5 ways to instill a ‘can do’ attitude in your students

Motivational quotes adorn the walls of many school corridors and classrooms across the country, but do pupils take any notice of these?

Should we stick to the basics and turn ‘I can’t do it’ into ‘I can do it’? In this blog we look at the steps to help your students develop a ‘can do’ attitude.

Step 1.
A ‘can do’ attitude is a result of a positive mindset, so start by reminding your students they ‘can do’ anything they set their mind to.

Step 2.
Ban the word ‘can’t’ from your classroom. Remove all other motivational quotes from the walls and inform pupils the word ‘can’t’ is banned from the classroom. Ask your pupils to monitor and ‘police’ the use of the word and turn this ban into a classroom challenge.

Step 3.
Breaking down the impossible into small steps will result in small wins. Don’t forget to remind your pupils they are all ‘still winning’!!

Step 4.
Reinforce the fact that each student is an individual with personal goals and they should avoid comparing themselves with their peers.

Competition is healthy, but in this social media age young people are exposed to far too many ‘influencers’ which is leading to many of them feeling they aren’t pretty enough, muscly enough, rich enough….so let’s make sure they don’t feel like this in the classroom.

Step 5.
Evidence and results are vital to demonstrate how a positive mindset can impact on student success and achievements so produce a method to record these successes.

It could be in their books, a blog, on the wall of the classroom… be creative and ask them how they would like to record the impact of banning ‘can’t’ from the classroom.