Gratitude

It feels like we are in the Age of Entitlement.  Rich and poor alike- students generally feel a sense of entitlement towards getting things for free.  As I entered this school year, I was brainstorming ways to  transform that sense of entitlement.  I realized that the arch nemesis of entitlement was gratitude.  Coming from low-income homes, my students are handed most things for free in school.  Break fast and lunch, school supplies, transportation, books, play grounds, Smart Boards in every classroom. So we spend a lot of time talking about how nothing is free in this world- someone had to pay for it and work to get it to them.  We write thank you cards to every guest we have in our room (including the impact they had on us), we say thank you every day to the lunch ladies (even if they never respond).

The biggest way that we show gratitude on a daily basis in our classroom, though, is through Shout Outs.  This process goes like this: any student can give a Shout Out to another student during the Community Meeting at the end of the day.  They say, "I want to give a Shout Out to _________ for (a specific deed the student did)."  They are never allowed to give a Shout Out to someone for "being my friend" or "for being nice."  Since my students run their own Community Meeting, I love to eaves drop on the Shout Outs.  The things my students are doing for each other, without me ever noticing, without them pointing it out to me, and their willingness to recognize that service publicly in front of their peers is absolutely extraordinary.