Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1476161
Gratitude wall This cultivates appreciating the good in others. I want to be a gratitude mentor in our learning community, and one way I do this is by focusing on my praise-to-correction ratio. As a psychology major, I was taught that we should recognize positive behavior six times more than we recognize negative behavior. That's a lot of praise! And while experts don't always agree on the exact ratio, the point is that we want to overwhelmingly express appreciation for the good. Obviously, if there is a safety issue or an impact on other learners, we address it, but do we really need to call out every minor issue? No, we don't, and doing so usually does more to damage relationships than to change behavior. As we model appreciating the good in others, we can create a gratitude wall and encourage everyone to add photos, sketches, and notes sharing who they 're grateful for and why they are grateful for that person. A possi- ble welcoming inclusion activity would be to give each learner a sticky note to write or draw about someone they are grateful for and add it to the wall. Positive affirmations This cultivates appreciating the good in ourselves. We often think of gratitude as other-focused, and that is definitely part of the power of gratitude. But it's a myth that gratitude means we have to be completely self-effacing. We can be grateful for ourselves, and positive affirmations (see positivepsychology.com/daily-affirmations) are a wonderful way to nurture self-awareness, confidence, and a strengths-based mindset. We may struggle to see the good in ourselves, so here are a couple of tools to help us identify our strengths: • Find Your Character Strengths (viacharacter.org/character-strengths) • The Science of Character (letitripple.org/scienceofcharacter), an 8-minute film After discussing character strengths as a class, we can give learners time to discuss their strengths with a peer and ask them to capture their top five character strengths. We can then revisit these strengths regularly through pos- itive affirmations. Notice-think-feel-do This cultivates gratitude as a habit. Regularly capturing and sharing the things we are thankful for is an excellent way to develop gratitude as a habit and nurture relationships. This can happen in a variety of formats, but first consider how essential it is that, whatever practice we choose (for our- selves and for our learners), it's done with intention. Notice-think-feel-do are the four essential components of the gratitude experience identified by psychologist Andrea Hussong. To get started, have learners pick some- thing that they are grateful for, and have them respond to the prompts below. • What do you notice in your life that you can be grateful for? • Think deeply about why you have been given this thing you value. • How do you feel about the thing you have been given? • What can you do to express appreciation? We can use these prompts to teach the importance of authenticity and specificity while also tapping into the true benefits of gratitude. We can also use this as an opportunity to build our emotions vocabulary (see howwefeel.org) by really striving for granularity as we describe how we feel. When it comes to the do, we can give individuals choice for how they express their appreciation. This will vary from person to person, and age/stage is also a factor. For example, younger learners may prefer notes and draw- ings, whereas adolescents may prefer social media posts, emails, texts, etc. More ways to practice In gratitude, as in all aspects of our lives, we see that a one-size-fits-all approach is not effective. In my latest book, Evolving With Gratitude, the contributors and I share many more gratitude practices. There are endless options: We can pick the practices that are right for us and our learning community and adapt as needed. There are peo- ple all over the world practicing gratitude personally and professionally, but there is no one way to do it. The important thing is that we make gratitude a priority for the sake of individual and collective flourishing. Your commitment to experiencing and expressing gratitude will have untold ripple effects, making your life and the lives of those we serve better. This story originally appeared in Edutopia. "We can be grateful for ourselves, and positive affirmations are a wonderful way to nurture self-awareness, confidence, and a strengths-based mindset." 1 3 2 3 to use with learners Gratitude practices 44 cta.org Teaching & Learning