Mathematics classrooms can be sources of anxiety or joy — the environment we create makes all the difference. Standard 5 asks us to build cultures of belonging, safety, and mathematical risk-taking where all learners feel they can attempt things, make mistakes, and try again without embarrassment or judgement. The evidence on this page includes the chilli-level system from classroom lessons (Standard 2 & 4), and the Emporium gamified platform — which fundamentally changes the emotional environment around mathematical practice.
The following norms were co-constructed with students in Week 2 of Term 1. They are posted in the room and referred back to — not as rules, but as agreements the class made together.
During the formal check-in observation of 9NUM, an observer collected learner voice. Two comments speak directly to the classroom environment:
Full observation on Standard 4.
A second formal observation (Kaitautoko: Kevin Hoy) commended good solid relationships and boundaries, a good noise level, and lots of on-task behaviour, alongside the use of humour and outside-time incentives to sustain motivation. Supportive language ("nearly there," "great question") was rated A throughout.
Full observation on Standard 4.
Mr Gee's Maths Emporium — Creating a Low-Stakes Practice Environment
The Emporium is built on a core principle: students will take more risks mathematically when the cost of being wrong is low. Wrong answers give feedback and let you try again — they don't go in a markbook. The leaderboard rewards effort and persistence, not just correct answers. This reframes what "doing maths" feels like for students who have a history of anxiety or avoidance around mathematics.
Volume: Cylinders, Pyramids & Compound Shapes
The chilli-level system used in this lesson is an environmental choice as much as a pedagogical one. Letting students self-select their challenge level removes the teacher as the arbiter of who is "good at maths" — students make that judgement themselves, which is more honest and less stigmatising.
- What does my classroom look and feel like for a student who is anxious about mathematics?
- How do I help learners who have already decided that maths "isn't for them"?
- What routines and norms have I established, and what is the reasoning behind them?
- How do I ensure all ākonga feel seen, valued, and included — beyond just access to content?
What gamification actually does to the environment — and what it doesn't
Before I built the Emporium, I had a clear problem: a group of ākonga who were cognitively capable but who had already decided, before they walked in the door, that maths wasn't something they did. Traditional practice tasks produced minimal output from these students. The classroom felt like somewhere they were waiting to leave.
The Emporium changed something specific and measurable: the amount of time students were voluntarily on-task. One student — who had produced almost no written work in Term 1 — had 1,800 XP by Week 6 of Term 2, meaning they had completed hundreds of questions independently. That's not because the maths got easier. It's because the environment around the maths changed. Failure was cheap. Progress was visible. Competition was horizontal rather than against some external standard of "being good at maths."
But I want to be careful about overclaiming. The Emporium creates engagement with practice — it doesn't replace the relational work of creating a safe classroom. The students who thrived on the Emporium were, in most cases, students I had also worked hard to build individual relationships with. I think the platform worked partly because they trusted that I had built it for them — that it wasn't just a content-delivery tool but something I made because I was paying attention to who they were and what they needed.
What I'm still developing: I want to be more deliberate about how I talk about the Emporium with students. I introduced it as a "game" initially, and while that framing reduced anxiety, it also led some students to treat it as separate from "real" maths learning. I want to bridge that gap better — to help students see that the skills they're building in the Emporium are exactly the same ones they'll use in assessments.