Catch the Gratitude Bug

Do you sometimes feel that no matter where you look in your school you find students complaining? In the classroom, breakroom, dispensary and even the student salon. Why? Why is there so much complaining going on? I think the reason is because it feels good to complain and blame someone else or something else when things aren’t going our way.  It’s easy to get caught up in the blame game and when this occurs it can spread like wildfire and become destructive. If you find your school or students have the complaint bug, try on this fun activity to help shift your students’ paradigm from negative to positive.

Try this fun classroom activity called the Complaint Challenge:

• Begin by asking your students if they can go all day without complaining.
• Provide students with index cards and ask them to write down any time they feel like complaining or actually find themselves complaining.
• Instruct them to flip the card over and write a gratitude statement or something positive on the other side. For example, if a student finds themselves always complaining about having to do their homework.  On one side of the index card they would write “I hate doing my homework.” Then on the other side they write a statement of gratitude like “I’m grateful for learning a new skill.  It will help me get hired at my dream salon.”
• Instruct students to continue to grab an index card whenever they find themselves complaining.  As this challenge moves forward, advise students when they feel the complaints coming back and instruct them to pull out the index card and read the gratitude statement.

Just like any life-altering challenge it will not happen overnight, however, with dedication and consistency, students will find themselves focusing on the positive and what they are grateful for rather than the negatives.