'At least I got one right'...

“Did you grade my paper yet,” the tiny voice asked from behind me. I turned around and cringed on the inside. “Yes…I did,” I said.       I had graded the paper and…’ tiny voice’ had missed them all but one. My heart had sunk earlier as I checked off the incorrect questions. If there is one thing I dislike about my job, it’s giving back an assessment with a poor grade. The look on an eight-year-old’s face when they glance over that paper and see the how many they missed or the grade at the top is so disheartening and sad. It is actually disheartening to the point I have thrown out entire assessments and went straight to the re-teaching, and then re-assessed without anyone realizing they ever failed the first time.      Unfortunately today was not one of those instances, most of my students did fairly well on this particular assessment, but… ‘tiny voice’ had struggled in a big way.

“Can I see mine,” she continued. “Umm you can…but listen to me first.” I took her aside and said, “This is not a big deal, honestly, we will work on it and you can re-do it so don’t even worry about it, okay?”

I didn’t want to see that sad look and the downcast eyes. I couldn’t stand to hear the sigh of disappointment so I spent time preparing her, building her up, telling her it would be okay.

She just smiled and said, “Okay, well where is it”? I reluctantly handed her the paper. She looked it over and saw that it had minus 17 out 18 missed questions. I held my breath and waited for the look. But…there was no look, ‘tiny voice’ smiled big, looked up at me and declared with a confident and happy tone, “Well at least I got one right”! She proudly took the paper, put it in her folder and went about her business like nothing had changed.

I wanted to scoop her up and give her the biggest hug ever, but I just stood there processing the genuine smile on her face, the sparkle in her beautiful blue eyes and her victorious tone.

I thought about her reaction on my way home and my thoughts have returned to her all evening long. I am so amazed that she chose to see this glass full and running over instead of empty. Her attitude exhibited one-hundred percent the “growth mindset” I have been teaching my kids since day one. I have drilled into them that ‘making mistakes is great because it’s how you truly learn’; I have told them that every time they fail it stretches their brain and helps them to grow. I say all the time, the grade is not important, what counts is if you learned a little more than you knew before.

I am so proud of ‘tiny voice’ because she “gets it”. She celebrated the ONE she got right instead of dwelling on the 17 she missed! If I could only be more like her, can you imagine what I might accomplish or what any of us might accomplish?

As an adult I focus consistently on what I mess up, and what I could have done better. Good is seldom ‘good enough’ and the stress this creates isn’t worth any level of success. I learned more from ‘tiny voice’ today than she will ever learn from me in this entire school year.

I need to celebrate every single victory regardless if it’s one student passing a test or 39 students passing; that’s what having a growth mindset, is all about. I need to practice what I preach to my kids. I need to be aware of all growth, not just big growth, because slow, consistent growth is strong and moving in the right direction. If I can alter my perspective just a little and adopt an ounce of the insight and outlook of ‘tiny voice’, I will be much more, happier, less stressed and much wiser. Kids are amazing and really are the best teachers.