Gratitude is a powerful tool for teachers—both for personal and classroom applications. It can be used to help establish a healthy classroom culture as it increases feelings of optimism and joy, decreases anxiety and depression, and helps students feel more connected to their community. Grateful people have been found to experience less envy, resentment, and frustration as well.
Here’s a list of even more benefits for students (and teachers) who develop a practice of gratitude:
- New Friends. Showing appreciation can lead to new friends. A 2014 study found that thanking a new acquaintance makes them more likely to want to seek an ongoing relationship.
- Better friendships. Those who communicate their gratitude to their friends are more likely to work through problems and concerns with their friends and have a more positive perception of their friends.
- Enhanced empathy. A 2012 study showed that participants who ranked higher on a gratitude scale were less likely to retaliate against others when given negative feedback.
- Improved self-esteem. Gratitude can help you feel better about yourself and your circumstances, and reduce social comparisons, which allows grateful people to appreciate the accomplishments of others.
- Increased mental strength. Gratitude can reduce stress, help overcome trauma, and increase resiliency.
- Decreased self-centeredness. Grateful people are more likely to share with others.
All that sounds wonderful, right? Why not put this tool to work in your classroom? Here are eight techniques for practicing gratitude with your students. Try these out as recurring team-building activities, or establish a weekly routine.
- Journal: This could be as simple as having students write down three things they are grateful for, or you can create unique writing prompts.
- Thank You Notes: Students write a personal letter to someone they want to thank—this could be someone that they know, a historical figure, or someone currently in the public eye.
- Bulletin Board / Wall of Fame: Allow students to add an image of something they are thankful for, or a short note of thanks to someone in the class.
- Paper Chain: Ask students to write down one thing they are grateful for on a slip of paper. Fasten them all together into a chain. Find a rhythm of repeating this through the year and see how long the chain can get!
- Surprise Sticky Notes: Give each student three sticky notes to write an anonymous message of appreciation. The students should secretly post the notes in a place where the recipient can discover them as a surprise.
- Quotes: Create posters to hang in your classroom, share a quote on the chalkboard, include quotes on worksheets, and in your digital learning platform.
- Gratitude Jar: Ask students to write on a slip of paper about something or someone they appreciate. Mix up the papers in a jar, then pass it around and have each student draw a note to read out loud.
- Song of Gratitude
- : lead your students in a songwriting exercise on the theme of thankfulness. The Music Teacher’s Gratitude Journal includes steps for composing your own personal song and these steps can easily be adapted for a teaching setting.
Just as you model good technique in singing or playing, demonstrate gratitude as a part of your teaching. Catch students in the act of helping each other or doing something nice and publicly thank them. Go beyond just a simple “thank you” and include the reason the gesture is meaningful to you. (For example, “thank you for holding the door for me, I would have dropped all these books if I tried to do it myself.”)
You will decide how to implement these activities in your classroom, but keep in mind that you will see the biggest impact by practicing gratitude on a consistent basis. Gratitude is like a muscle that needs to be developed—the more you use it, the more powerful it becomes. Find a cadence that works for you and stick to it—you will be grateful you did!
Thank you for reading, and for the work you are doing with students every day!