When a student makes a mistake, it is like stepping in dog poop. When you step in dog poop you notice it right away. It really stinks and you want to do whatever it takes to get it off the bottom of your shoe right away.
When a student keeps making the same mistake, it is like they have dog poop on their shoes and they don't even smell the stink anymore. Our bodies are able to eventually ignore a bad smell if we can't get away from it. In the same way, students are able to avoid the pain of not understanding math simply by getting used to it.
I challenge my students to clean the dog poop off the bottom of their shoes and let the stench of not understanding and making mistakes really stink again in a fresh new way. When they make a mistake or they don't understand, it should really stink and bother them. It should motivate them to learn. The failing student is so used to not understanding and/or making mistakes, they simply are not bothered by the stench. The successful student is very sensitive to the stench of a mistake and/or not understanding. This painful smell motivates these students to learn and develop habits that enable them to avoid mistakes.
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