Building Stronger Relationships with Gratitude Visits

What's going on everybody, I hope this finds you striving and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. If there was something that you could do today that could strengthen your relationships with your students, would you do it? If you knew that you could do something that was meaningful, something that strengthen connection, something that would make the difference in someone's day? Would you do it? My name is Brian Martin. I'm a second grade teacher and host of the teaching champions podcast. You ever get a letter in the mail from a former student, or maybe a message on social media from them? Or you open up your email, and in the inbox is an email from a parent? And you open them up? And you read those words that they shared? How did it make you feel? How did it make you feel to know someone took that time to really reach out and let you know, the impact that you had on them? Feels pretty darn good, right. But that being said, I was listening to a podcast that Dan Heath was on. And he's an author. He's had multiple bestsellers on the New York Times list, such as made the stick switch the power of moments. And he was talking about gratitude, and the power that it has on our mental health. And he was talking about creating a powerful moment. And he said, one thing that we could do, that creates such a strong moment, is something called a gratitude visit. And a gratitude visit comes from Dr. Martin Seligman, the founding father of positive psychology, and Dr. Seligman says, to do a gratitude visit, you close your eyes, you call up the face of someone still alive, who years ago did something or said something that changed your life for the better, someone who you never properly thanked? Someone that you can meet face to face next week. And once you have that face, you wrote a letter of gratitude to this individual. And Dr. Solomon says that the letter should be concrete, it should be specific. And you lay it out there on what that person did for you, and how it affected your life. And then you visit that person. And you read it too. And that right there is powerful. It's powerful for the person who receives it. And it's powerful for that person who shares. And I was listening to this. And I thought, what if we did something like this at our schools inside our classrooms? What if we did a gratitude visit for our students. And this takes it a little farther than those wonderful notes are posted, that we might put on a student's desk just to let them know we appreciate them, or we saw them doing something great. It's taking that time to sit down. And really think about the good things that you see in that champion. Taking that time to really recognizing and affirming it in our own mind. And then we put it down on paper. Then think about how powerful would be to pull that student aside. Worst is human them. And you pull this letter out this handwritten letter that says all these wonderful things, and you read it to him. That's powerful for for you. And it's powerful for them. And this isn't just for those students who are those high achievers, those ones that you have those strongest bonds with? The ones that are always getting lots of positive praise. It's also for the ones who struggle for those who might not always get the most positive attention. And it's also for those quiet students. Those students who work hard they Do the right thing. But they don't always get that attention. And this leads to them feeling as if they're unseen. They need that moment with you. And honestly, maybe you need to remind yourself of all the positive attributes that each have your champions brain. And I would say, don't just limit it to the students. Let those colleagues that you work with know as well. And I'm only going to speak for myself there. But maybe you can relate. There have been so many times when I've seen a colleague do something great. And it just, it filled me up with so much appreciation for them. But in the moment, I forgot to let them know. And I said to myself, that the next time that I see them that I'm going to let them know. But that time comes and it goes, things pop up in those wonderful things that I should have shared. They slip away. And that person loses out on being affirmed. And they lose out on feeling as if they're seen heard and valued. And the gratitude visit. It's something simple. It's something that takes just a few minutes. It's something that when you read it to the person, it may feel a little uncomfortable at first. But think of the moment that you create. Think of the band that is strengthened when you're in the presence of this person. And you're letting them know, you're reminding them. You're showing them the impact that they've had on you. Our students deserve that moment. Our colleagues deserve that moment. The people who have impacted us the most deserve that moment. You deserve that moment. Share little joy today, my friends. We've been blessed with another sunrise. Have an awesome day.