In one of my all-boys classes, the students are one lesson ahead of everyone else. Next week they have exams, so I decided to create a review game. I downloaded a Kung Fu Panda PowerPoint Bomb Game...which is totally awesome, by the way.
Anyway, the kids loved it. I divided the class into 5 teams. Each team had 10 seconds to answer the question, otherwise another team could raise their hand and steal their points.
In the Kung Fu Panda realm, there is a lot of risk. Sometimes, you get unlucky and you lose your points. Sometimes you can trade points with another team. And then sometimes, you can win a Golden Peach and win a jackpot of 10 points! The game is very fun...but for the teacher, there is a lot of addition and subtraction, and dividing points in half. Anyway, I started getting confused about how many points my students had. The genius math nerds immediately caught my math error! They are like the math police! "Teacha Teacha, no! Thirty-six, not thirty-five!!!" I was so embarrassed that these kids were smarter than me. I just complimented the kids..."Oh, good eye, I didn't notice that! I am glad you're paying attention"--a weak attempt to cover my embarrassment!
I forgot the importance of "being fair" when you're younger. Earning points is like life or death when you are a kid. And since I am bound to make another math error in front of my students, I am going to change my policy. From now on, I am just going to have the kids tell me how many points they earned. They can practice saying numbers. That way, it's a win-win. They practice saying their points, I just write the number I hear on the board.
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