Expressing Gratitude in Your Life and in the Classroom

As the holiday seasons are approaching us, it is important to stop and reflect on what we are grateful for. The holiday seasons gives us an opportunity to spend time with our families and friends. Even though life can prove to be difficult and challenging at times, it is important that we take a second to look at what and who we have around us that makes us the people that we are today. This New York Times article gave me the idea to stop and reflect on what I am grateful for personally. 

Personally, I am grateful for all the people that I have in my life. I am so thankful for my supportive and loving family. These people are always there for me no matter what and always care about what is going on in my life. It is especially good to see them during the holiday seasons. I love having my family all together. I am also thankful for all my friends. We always have a great time together and I am so thankful to have such supportive friends in my life. I am grateful for my present performance in college and my journey to becoming a teacher. I can't wait for the future that is ahead of me for my teaching experiences. 

As effective teachers, the students look up to us as models. Not only is it important that we teach the students the curriculum and build their skills, but it is also important that we model how we express and give the students an understanding of what gratitude is. One way that the students can learn gratitude is by reflecting what they are grateful for in journals. You can incorporate writing journals into the classroom and have the students write down whatever they want in them for a certain amount of time every day. The teacher could encourage the students to write down what they are grateful for as one of the writing exercises and give examples to the students so that they understand what gratitude means. The students could also write letters to their families and/or friends about why they are grateful to have them in their lives.