The Monday before last I tried one of his suggestions. At the end of our morning movement warm-up routine, I asked my students to think of three things in their lives for which they are grateful. I gave everyone a minute of quiet think time and then asked for volunteers who were willing to share one or more of their ideas with the class. During that first week students gave a variety of responses, and nobody seemed to have difficulty coming up with three new ideas each day, as I thought they might.

After the first five days of doing this activity, my students and I had each brainstormed fifteen things for which we were grateful. I know that my students are very young (8-9 years old) and that after one week I shouldn’t expect to observe significant changes in their behavior, but I was hoping to see some positive signs, and I really didn’t.   

This past week, however, positive signs began to emerge. One student, in particular, who has a tendency of pouting and complaining when things don’t go her way, stopped complaining. Of course, I can’t know for sure whether this activity caused this change in behavior, but it is certainly possible that it played a role.

There are three “teaching moves” I made that I believe yielded benefits. First, when I introduced the activity each morning, I started by announcing the “day number” and the number of ideas we had generated thus far. This past Friday, for example, I said that it was our tenth day and that we were thinking of our 28th, 29th, and 30th things for which we were grateful. That resonated with the kids, and I think they realized to a greater degree how fortunate we all are when we can think of that many positive things in our lives.

Second, on Wednesday morning, I told the kids that I was at a concert the night before and realized how happy I was to see one of my favorite bands. Right at that moment, I thought of three things about that night that made me feel grateful and I was excited to share them the next day in class. When the kids heard that I planned my list the night before, they seemed to like that, and they came in the next couple days with great ideas.

Finally, anytime during the week when I met one-on-one with a student who seemed to be sad or lacking confidence, I didn’t start talking with them about the task at hand right away. Instead, I first asked them to tell me their three things from that morning. Doing that seemed to bolster their spirits, and then we could address the school work.

I want to close by sharing some of the ideas mentioned during the week. My students were grateful for: art, pets, the protection offered by police officers and firefighters, surgeons, trees, technology, the Sun, a warm bed, medicines, the library, grocery stores, beds, tools, an efficient math system, and electronics.

I’m looking forward to week 3 on Monday.

New Teaching Tips appear every Sunday of the school year.