At the end of an ordinary school day, I decided not to start the lesson in a traditional way. Instead, I entered the classroom holding an envelope. Curiosity immediately appeared in my students’ eyes as I began reading them a letter from a “student” who had faced a real-life situation: she bought a juice for 2.75 shekels, paid with 5 shekels, but was not sure whether the change she received was correct.
I paused there… and the questions began.
What is the problem? Could we face a similar situation? And how could we help her?
The lesson quickly turned into a space for thinking and discussion. The students shared their opinions and concluded that the challenge was dealing with decimal numbers. From that moment, I did not provide the solution — instead, I gave them the opportunity to take the lead.
The surprise came when the students suggested:
“Why don’t we create a store and practice buying and selling?”
I smiled, because the idea I had been planning… actually came from them.
The next day, the students arrived full of enthusiasm, bringing simple materials from their environment. During two class periods, the classroom transformed into a lively learning space organized into three stations:
The students displayed products such as toys and snacks and assigned realistic prices using decimal numbers that reflected their daily lives.
At this station, students used fake money to calculate purchases and determine the correct change while working collaboratively in groups.
The students added another dimension to the project by classifying products into healthy and unhealthy categories using a chart they designed themselves, with one student responsible for the inspection process.
It was not just a mathematics lesson…
It became:
Most importantly, the students felt that they had:
I was not the source of knowledge. Instead, I was:
And the student became the true center of the learning process.
This transformation in my teaching approach did not happen by chance. It was the result of my training in the Teachers’ Capacity Building Program, which played a major role in: