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/