What is an afternoon meeting?

An afternoon meeting is just as important as a morning meeting. The afternoon meeting allows for you and your students to wrap up all that occurred during the school day. This is an ideal time for students to express themselves, their feelings, their accomplishments, and their goals for the next day. You will be surprised at how honest your students will become when sharing about their feelings for various parts of the school day. By exploring your student's feelings, accomplishments, and goals will allow for your students to acknowledge how they feel and express why. This can be amazingly insightful because it gives you a front row seat to get immediate feedback from your students about their day. Towards the end of the year I had several students begin sharing that they were bored with our math activities. I had NO IDEA they felt that way because they were completing the activities as instructed and were enjoying them. Once I heard that, I immediately began thinking about how to change their math activities for the next day. The most amazing part was that they felt comfortable, confident, and safe to share those feelings with me. Letting your students also have time to "brag" about their accomplishments is also very important! It allows your students to share their successes with their peers and have a proud moment of feeling prideful in their school work and that you care about their positives. I always end my afternoon meeting with my students setting goals for the next school day. It could be a behavioral goal, an educational goal, or a social emotional goal. I have the students actively reflect on their day. I walk them through each part of the day while they play their "movie" in their mind. Then I have them think of their goal for the next day and write it on a post-it note. This post-it note stays on their desk so that when they come in the next morning, they are reminded of their goal and can start their day working towards achieving it.