Lesson 4

Being relational means the students have a positive relationship with the teacher. This can be accomplished by showing a warm and caring attitude toward the students. A relational teacher must be worthy of respect, so she should provide a well-run classroom with clear expectations in place. It is possible to be strict about enforcing rules without being mean. It is actually more common for teachers to lose their patience when they are not consistent with rules and expectations. Another important component of building a positive relationship with students is to keep expectations realistic and spend a lot more time praising the positive behavior than punishing the bad behavior.