I was forced to eat my words

I often say to my learners, "You either do or you don't, there is no TRY". Well I was forced to eat my words as one of my learners did TRY and with much success. I have a learner who had been attending school part-time for 3 weeks due to personal and wellbeing issues before we went into Lockdown. He said that he had never passed a single maths assessment in his life, is no good at maths, does not understand maths, does not like maths… and all the other negative self-talk that goes with it. I told him that I had already planned his success and all he had to do was TRY. I soon realised that we had another hurdle to overcome; the language he was using. When he sought feedback he would ask “is this wrong”, so I made him unlearn that phrase and taught him to ask “is this right” and I immediately noticed a quiet confidence. One day, while looking at the tracking sheet, he commented that he was surprised at his progress in my class, he was actually understanding the work and enjoying learning maths (remember this was within a 3 week period). I was so impressed by his change in his attitude to maths, work ethic and overall demeanour, that I emailed his mum who was super pleased and impressed.