FAQs for schools

Evidence & Frequently Asked Questions

How does Gracefill for Schools fit into school curriculum?

We have four recommended options for teachers, counselors, or SEL instructors to guide 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 where students are guided through their first message with the help of handouts. From there, teachers may incentivize activity without disrupting their curriculum by posting leader boards or exemplary messages.
Daily or weekly classroom exercises - Homeroom, health, and other teachers can introduce a routine of sending gratitude as part of a warm-up or wind-down of class activity for the week.
Targeted student interventions - Research shows that 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 between students in conflict.

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 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 are additive to the benefits associated with gratitude journals and other gratitude interventions: 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. 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 be unable to send messages to ensure proper moderation. All messages sent by students are also 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 for by the assigned teacher before being sent. If a message is rejected, the sender's profile is temporarily frozen to give the teacher the opportunity to coach appropriate behavior.

Student messages can be seen by the specific sender and recipient, as well as teachers and admins. Students may also choose to send gratitude messages to teachers, staff, or administrators, but they have no access to view profiles or activity of others. In addition, each school 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.

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, studies have also found that certain individuals do not realize benefits as well as others.

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 accept the nuances of complicated relationships. If the student is 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 or student identifiers to get started - we'll take care of the rest.

About Gracefill for Schools

Our Approach: Gratitude Messages to Every Student