, it all leads back to this. If you reach them, you can teach them.