• HyperDocs Admin
• 12 Nov,2020
• BLOG

Teaching Gratitude

In the Spirit of Giving
Giving is what we are all about, and that is why we started Teachers Give Teachers. We believe, whole-heartedly, that teachers can build each other up by sharing ideas and best practices, while also reaching more students! By giving HyperDocs away, we have built a community of educators around the globe. Giving is our jam! In this post, we give some lessons and ideas for you to turn and offer your own students. These giveaways are mostly centered on the theme of gratitude.

During a time of social unrest, and as the pandemic continues to challenge individuals and communities across the globe, focusing on gratitude feels more important than ever. Gratitude has been shown to improve social, emotional, mental, and physical well-being.  In previous blog posts like this one, we refer to the CASEL Core Competencies. By teaching gratitude to students, you can help develop self-awareness and social-awareness. And although the traditions of Thanksgiving vary from family to family, or culture to culture, it can often be a wonderful time to pause and concentrate on the universal themes of giving thanks, and expressing gratitude. Noting the good in our complex lives is a meaningful practice for us as tired educators, but also to model self-care practices for our students. 

Now for the Giveaways...
These lessons can be quickly remixed to teach in any current classroom scenario - whether you are 100% remote, hybrid, or full time face to face in a blended learning environment. Once you FILE>MAKE A COPY you can revise the content links for your own needs! 

• Giving Thanks   This multimedia text set includes a short film, infographic, two video read alouds, and some poems -- all centered around one theme. (for primary students)
• An Attitude of Gratitude.  This lesson is a simple way to get students to see the good around them in both concrete and abstract ways. Watch the gratitude grow as ideas are shared through Answer Garden and Padlet. (ideal for elementary age students)
• Design a New Balloon for the Macy’s Day Parade   This lesson builds background knowledge on the history of the annual parade, ties in persuasive writing, and fosters design thinking. HyperDoc created by Nadine Gilkison. (ideal for elementary students)
• Gratitude HyperDoc This lesson focuses on annotation skills and the Common Core reading standards “Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.” Embedded within the lesson itself is a collection of multimedia resources for learners to EXPLORE. (for students in grades 3-8)

Kelly Hilton curated a beautiful collection of lessons and activities from Breathe for Change. These ideas support individual self-care and community building around gratitude.  We know you will find a wellness practice here that you can use for your learners of any age.

Here are some of our favorite resources to consider including if you are building your own multimedia text set or HyperDoc from scratch or remixing for your own classroom:

• Teaching Tolerance
• Greater Good Science Center, UC Berkeley 
• Gratitude Heart Map

HERE is a Wakelet collection of these gratitude resources if you would like to save the collection, or you can make a copy and add on your own favorites! 

Teachers Give Teachers would like to give you all our sincere appreciation for your patience while we upgrade our Teachers Give Teachers website. The spirit of the community is still alive and well, and can be found at FB, Twitter, website samples, and on different Padlet resources in circulation! We canNOT wait to share with you the updated website … coming soon!