At the end of the first week of school, I noticed that two or three of my students had their Kudos Cookie note slipped into their binders or hanging in their lockers. Remember — that’s a handwritten note given to them TWO YEARS ago.
Tag: Gratitude
Simple experiments for inspired living
Bernard Bull shares his new project about making connections between knowledge and habits. This reminds me of my post from a few years ago about improving morale.
Gratitude is cheap, yet priceless. See where you can spend yours.
Julian Stodd discusses the free act of gratitude. This is something so often overlooked. Stodd’s discussion of ‘cheap, but priceless’ reminds me of Steve Wheeler’s discussion of sharing knowledge and ideas:
Giving away ideas and knowledge is a bit like love, as told in the story of Jesus and the feeding of the 5000. You can share it around as much as you like, but you still get to keep it, and there is always plenty left over.
Marginalia
Part of Social Leadership is not having the answers, but creating the space, and respecting those who do.
Gratitude is cheap, yet priceless. See where you can spend yours.
I am retraining my brain to see the positives (which I used to be so good at). Looking for the positives does not mean we ignore the challenges… but embracing the good things in life sure give us more energy to deal with the ‘not-so-good’ things when they happen!
Chris Wejr reflects on his efforts to be more grateful, but also to embed opportunities for his staff. He provides a list of possible activities to use, such as:
- Start every staff meeting with WWW (What Went Well) and encourage each other to share something we are thankful for and/or proud of.
- Share a weekly newsletter, “10 Good Things to Talk About“, that includes 10 (often more) positive things that I have observed or staff have shared that we want our community to know about.
- Write a note of gratitude to EVERY staff member that acknowledges something very personal that each person brings to your school.
- Create a gratitude wall for staff to acknowledge the positives they see around the school.
- Some staff have started their own gratitude journals/apps and even challenged their partners to do the same.
- Have every student in the school write one thing they love about their school on a heart and use these hearts will line our hallways.
- Write one thank you card/note or a gratitude email per week to a staff member/colleague.
- Make one positive phone call a day/week to a family at your school.
- Say thank you. Say it often and keep it authentic and personal.
- Buy a coffee a week for someone and share your appreciation.
I have written about improving staff morale in the past. Wejr’s list provides some new ideas to explore.
