Gratitude in Practice

Kindness Advent Calendar: Day 3

“A commitment to the potential of gratitude in education and the understanding of the landscape of gratitude in the school is a wonderful starting point.” (Howells, 2012, p. 147)

I honestly cannot say that my awareness of the practice of gratitude in the workplace and in all relationships has been changed by undertaking this course. What has changed has been my commitment to consciously practising gratitude in the future, and my understanding of the long and short term impacts gratitude practice can have on myself and those around me.

Throughout my teaching life, there have been many times when gratitude-like emphases have been the subject of staff development: in the whole school setting (such as Lions Quest), in opt in groups (such as Mindfulness sessions) or small group compulsory professional development (Teaching and Learning Communities). There have been times when we have been required to make contact with the parents of all students in our support groups by a given date at the beginning of the year. We have also acknowledged students who have performed Random Acts of Kindness. All of these programmes have been worthwhile – at the time – but haven’t become long term habits of practise. Perhaps this is because the knowledge of the value of each of these practices was not the basis of the practice – in my understanding, anyway.

The timing of this course has meant that I have not had the chance, in a professional setting, to employ knowledge gained and practice gratitude. I do however have plans for the future, when work resumes in a week. In our school, we ‘hit the ground running’ on the first day back. There are many hours of intense contact with our future students and parents, some whose contact on these first few days is the first they have with the school. These are stressful hours; when students may have to select alternative subjects due to inability to timetable, when parents are outlaying significant money to purchase text books and stationery, when queues are long…and temperatures soar. I will endeavour to face these days in a State of Preparedness – looking for the value in each encounter, and practising gratitude as tempers flare and complaints fly. I will forgive myself when I fail, as inevitably I will, but I will also endeavour to take a deep breath and start afresh, with that breath.

I posted in a December blog about the Kindness Advent Calendar that I was undertaking. This gave me an opportunity for 24 days in December to think about and practice gratitude and kindness – towards strangers, family and myself. The acts I needed to undertake were posted daily on facebook, and I documented what I had achieved at the end of the day. It was good to have a gratitude practice to provide the focus for each day. I intend to make this commitment – probably as a journal in my diary – to each day of Term One (initially)

My focus of gratitude in the first two weeks of the term, will be: 

•  to say hello to every person who walks past my desk in the library
• to ensure I, at a minimum, greet each student in my support line in each 90 minute session (there will be approx. 55 per line – so no small task)
• to work at gratitude in each encounter

Wish me luck!

Howells, K (2012). Gratitude in Education: a radical view. Rotterdam: Sense.

Lions Quest (2015). Retrieved January 20 2017 from https://www.lions-quest.org/

Teaching Gratitude

Gratitude “..begins with the awareness that individuals have  choice of taking whatever attitude they prefer in a given situation. The second step requires that the individual attain a certain level of self-reflection so the necessary internal work of being grateful can occur.” (Froh, Miller & Snyder, 2007)

“What stops you from being awake in your learning?” (Howells, 2012, p. 127)

“Whose responsibility is it to assist you to be awake in your learning?” (Howells, 2012, p. 128)

These three quotes have awoken memories from the late 80s, when I was an beginning teacher and when I was sharing a grade 5/6. My colleague and I had two students who were obviously well behind all the other students in engagement and achievement. One student (Jason) was capable of being average, but not interested in any of the academic side of school, but loved any session where he could be hands on. The other (Matthew) was a quiet student, who completed work slowly and to a low standard, and seemingly to the best of his ability. One day we had batteries, wires and bulbs available for Science, and the task was to make the bulb light – however you could. Matthew got down to task, in his measured way; Jason in his boisterous way; and the other students in a variety of ways. Within a short period of time, Matthew had created a circuit and had a bulb lit; the first in the class to achieve this. He came out, and mumbled his way through his circuit, with me repeating his words so he could be heard. His class mates were surprised at his ability, and I believe it was the first time Matthew had ever achieved something first in his schooling.

From that day onward, Matthew became more engaged with sharing his work, and started to have greater success – he was never a brilliant student – but he developed more confidence in class and achieved better results. Jason, however continued in his disengaged (and disruptive) behaviour. I hadn’t realised that Matthew’s electronics success had impacted on Jason, until the parent/teacher meeting, when Jason’s mother mentioned the incident and commented on Matthew’s academic improvement. I think Matthew had been seen as the lowest student in their eyes, and they were happy to be one step above bottom of the class. She was concerned about Jason’s failure to improve. It was clear that Jason had the ability to do well, but was not interested in doing so…however, he obviously had noted Matthew’s improvement, and had mentioned this to his mother. I assured her that Jason had the ability to learn, once he decided that this was something he wanted to do – and from that point there were some small gains in Jason’s approach to the more academic aspects of the class.

Over the years I have wondered if we had been able to identify earlier the ‘failure to be awake’ and the things that ‘stop you from being awake’ for these two boys, what alternative outcomes may have been achieved before the reached Grade 6. Maybe I needed to be more aware of the need and manner to ‘assist them to be awake in their learning’. I certainly have been more of this in my more experienced years, and intend to be in a greater State of Preparedness. I will also work to bring a  greater awareness of this into my future practice. “As Visser reminds us, Being grateful is impossible without mindfulness, recollection and recognition.” (Howells, 2012, p. 134)

Electrical, Engineering – Free Images: Pixabay. Retrieved, January 19, 2017 from http://bit.ly/2iE6Mhb

Froh, J., Miller, D., & Snyder, S. (2007). Gratitude in children and adolescents: Development, assessment, and school-based intervention. School Psychology Forum: Research in Practice, 2 (1), 1–13.

Howells, K (2012). Gratitude in Education: a radical view. Rotterdam: Sense.

Through the Doors of Adversity...

2011 Harvard Commencement Speech

“Through our own example, we can teach our students how to walk through the doors of adversity, gracefully learning to become great people.” (Howells, 2012, p. 123)

2011 Harvard Commencement Speech 

Through the doors of adversity – what a great read I found this chapter of Kerry’s book! (Howells, 2012, Chapter 8).

I had so many ah-ha moments as I read this and marked numerous quotes that spoke to me.           

Joseph Campbell said “At the darkest moment comes the light.” (Howells, 2012, p. 114). This reminded me of a Youtube clip I used with my support group, shortly after the mid-year exams, as we headed into the ‘make or break’ weeks left before the final exams. This clip was part of J.K. Rowling’s Commencement Address to Harvard in 2011. The full 21 minutes is worth watching, but I used just 5 or so minutes from around the 7^th minute (Harvard Magazine, 2011). In this segment Rowling talks about the lessons learned from failure, and what they teach us about ourselves. I used this clip, knowing that some students would not get the results they expected. In doing so I hoped that they would be able to see that failure is not the issue, so much as how you react to that failure. “Focusing on what we can be grateful for can empower us to make different choices, choices more likely to bring about positive outcomes.” (Howells, 2012, p. 120). 

In follow up interviews where students were despondent about their potential to achieve the results they desired, this acted as conversation starting point, an example of how they could overcome the adversity of failure and re-approach their subjects with an altered mind set. Rowling’s interview also illustrated the value of gratitude practice – that even at her lowest point, she was able to list the good things for which she was grateful, and to work forward from that point.

Howells, K (2012). Gratitude in Education: a radical view. Rotterdam: Sense.

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement (2011, sept 15) in Harvard Magazine. Retrieved January 12, 2017 from https://youtu.be/wHGqp8lz36c?t=460