How to make a good impression on your teachers for recommendation letters

Hi there! I’m a 10th grader, soon going to 11th grade. For the past 2-3 years of my life, I’ve had excellent relations with my teachers, including my history teacher (which is important because I’m looking to pursue the humanities) and my coordinator who both wrote recommendation letters that ultimately got me into a super competitive summer program. Moving to 11th grade, I’m going to have a completely new set of teachers (I got to an IB school) and I’m super nervous about building a relationship with my teachers as they will be the ones writing my college LoRs.

I’m a very active, bright, social confident student (1st in my class) but it’s tough for me to have personal conversations with my teacher’s unless we have something in common (eg: my history teacher was interested in fashion like me). I have no idea what my new teachers will be like, so do you guys have any recommendations to ensure I make a good impression? I love helping out my teachers and assisting classmates that don’t understand the material, but I’m not sure how to do so without coming across as stuck-up or condescending. I also have plenty of out of school achievements, but again, I don’t know how to talk about them while making a first impression.

EQ and how different teachers react to individual traits is very personal. There is no recipe book. If you have been successful in the past establishing good relationships, you’ll likely be successful continuing to be yourself.

Personally, I have written a bunch of recommendations for employees applying to law and business schools. The traits I look for are:

Intelligence
Diligence/perseverance/taking accountability
Being proactive and pushing oneself
Being a leader when called on but always being a teammate

Characteristics which are negative

Arrogance
Selfishness
Blaming others
“Kiss asses”