For Educational Stakeholders

What is Gratitude?  

We tend to hear the word, “gratitude,” frequently in our daily lives, but have you ever considered its impact on instructional and learning outcomes?  Move this World (2018) defines gratitude as ““thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible.”  Dr. Lauri Santos, from Yale University, posits that the practice of gratitude can help individuals lead happier, healthier, and more fulfilling lives in the long term (The Happiness Lab, 2019)..  Additionally, gratitude can reduce depression, blood pressure, and chronic pain over a long period of time. Gratitude can help build core character traits, like resiliency, in as well as help improve an individual’s overall sense of self esteem (Move This World, 2018).  Finally, practicing gratitude, daily, can help train our brains to better appreciate and retain positive experiences and thoughts and to deflect the negative ones. 

When we navigate this school year, fostering authentic classroom and community connections becomes a priority for both our students and our teachers.  Move this World (2018) states the practice of gratitude (in and outside of the classroom) can cultivate generosity, compassion, and other such positive emotions.  As a result, individuals are more likely to build authentic relationships with those around them.  

Teachers:  How do we cultivate gratitude in the classroom?

Gratitude journaling is a common classroom practice..  Students (and teachers alike) can spend the first five or the last five minutes of each class period journaling the top three things (or people) they are grateful for that day.  This practice is known to reduce stress inducing hormones in and outside of the learning environment.  Are you or your students feeling anxious about something?  Take that time to journal those stressful feelings, but frame your thinking around what positives can come as a result of these negative thoughts, emotions, and feelings.  For example, “I am feeling really anxious about facilitating a virtual learning environment this school year.  That said, I am extremely grateful that I have a team of teachers and administrators that I can lean-on to help me through this difficult process.”   

Teachers:  How do we facilitate gratitude journaling virtually?

Teachers can encourage their students to write (anonymous) kind notes to their classmates or other adults within their classroom environment.  The teacher can collect these notes over a course of a week and produce these notes on a slide deck (like Google Slides) on their Monday Morning Message.  Panorama Education Teaching and Learning Team created a Google Form and Google Slide Deck for teachers to facilitate this activity in their Google Classrooms.  

Feel Free to copy this Google Form through which students can submit these notes for your review. (The notes can be typed, or students can hand-write them and submit a picture of it.)  After the notes are all submitted, compile them as individual slides in a Google Slides deck and share it with the entire class. Click here to copy a customizable Google Slide deck for this activity, 

Don’t want to use Google Slides to produce your Notes of Gratitude and Appreciations?  Consider using a Padlet.  This App is free and can be an easy platform to facilitate conversations as well as other learning processes within a virtual and/ face to face classroom environment..  

Do you teach English Language Learners?  Consider using Flipgrid to encourage your students to record themselves speaking their notes of gratitude and appreciation.  

How can our families practice gratitude at home with their students?  

The best way to foster gratitude in and outside of the learning environment is to model gratitude and generosity yourself.  Move this World (2018) states modeling these attributes encourages students to not only be grateful, but to do kind things in return. “[Generosity can] come in many different forms and does [not] need to require money.  Whether it [is] lending another student a [pencil] or writing a get-well card for a sick friend; these are forms of generosity that [adults] can introduce to their students” (Move This World, 2018).  Using this practice can “spark” a healthy conversation at home about how (as a family) can model simple acts of generosity and gratitude in their everyday lives.  

Finally, Numerous studies state literature not only promotes academic gains, but can cultivate thought processes and character traits, like gratitude, both in and outside of the classroom.  Such books include, but are not limited to: 

*Good People Everywhere by Lynea Gillen

*Thankful by Eileen Spinelli 

We encourage you to practice gratitude to see how it can positively impact your individual lives!  

Have a great start of the school year!

Feeling a little drained these days?  I can definitely assure you that you are not alone!  Having to manage our professional responsibilities, paperwork, lesson planning, grading, and all the other hats we wear personally as well as professionally can feel overwhelming!  Each year around the month of October, I remind myself that “this too shall pass.” I am confident seasoned educators are shaking their heads in agreement!  Thank goodness for the Fall Break!!!  :-) Whether this is your first year or your 20th year in public education, know that we all can experience feelings that include, but are not limited to: anticipation, survival, disillusionment, rejuvenation, and reflection throughout the school year!  Remember, you got this!  

Are your students feeling a little unmotivated and overwhelmed? Need some help?  Novak and Anderson (2020) suggests the use of “student-centric” language  to guide and support students throughout the learning process. For example, instead of saying “Here are three things I need you to do…” try “Here are three things to try as you….”  Using this type of verbiage encourages students to take ownership of their actions and work.  This skill is not as necessarily as easy you may think...Try it out at home with your family!  I did!  It’s amazing how impactful our language can have on the relationships we share with the people around us! Celeste Headlee (2016) is a radio host that focuses on the importance of “honesty, brevity, clarity, and a healthy amount of listening” in our conversations and its impact on the relationships we share with our families, colleagues, friends, etc… (Link to Ted Talk) Imagine how healthy conversations can impact the relationships we share with our students?!

Novak and Anderson state, “we [may] not have power over our students, but we can provide them with support to find the power within themselves [to seek out] resources they need...to share what they  know in ways that are relevant, authentic, and meaningful to them” (2020).

So, how do I stay motivated in difficult times?  

1.  Pinpoint what you love about education and live in it.  (I love working with students so I devised a way to organize my time so that I spend more time with my kids)

2. Find solution-focused individuals that will not only support, but push-you to be your best self!

3. Know your limits.  Recognizing when to “hang it up” is critical to our profession.  There is nothing wrong with saying “no, but thank you for the invitation. I need to go home and rest.”

4. Collaboration!  Collaboration! Collaboration! We are a community of educators that are here to support each other through this journey!

5. Pick and Choose Your Battles.  

6. Self Care. Need I say more?  

Link to Articles: 

Positive Words Go a Long Way

Teachers: Staying Positive During Trying Times.  

Take Care All. 

Your Counseling Team