Clip 9/11: Adding and Subtracting with Money Lesson Part 2D

Overview

At the end of her lesson on two-digit addition to reach a given sum, Katy tells her students that they have time for one 15-minute round of math centers. She explains the centers to the students: Istation Math, meet with the teacher and work on word problems, and “Race to 1,000.” She dismisses them to centers. Students explain the “Race to 1,000” card game, recording their answers to adding two 3-digit sums, and rearranging the cards if they exceed 1,000. Another two students explain the Istation Math center, giving examples of the challenges they are solving.

Teacher Commentary

I want to build their ability to solve in lots of different situations. I did a book at the end of the year for us, and each kid filled out a page of “What I love about my class.” One of them was, “What does your teacher say?” and what the student wrote for me was “Be a problem solver.” In my third year, I started keeping the little notes like this that mean something to me, so whenever I'm having one of those days where it's like, why do I do this, I'll have them to go back and look through. My first-year teaching was in kindergarten, and they'll be in 11th grade this year—they’re about to go to college.