"Nathan" had just demolished our resource room.
Something about a stocky little tank of a student with an older boy's deep voice and a fringe forever over one eye makes him intimidating.... for a Grade 1 kid.
But demolish that room he did and no one was able to get close enough to hug him to a place of calm.
The room in shambles... he was sent to me and arrived cursing and buzzing with emotion.
I've never taught him but always kept a good rapport with him in passing, it has paid dividends my whole career to pay attention to students as individuals and build a positive relationship.
I talked him through the non-issue about which he was terribly upset. I think someone had dared encourage him to read words he could not yet decipher. I helped him breathe again using quick-wit humour whilst using an eraser was a skateboard. But, now what... I decided we may as well learn.
That's when I made this card game.
We sketched little images and wrote the numbers on and tried them out.
The game worked.
Whilst he couldn't read or write, Nathan could add numbers and was excited to play a game that connected his love of cartoon characters and his strength with numbers. His favourite was a warrior penguin. He'd request new cards and make suggestions and invented the rule that you "collect all the cards you win" - a very popular rule with my students now.
He soon needed more challenging cards and the game became more and more complex as his skill levels advanced. He proudly presented the cards to his peers and patiently showed them how to play. He was quite adamant they were packed away by their background colors and asked his parents to buy containers for their storage.
So, here it is. A game that is still helping students engage with math, calm down and learn all in one.
Now it is in 1,000s of schools across the world and being used by students from Kindergarten age to 8th Grade. It is utilised by educational support teams and Highly/Able gifted programs and there are now over 350 cards.
The Order of Operations Duel Cards or Operation Duel Cards for short.
I am here to help you make the most of them too. Let me support you to implement the game and explain the rules. It is essentially "highest card wins", but they have to solve an equation to get their score.
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