I would take the time to understand where a student's anxiety is coming from. Is it the academics or something going on outside of the classroom? In order to keep my students motivated, I focus on positive feedback and encouragement while building confidence in them. If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do? I would attempt to approach the skill or concept from a concrete point of view and move to the abstract concept. Money is something you use every day and is easy to learn a new skill with. This can then be translated into the abstract representation.