Wow!!! What a unique and fantastic way to demonstrate to your students the importance of giving their best efforts and the rewards that can come from it. That is now two things that you have shared here that I want to do with my classes in the first week of school. Ways to encourage students and get them on board for wanted to empower themselves can come in many ways. This is so creative and it must have been fun to go through this process. It also gives you a chance to have some dialogue with the kids and start building those relationships and getting to know them while at the same time they are learning about who you are as well.