How to foster an environment for appreciation I'm a teacher at a highschool and currently we've been working on projects that are supposed to make the kids appreciate those around them especially the other teachers and workers at the school. During an advisory time earlier this year, we had the students write a letter of appreciation to someone who works at the school. Another project that we're going to start up is a student voted "employee of the month" and that teacher/worker will be somehow celebrated -we haven't worked out the details-. The problem with both of these ideas is that they're ineffective and the students all just wrote letters begrudgingly and I think this upcoming project won't make them feel appreciation for those who help them either. 

Are there general steps, for either creating an environment for students to appreciate teachers and other workers? Or are there general ways that appreciation works in the mind so that we can come up with projects that will truly help them?
Firstly, this question sounds pretty clearly self-serving, like saying "I want people to like me more; how do I make them like me?". Secondly, school is a business, much like other businesses. When a company makes a product, of course the company hopes the market will "appreciate" the product. There are many marketing strategies used out there, but the long-term viability of a product requires that it provides clear value. Without that value, prospects cannot be expected to appreciate the product. In the case of high school, most students are probably aware that the product is not being sold to the students but instead to the parents. Hence, students are not the customer. Since students are not the customer, and since students had little to no say in the product's design, getting the students to appreciate the product is going to be very challenging.

One approach is to make the students believe they are the customer. You might, for example, use a bandwagon strategy wherein you explain that "There are many happy students from years prior who have attended this school and are now enjoying a life of success and freedom".

Another approach, which would be more honest, would be to actually make the students into the customer, such as by designing the curriculum around their needs and aspirations while providing a clear value that cannot easily be found elsewhere. If you are to be honest with yourself, this is the only noble approach. If a school cannot provide clear benefits that a student cannot find outside of school (such as on the Internet or in books alone), then that school is not doing its job. Sure, there are many types of rhetoric and trickery that can (and often are) employed by schools and governments, but these are nothing to be proud of.

In short: Provide a unique and worthwhile opportunity with a benefit that can be seen clearly. Engage the students in the curriculum -- make them the customer.

PS: While a bit off-topic, I just remembered a music video that critiques some of the curriculum focus in the recent if not current school system. This video had no bearing on my answer here as I only remembered the video afterward, but its topic is related enough to be worth mentioning here.