In 2012 when I returned to full-time teaching, I knew that a crucial weapon for survival would be gratitude. A year earlier my friend Robin had given me Ann Voscamp’s book, One Thousand Gifts, and the practice of continually turning my mind to thankfulness and listing God’s gifts began transforming me. Thought cycles of anxiety and self-condemnation (the ones that turn into the hamster wheel from hell) began to break down each time I chose to change my mental channel, to search for and name even the smallest blessings. I started a thankfulness journal, trying my best not to repeat an entry… #2. Archways #12. Flats of promising baby plants from an Amish nursery #16. Green tea with jasmine #21. The thrill of C.S. Lewis’ words “Further up and further in!” #25. Public libraries #66. The warmth, trust and affection of a little dog curled up on my lap
Number 99 thanked God for His inspiration in creating a language arts lesson for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which I would teach as part of my interview. A few months later I was writing, “Thank you that if I have to sit through a long meeting it’s with kind, funny, kindred-spirit teacher friends in a place I love.” It was a terrifying, exhilarating, overwhelming first year back, like being continuously tossed in ocean waves, only briefly gulping a breath whenever I’d surface. I missed helping our oldest daughter apply for colleges (and am so grateful to my husband who handled that job beautifully), and our family’s main protein source for dinner was peanut butter (not kidding, you can ask them). But in our classroom, there was constant joy and so much gratitude. On the last day, the moms and I wept together from the holy weight of it.
Beginning with Gratitude: Noticing and Recording
One of my top priorities in setting up our classroom was to establish practices which would continually foster gratitude. Every classroom has a job chart, but I added an extra-special job, the Thanker. This was an idea borrowed from Ann Voscamp in a blog entry about Vacation Bible School. Our “Thanker of the week” got to lead us at grace and other prayer times. He or she was also charged with helping the class notice and remember to thank those who help us: the specials teachers, administration, maintenance crew, parents, etc. The Thanker also checked the total number of entries in our class’ thankfulness journal at the end of the day and recorded it on a small dry erase board next to the job chart.
Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. On our first day, I showed the students my own thanks journal and told them how it had been changing my heart. I challenged them to work together through the year to record at least 1000 reasons to thank God. Then I presented the sparkly silver journal I’d bought for us. Ephesians 5:19b-20 was written on the opening page, and their names were listed as entries #1-13 since they were my first gifts from God for the year. Their very first third-grade assignment was to think of something to record in the book by the end of the day.
Logistics and perseverance: Students could take turns recording in the journal after unpacking for the day and at other appropriate times. If we thought of an entry during a class discussion, the Thanker had the privilege of recording it. We started our journal off with a bang and then, inevitably, became distracted and let days go by without new entries. Sometimes I’d jumpstart the class by surprising them with a patterned sticky note on each desk and instructions on the board to record a thanks, and then we would stick these in the journal. Occasionally I gave weekend homework to notice and record three special gifts of any size and duration which would be recorded in our journal on Monday.
Sometimes I would stop what we were doing, sit on my turquoise stool at the front of the class and take “thankfulness dictation” from each student. This last strategy could be especially helpful to refocus our hearts when we were particularly grumpy. One morning, I came to school in a terrible mood that I just couldn’t seem to shake. I confessed my problem to the class and asked them to pray for me and help me turn my heart around by taking some time for extra thankfulness. Wow, did that work for my heart! Later in the week, one of my students found himself in the same predicament and, after a little prompting, asked for our help and experienced the same relief. Throughout the year, there were many opportunities to recognize the benefit and appropriateness of showing gratitude whether we were feeling excited, glad, stressed, tired, or scared.
Finishing with Gratitude….Thanks Door
In my second year, I began the tradition of a year-end display of thankfulness. As we neared summer vacation, we decorated our door with a celebratory border made of bright tissue-paper flowers, photo highlights from the year, and illustrated 4X6 cards showing favorite entries from our thankfulness journal. We had such a joyful time remembering these things, and the students put great care into their illustrations. In the center of the door, we hung a sign bordered by more flowers, reading “Mrs. Bass’ Class is blooming with thankfulness! We have found ________ things to be thankful for this year.” We changed the number each final week until we had reached 1000. Parents and visitors loved coming by and seeing all of our reasons to celebrate. Second-graders stopping by became excited to see what they might experience next year. But, most importantly, my students and I got an attitude boost each time we walked in and out of the classroom and were reminded of the joy of the gifts we’d received.
Reflections: My purpose for prioritizing gratitude in our classroom was twofold. First, our generous, loving God deserves thanks, and, second, our hearts and minds greatly benefit from recognizing His gifts and offering our thanks. The more grateful I become, the more I realize my security in my Father who works all things together for good. My mind becomes more attuned to the Holy Spirit, and I am able to sense even more reasons to give thanks, even in hard places. Such a different cycle from the hamster wheel I first described!
I have frequently noticed that the students most inclined toward gratitude are the ones most open to wonder and the ones who show the strongest love of learning. The encouraging news here is that all students can become more grateful through practice. I loved it when students began to point out reasons to be thankful. I sincerely hope that our time together was fruitful in this venture.
Challenge: Setting up a personal or family thankfulness journal can be transformative anytime but now, during the Coronavirus quarantine, this practice could be especially life-giving. You may want to set a family goal, or you may just keep the focus on the entries themselves. My third-grade teammate Jennifer decided to forego the 1000-entry goal for her class. (I’ll admit that student entries can sometimes become a little wacky or monotonous in pursuit of that goal.) Instead, she worked with her class to narrate paragraph-long entries. My personal thankfulness journals started as descriptive lists, but many entries have now grown to become lengthier musings about what I’ve experienced and learned. An alternative to a journal could be a thanks poster with a mug of colored markers at the ready. You could even spread some butcher paper on the table for a gratitude tablecloth. That could really create some praiseworthy dinner conversation!
Kids can use their growing gratitude to bless others, especially in this time of isolation and dire news. They can write notes, draw pictures, and make calls to share the good news of God’s gifts. Last week, I tried it myself and wrote a note to my 96 year-old mother-in-law describing some of the big and small things for which I’m currently most grateful and asking her to respond in kind. She loved it and was glad to have something other than current events to think about.
Comments, please: I’d LOVE to hear your ideas and experiences of fostering gratitude in your families or classrooms. Where have you seen transformation? Has a child ever helped refocus you? Please let me know if you try any of these ideas.
P.S. I had hoped to publish this post last week but was distracted by journal entry #8002: our new mini-dachshund puppy, Archie!
