Love and Logic - Creating Relationships

In my 2 1/2 years of teaching, one important concept that I've discovered is that students are ALMOST ALWAYS more focused, better behaved, and more respectful in the morning. As I would expect then, my strongest relationships are with those students who I have in the morning. I am more alert, relaxed, and energetic; they, too, are more compassionate, respectful, and focused. In the afternoon, however, both the students and I are drained of our motivation, anxious to get out of school, and overly energetic after playground and lunch time. My afternoon relationships really suffer because of this physical time line of the day.

On the same note, I am very aware of the imbalance in these relationships and I try to go above and beyond to build relationships with my afternoon classes. I spend more one on one time with those students, provide specific praise more frequently, and encourage appropriate decision making. Each day is still a struggle with my afternoon kids, but because I am more aware of their needs, I can appropriately respond to them.