Student-Focused Gratitude

As a classroom teacher at an independent school, I regularly scoffed at the notion of “student appreciation day.” Didn’t they know they were appreciated already? Didn’t they get enough appreciation in their life?

My mindset shifted when I turned to entrepreneurship education. In the world of entrepreneurship, you could have the coolest, most exciting business in the world, but if you don’t have any customers, all you have is an idea. It is customers who turn ideas into businesses. And it is gratitude for those customers that creates raving fans.

In our schools, like it or not, the students and their parents are our customers—and the gratitude that we show them will be directly reflected in their general appreciation of our “product.” As world-class speaker Brian Buffini says, “if you are grateful and you don’t show it, you’re the same as an ingrate.” So how do we show gratitude for our students?

By creating unforgettable moments. Harnessing what writer Dan Heath calls “the power of moments,” we can give our students the gift of memory and the feeling of impact. By going out of our way to craft intentionality for our students and by blowing them away with an experience they will talk about for the rest of their lives, we demonstrate gratitude.

This also means experimenting and trying new things. This year, our entrepreneurship team here at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy hand delivered personalized welcome gifts to all students who would be participating in a business internship this year. We considered delivering the over seventy baskets via mail or FedEx but in the end, we opted for driving to each home and hand delivering them. Why? Because when it comes to unforgettable moments, you can’t hold back on making them count.

Radically Impact your Team with the Entrepreneurial Mindset

Want to energize your teachers and administrators around growth mindset, grit, redefining failure, and opportunity seeking? Ready for clear classroom strategies to teach grit based on years of best practices? Want to invest in the personal growth of your greatest asset (your teachers) so that they can radically impact your customers (your students and parents)?

Reach out to learn about professional development opportunities with Stephen Carter, author of the forthcoming book, Teaching the Entrepreneurial Mindset (available in early October).

The future of education is bright indeed!