Math-Whizz Blog

Welcome to Math-Whizz 101!

July 14th, 2011 by Rita

We are happy to announce a new series of posts that will help you better understand and utilize the countless Math-Whizz features by highlighting and guiding you through some of our video tutorials. A portion of the tutorials will be targeted towards specific audiences, while others will prove helpful for all those who come in contact with Math-Whizz – from those just looking to experienced Math-Whizzers – there will be something for everyone.

So, to get things started let us take a deeper look into just how the Math-Whizz tutor works to deliver such an engaging and personalized learning environment.

“How the Tutor Works” is presented by our London based CEO, Richard Marett.

As you can see, after initially completing the assessment, the tutor begins tailoring Math-Whizz to each student; the math lessons and online games are completely customized to the child with the intention of boosting the students’ overall Math Age™. Content is aligned with Common Core as well as encompassing many individual State standards. The more than 1200 math lessons are delivered using interactive and entertaining math games that not only engage each student, but make them excited and motivated to learn. Math-Whizz recognizes that these lessons, while incredible teaching tools, are not always representative of testing situations students experience in school, and thus delivers short assessments at the end of lessons when appropriate. This not only ensures success in the classroom, but total comprehension of a mathematical concept as well.

About the Author: Rita Rogers grew up in the PNW and despite her “low-tech” houseboat upbringing, went on to complete her Master’s of Communication in Digital Media at the University of Washington in 2010. She is passionate about the convergence of education and technology, educational gaming, and outer space.

National Standards for Math?

June 3rd, 2009 by admin

The Washington Post reports on an (almost) country-wide effort to draft national standards in key math and reading skills for every student from kindergarteners to high-school leavers. 

A group, made up of 46 states and the District of Columbia, and led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, announced Monday that they aim to (as the WaPo reports):

 

…define a framework of content and skills that meet an overarching goal. When students get their high school diplomas, the coalition says, they should be ready to tackle college or a job.

 

There has been ongoing concern about the levels of various state math and literacy standards and whether make American students as internationally competitive as, say, Singaporean students.

This push for national standards seems to stem in part from such concerns. Margaret Spellings, education secretary in the last administration, acknowledged this: “We have a speedometer, and it says we’re going too slow.”  But Spellings felt the emphasis should be on “speeding up”, rather than getting “a more precise speedometer”.

To still the beating hearts of those who maintain that states should set their own standards, it seems that the 46 states involved in the scheme will be able to choose whether to adopt the standards, once they have been defined.

Even so, there are bound to be some ideology-laden debates about what methods reading and math standards should be built around, and with the fight over ‘reform’ versus ‘traditional’ math still raging the approval process will likely not be plain sailing.

As far as we’re concerned at Math-Whizz, any effort to standardise math curricula nationally would help us provide more consistent reporting on Whizzer performance with respect to those standards.

Equally, however, the nature of our Math-Whizz Tutoring service means that every child has his or her own tailor-made math curriculum. Neither we, nor the state defines when a Math-Whizzer learns long division, say, it is his or her ability and performance that defines it.

That’s what makes Math-Whizz special, we’d like to think!


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