$100 Bill Strategy and Michael Jordan

Successful students passionately strive for accuracy ALL the time.  They want to understand how to do every problem and they want to get them right.  They emotionally commit to getting problems correct so it really bugs them when they make a mistake.  They are keenly aware that they can make mistakes and are habitually developing routines to work with precision.  When they make mistakes they figure out the reason for it and then THEY CHANGE THEIR BEHAVIOR.  I want all of my students to improve and get to a place where they are responsibly learning from their mistakes.

THIS IS SUCH A DIFFICULT STRATEGY TO TEACH TO ALL OF MY STUDENTS!

Here, I have to continually remember that it is not my job to change them... but it is my job to love, encourage, challenge, exhort, instruct, and put a mirror in front of them.  I NEED TO STAY IN THAT PLACE CALLED HOPE.

One strategy I use to help all of my students improve in their learning from their mistakes is the $100 Bill Strategy.  I tell my students to pretend they each have 15 crisp $100 bills in their pockets and I have a stack of about 300 crisp $100 bills.  Here is how the PRETEND $100 bill game goes.  Every time they get a problem correct, they will receive a crisp $100 bill from me... however, every time they get a problem wrong, they have to give me a crisp $100 bill.

I use this strategy to teach my struggling students how it feels to be a successful student.  Successful students work with this kind of intensity... like $100 bills are actually changing hands and they want to get and keep as many as they can.  For the struggling student, their intensity level is brought way up and they get a glimpse of the mind set of a successful student.    

Another example I use is Michael Jordan.  He is one of the best basketball players of all time.  What separated him from all of the other talented NBA players?  Michael practiced with intensity.  He practiced like every practice was the 7th game in the NBA finals.  So when he was in intense situations in regular season games and playoff games, he was comfortable.  He practiced like those situations all the time.

My students will want to do well come test day.  The question is, HOW CAN I HELP THEM PRACTICE WITH INTENSITY AND BECOME REALLY GOOD AT LEARNING FROM THEIR MISTAKE EVERY DAY LEADING UP TO THE TEST?

I am continually looking for ways to be more helpful to my students.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!"

Day 15