FAQs for schools

Evidence & Frequently Asked Questions

How does Gracefill for Schools fit into school curriculum?

We have four recommended practices for teachers, counselors, or SEL instructors to guide their students:

SEL practice exercises - Schools with formal Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum can use Gracefill as an interactive activity to practice lessons that build empathy, relationship skills, and social awareness.
Hands-off leaderboards - Teachers may do a one-time introduction to Gracefill wherein students are guided through their first message with the help of handouts. From there, teachers may incentivize gratitude messages on Gracefill without disrupting existing curriculum by posting a leader board of students who are sending the most messages.
Daily or weekly classroom exercises - Homeroom, health, or other teachers can introduce a routine of composing messages as part of a warm-up or wind-down of class activity for the week.
Targeted student interventions - Research shows that, relative to other forms of interventions, students tasked with performing kind acts show improvements in peer acceptance, which is an important factor for academic outcomes and likelihood of being bullied. In addition, assigning Gracefill to those who have engaged in bullying behavior can build a sense of understanding and build a bridge with the target student.

What are benefits of students sending gratitude messages?

Students who sent gratitude messages demonstrated improved outcomes in mental health, personal/social well being, and SEL competencies after 6 weeks. (Bono, Mangan, Fauteux, Sender, 2020)

Studies have demonstrated that gratitude letters increased kindness, social well being, a desire to invest in relationships, and reciprocated gratitude. These effects were in addition to benefits associated with gratitude journals and other gratitude interventions, such as increases in happiness, life satisfaction, and mental health and reductions in depression levels. ‍

How are students assigned? How does the program work?

All students are assigned to a teacher for moderation and coaching at the start of the program, but teachers and principals may subsequently adjust assignments through the Settings > Classroom Manager section of our application.

If a student ever loses a teacher assignment, they will not be able to send a message. This is to preserve safeguards against problematic behavior. All messages sent by students are automatically scanned by Google's AI-powered Gemini service to detect the sentiment of the message. If a message is detected as negative sentiment, or even neutral, it is held to be reviewed and either approved or rejected by the assigned teacher before being sent. If a message is rejected, the message is not sent and the sender's profile is temporarily frozen from sending new messages so the teacher may instruct the student on inappropriate behavior before the student continues.

Student messages can be seen by other students only in the "Gratitude Given" section of a sender's profile. This deliberate design decision focuses attention on giving activity, rather than comparisons on activity that students have received. If a student desires, they may mark a message as private, which hides the message from their Gratitude Given view, but does not hide the content from teachers or administrators.

Students may also choose to send gratitude messages to teachers, staff, or administrators, but they have no access to view profiles or activity of non-students. In addition, each school and workplace is a closed environment. Staff and students can only see and interact with others in their specific school or school network.

How do teachers schedule activity / how do streaks work?

Assigned teachers set a messaging schedule for their students, which affects how student streaks are tracked. For example, if a teacher chooses a schedule of Mondays at 10am, then students will be considered "on streak" if they send a message weekly before 10am. They will be in a "warning" state if they do not send a message by the following Monday and will be off streak if they still have not sent a message by the third scheduled message time.

This works similarly if a teacher chooses multiple messages per week. If a teacher chooses Tuesday and Thursday, then a student who does not send Tuesday's message by Thursday will be in a "warning" state and will be "off streak" if they still haven't sent a message by the following Tuesday.

How should students start practicing gratitude?

A gratitude practice starts with a more complete awareness of people and circumstances. Encourage students to accept the negatives before focusing on the good they have received from their relationships. Then, encourage them to honor the good they recognize with a simple & sincere message of thanks to show the recipient that they matter.

Reflect first. Focus on the positive influence of this person. What’s an important memory of them, or of something they did or said? How would your life be different without them? What makes them special and important to you?
Be specific. Address the person by name and describe what they’ve done or how they make you feel. How has this impacted your life?
Don’t overthink it! A positive thought shared is far better than one never expressed. Research shows that receiving gratitude is a far more positive, and far less awkward, experience than a giver expects. Write your message as though you’re speaking to the recipient - you don’t have to use beautiful words, or even perfect spelling or grammar.

What if my school also has a Gracefill for Teams program for staff recognition?

If a school also registers for a Gracefill for Teams program, then teachers and admins get a second view in their application. This allows them to participate in the Gracefill for Teams program with the rest of the staff. For more information on Gracefill for Teams, please see its dedicated FAQ page.

Does practicing gratitude help everyone?

Like all treatments, results vary depending on the individual. While studies continuously support the benefits of a gratitude practice on average - especially ones that involves letters to others versus simple gratitude lists - studies have also found that certain individuals do not realize benefits as well as others.

For example, it may be harder to focus on the positive during a challenging time and gratitude may feel like it's highlighting the negative when it's forced. This potential for negative side effects has been referred to as "gratitude shaming" or "toxic positivity". If you feel this happening with a student, a counselor may work on helping the student to first accept the nuances of complicated relationships. If they're still struggling, try pausing and exploring other options. Certain individuals with symptoms of depression may also be more susceptible to difficulties with practicing gratitude.

What does Gracefill for Schools cost?

Simple, transparent, and straightforward pricing: $2 per participant per month, with a $250 annual minimum.

IT isn't needed to start. Gracefill avoids risk to your enterprise systems by not connecting to your database or APIs. You only need an email list to get started - we'll take care of the rest.

About Gracefill for Schools

Our Approach: Gratitude Messages to Every Student