(Originally written on 2025-11-25 in my wtws.space reflections)

Today the Angel of Math came and visited my classroom. I need to write it down somewhere. I Can’t write it where I write my reflections for coursework because it could be misconstrued as bragging. Here’s what happened. I created a game to practice and reinforce mental math in a grade 3 french immersion class.

It is located at https://mesmaths.site.

To protect their privacy, in my reflections below, the names of the students will be withheld and replaced with Student A and Student B etc.

Something happened in that class today and the room was on fire. What really moved me was Student A who I heard was on the verge of being diagnosed with a learning disability related to math. She participated in the math battle and got two questions faster than her opponent. She also answered the question by writing the steps another time and could have gotten 3 points. But she didn’t write the answer, even though she knew the answer.

All the while, the class was cheering her on. Go Student A!  You can do it Student A! Excuse me. I’m a little verklempt. Tawk amongst yourselves. Discuss.

Let me explain the cheering before I go any further.

When you play this game, like other games I’ve built, the setup is like Family Feud.

So the whole experience feels like a gameshow.

Here’s the setup.

Here's the setup.

1. Turn on your class projector and navigate to the https://mesmaths.site.
2. Take two desks and put them at the front of the classroom facing each other like Family Feud.
3. Ask who wants to play.
4. Put one student behind one desk and another student behind the other.
5. Give each student in the class a whiteboard and eraser. Before you take the answer from the players, you will take an answer from someone in the class as well. This allows everyone to play along. It also provides a way to check the answers with someone else.
6. Then the game begins, and the players have to write their answers on the whiteboard.
7. If the answer requires steps, they have to write the steps to get it right.
8. To buzz, they have to smash an imaginary buzzer when they know the answer.
9. To make it feel even more like a gameshow, replace the words Player 1 and Player 2 with the names of the actual students.
10. Whenever a student wins, a big burst of confetti will flash up on the screen.

Now, on to the rest of what happened when I played this game.

The other student that really surprised me was student B. The day before the math battle, student B wrote that 40 + 11 was 411. she just added the numbers literally like 4+ a one plus a one.

Each time the contestants got an answer, I would say, “Let me check that answer with someone in the class/audience first” and allow a student in the audience to provide the answer.

There was one student who was a little too excited who kept walking over to me and whispering the answer in my ear.

So, when student B decided to copy him. She came over to me and said, “Madame Carol, I know the answer.” She knew the answer and she was really happy about it and she wanted to tell me.

For that reason, I didn’t mind as much that she couldn’t wait to tell me.

Why wasn’t I upset? Because the day before she wrote that 40 + 11 was 411.

So I let her tell me the answer by writing it on a piece of paper and it was the right answer! The answer was 71. She wrote the 7 backwards but I knew what she meant and I was so happy that she knew the right answer.

Then I said to everyone, “Student B knows the right answer and made her go up in front of the whole class and say the answer.”

That’s why I said an angel of math visited my classroom today.

Engagement was off the chain!

A lot of good things happened in that class today, like crazy level engagement, like kids who wanted to still keep playing after the lunch bell rang, but what I mostly cared about was what I witnessed with Student A and Student B.

They really shined today and performed as well as any other student.

These are students that I have seen struggle and have had to leave the room on occasion to go off to get help from a resource teacher.

Watching the entire class participate, including students who usually struggle with math, warmed my heart in every way.

I need to add some more games. However, if you’d like to try the mental math section for grade 3 Canadian French Immersion students, visit https://mesmaths.site.

December 1, 2025 Update

Today student B came back to school after a 2-day absence. She missed the test. I sat with her to do the test. For the first five questions, I provided some guidance meaning, if she got a question wrong, I told her it was wrong and which part she needed to fix. Then the second half, I told her she was on her own for the remainder of the test. I busied myself with other things and left her to do the remainder of the test by herself.

Then the recess bell rang before she finished.

The routine for going to recess is you walk the students to the hallway. Then they change from their inside shoes to their outside shoes. Then they line up and wait for the recess bell to ring. I often walk them halfway and then turn back and go to back to the classroom.

Today student B turned back with me, and said, “Can I go back to the classroom to work on my math?

Here are some good theories and conspiracy theories why an 8-year-old would want to skip recess.

1)     We have an invasion of the body snatchers situation in PEI and it is not actually her.

2)     There is a bully out there that I don’t know about that she’s hiding from.

3) She is just really conscientious and wanted to finish it.

4)     She wanted to work on math because her last experience working on math was quite rewarding.

But who knows. Stranger things have happened than an 8-year-old wanting to skip recess to work on math.

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