"I give up."

Oh that phrase causes all of the muscles in my body to tighten and frustration starts to boil over.  Right along with other phrases like, "I am bad at math" or "I can't do this."  

I will admit, I'm not one to always accept every challenge that is thrown my way with a positive attitude, but man, who taught you that it's acceptable to just give up on things?  

I currently am teaching a course of math basics with all special education students.  Most have not had a lot of success in math in the past and I'm trying to embrace their past experiences and create for them an environment where it's OK to not know everything and meet them at a mathematical level where they currently reside and help them have some success.  

Last week went OK.  We worked through some basic material together, place value, writing numbers in digits from words, etc.  They were feeling success. Many of them had a decent understanding and a few just had to have a little reminder to get them going.  They all did pretty well.  

But today...ugh.  

Today took all my energy.  Half of the class was absent today due to other testing that was taking place, so I thought we'd do some fun problem-solving together.  Apparently that is not considered fun for these kids.  I found problems that were close to their level, maybe just a bit above on some of them and a bit below on others.  I put them into teams, had prizes and everything and it was a no-go for some of them.  "I give up" was a frequently used phrase.  I even said, perhaps we should make this Phy Ed-Math and every time you say that phrase you owe 10 push-ups.  They didn't find that entertaining.  

How do you teach perseverance?  How do you get students who are 15-18 years old to change old habits of giving up on math?  How do you teach them to work together?  They have the resources, why don't they tap into them?  

Calculators were given to everyone, pencil and paper in all hands, iPads with Google at the ready....but still, "I give up."  

I know the research that says they can change their ways of thinking, but I feel like they have to want to change it and they are completely and totally convinced that they will forever be bad at math.  Perhaps I should pull out some of that research and share it with them.

Regardless of my frustration today, I am NOT giving up.  We'll start again tomorrow, we'll give it a go again.  We'll see what happens.