دسته: 6

Teacher Feature: Katherine Bueler – Wowzers

We are happy to introduce you to one of our Superuser Teachers from Santa Fe, NM, Katherine Bueler. She started her career as a mechanical engineer but changed occupations to become a math & science teacher. She loves math and knew that with a career teaching science and mathematics she could make a difference in the lives of the students in her community.

Katherine earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering, Magna Cum Laude, California State University-Chico in 1983.

She also acquired a teaching license in secondary math & science-bilingual and is currently a Nationally Board Certified Mathematics Instructor in Santa Fe, NM where she has been a science and math teacher for 20+ years. She is very dedicated to making sure that her students understand math and knows that it requires her to personalize learning for her diverse group of students. She has been using the Wowzers personalized math program in her classroom for a few years and recently “connected the dots” with a revelation. “As a child, I attended 12 schools between kindergarten and 12th grade. In 6th grade, we moved to Minnesota and the school said I was at a 3rd-grade math level. All students in the class were on individualized math programs: we’d do a paper lesson, wait two weeks while our bubble sheets were sent to a computer in Iowa for scanning (my first interaction with a computer!), and move on to the next. I went through three years of math that year, and have gotten high-percentage A’s in all math since, including magna cum laude in mechanical engineering. So, my revelation was that one factor in my advocacy for the Wowzers program is that it reminds me of something that worked extremely well for me. “

Katherine has developed routines for her classroom that are set up to best benefit her students using the Wowzers program. She is able to hold students accountable through monitoring student progress on the Wowzers Teacher Dashboard. Her room is enveloped with quiet concentration and students are on target during Wowzers time. She asked one of her once challenged & unmotivated students, who are seeing growth in his understanding of math concepts, why he used the Wowzers program beyond the required class time. He responded, “ Wowzers is helpful and fun!”. She thought, “that should be the goal for all teachers– provide instruction and materials that are helpful and fun!
She also says, “I believe in this Wowzers program and I’ve developed a workflow that fits nicely into my grading. In terms of the program itself, there is no other instructive math program that truly teaches & uses effective pedagogy like Wowzers. I’ve waited for a program like this for years!”

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17/04/2025
Teacher Feature: Julie Nicholson – Wowzers

For our latest teacher feature, we connected with Julie Nicholson, a sixth-grade teacher in Texas. Ms. Nicholson just discovered Wowzers this year, but already the program has made a huge impact on her classroom. Because she works in a 1:1 school, she incorporates Wowzers whenever possible. Every day, she uses Wowzers after the students answer their bell ringer question of the day. As soon as she verifies each student’s correct answer, her students immediately log in to Wowzers to pick up where they left off in the curriculum. When she pulls out small groups of students, the rest of the students continue working on Wowzers. She finds that when students use Wowzers, they stay engaged longer so she’s able to concentrate on each small group.

Mrs. Nicholson’s favorite feature is how she’s able to import her students’ NWEA MAP Growth scores to create a personalized curriculum for each student. She toggles her students between these personalized curriculum paths and a general classroom path as needed. She explains, “I love the differentiation of it reaching my students right where they are as individuals. I have students below grade level, on grade level, and I have students a couple of grade levels above. This program allows my students to get that individualized instruction without me feeling bad that there is not enough of me to go around or enough time in one class period to work with ALL of my students. It is very important to me that the lower, middle and upper performing students grow.”

The reports built into Wowzers have also been a lifesaver for Ms. Nicholson since they save her time and energy. By quickly looking over the real-time reports, she sees which students are struggling, and who’s receiving remediation. Because she doesn’t need to spend hours grading papers, she’s able to give her best to her students and spend more time with her family. She describes the reports as a “make or break” feature for her as a teacher.
Ms. Nicholson’s students seem to be enjoying Wowzers as well. As one student explained, “It gives you lots of things to do and keeps you hooked. I have never been attached to a math program, and when Mrs. Nicholson said we were getting a new one, I thought, ‘Oh great, another boring program.’ But I love Wowzers!”

When we asked Ms. Nicholson what else she’d like to see in Wowzers, she said, “One idea could be to set up a way for my students to compete against each other and in teams. They like the competition. It would also be great if they could compete against my other classes or classes within my school for points, or coins. It’s great motivation and creates excitement and teamwork.” What a great idea!

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17/04/2025
What does test prep look like for K-2?

In the US, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires that students be tested in math once a year, starting in third grade. While there are no national laws that require testing before that point, many states and schools are choosing to test students in as young as kindergarten as well. In fact, the desire is so great that there are a number of national grants available for states that wish to implement testing at an earlier age. The reasoning is typically quite different–instead of measuring student progress or judging teacher success, tests for K-2 students are usually designed to identify students in need of special education services. Research has shown that the earlier students receive these extra services, the more effective they are. The idea isn’t to hold back students but to provide extra assistance wherever needed.

As you might imagine, these assessments usually look quite different than the ones given to older students. Although they’re often computer-based, the questions rely more on visuals, assessments are shorter to match younger students’ shorter attention span, and testing is often more informal. However, one of the biggest problems with testing at such an early age is that these students often don’t have the computer skills necessary to demonstrate what they do and don’t know. Teachers have reported their kindergarteners attempting to swipe or tap a computer monitor and being baffled by the idea of a mouse since their primary technology use is based around tablets and phones. Other teachers report their young students accidentally skip questions or log themselves out of the program, requiring them to completely start the assessment over.

Even with these difficulties, many teachers still believe the pros of early assessments outweigh the cons. By gathering data, they’re able to identify effective teaching strategies, what their students need more assistance with, and can implement special education services as soon as possible. In order to make sure this data is as accurate as possible, it’s clearly important to make sure students are comfortable using computers while providing fun math practice that keeps young students’ attention. This is the goal of our K-2 math practice in Wowzers, where students practice using math manipulatives and answering questions in short sessions. Although it doesn’t look like a typical test prep, it’s exactly what students need at that age: practice answering math questions on a computer while colorful games and an engaging story keeps their attention.

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16/04/2025
Chinese schools use Wowzers to help students learn remotely during Coronavirus crisis

As the number of Coronavirus cases rises in China, many schools are temporarily closed to prevent the disease from spreading. To preserve a sense of normalcy and keep students from falling behind, schools are using eLearning to continue students’ education. Schools from the Wuhan, Jinjiang, and Hexi districts, all part of the International Schools Consortium (iSC), are successfully using the Wowzers with their students.

Wowzers works with schools in the Sichuan Province that use NWEA’s MAP Growth assessments to customize a personalized learning path. By linking these assessments with Wowzers’ content, educators feel confident that students have the correct curriculum to meet their goals. Since the program is automatically individualized, educators find that remote learning through Wowzers is effective.

Principal John Ross Jones from Chengdu International reports that his students are continuing their learning through Wowzers. The students are engaged, and teachers can see their students’ progress in real-time, even adjusting their curriculum remotely and assigning homework and test prep work.

Wowzers has been very beneficial for us at this time as we are practicing home-based learning in our schools currently.

John Ross Jones, Principal of Chendu International

Many teachers use Wowzers’ dual-path system to create a new curriculum path for students as they learn from home. This way, the curriculum path they use in the classroom is undisturbed. SuJung Ham, of Tianjin International School, reports that his students are engaged and showing results.

It has been a real help during this time because not only are our students at home because of the virus but many of us teachers are also either at home or even in other countries. I personally came back to the States for a time and this has helped keep my students on track with Math remotely while they are in China, Korea, or one even in France.

Brandon Hoffman, Teacher of Tianjin International

The power of digital technology, combined with artificial intelligence, is invaluable during this time of crisis in China. As the threat of the virus spreads throughout the world, Wowzers has demonstrated that eLearning from home works.

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16/04/2025
Three Steps to Get Started with eLearning
When schools close, students don’t have to stop learning. In recent years, eLearning has made huge advancements that make it more accessible, personalized, and engaging than traditional learning. Plus, with digital reporting tools built into the program, teachers can instantly see how students are progressing. However, before choosing or implementing a new eLearning program, first, follow these three key steps:

1. Prepare teachers with professional development

Although eLearning often involves students working individually at home, teachers are still vital to the process. Teachers are involved in monitoring students’ progress, reacting when they struggle with particular concepts, and adjusting their learning path as necessary. Teachers should also plan to communicate regularly with their students’ parents. To properly prepare teachers for these new responsibilities, put a professional development plan in place. This professional development doesn’t need to take place in person. Just as students are able to learn through digital methods, so can teachers. As part of the professional development, teachers should learn:
- What does the curriculum look like?
- How is the curriculum personalized for each student?
- How can teachers monitor their students and navigate the available reports?
- Which alerts indicate that students need additional help and what should be done that happens?
- How can teachers adjust what students work on?
2. Get parents on board

Because eLearning typically happens at home, parents need to be involved and on board with the program. To do so, schools should send home information to the parents in advance. This communication should include:
- Why the school is choosing to implement eLearning
- What this program will look like for students and what technology is needed
- How students access the program
- Any expectations on how frequently students should use the program or how much progress they should make
- How often the teacher will send reports or communicate with parents on their child’s progress
- Supporting research and proven effectiveness of the program or of eLearning in general
- How to contact the teacher or school with additional questions, concerns, or issues
3. Keep students accountable

Get students excited and invested in eLearning! Show off the program’s engaging features, such as:
- Digital rewards to keep them motivated
- Variety of content to prevent boredom
- Personalization of the curriculum
- Student choice to encourage personal responsibility
If possible, introduce students to the program and help them log in for the first time in the classroom. If not, consider holding a livestream or creating a video tutorial. Students should also understand how often they’re expected to use the curriculum or how much progress they’re expected to make, and who they can contact if they get stuck or have any questions.

How does Wowzers Learning fit in?

Wowzers Learning is the perfect fit for eLearning. With its complete K-8 math curriculum, extensive professional development program, experience working with schools around the world that are using eLearning, focus on student engagement, and built-in reports and tools for teachers, it makes the move to eLearning easy. Wowzers doesn’t require access to a VPN, which makes it available worldwide. Recently, international schools in China are using Wowzers while students work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have experience working with both virtual schools and traditional schools that are looking to put eLearning to more widespread use.

For more information on how Wowzers works, and what makes it a great choice for eLearning, check out the video below or sign-up to get started:
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16/04/2025
Artificial Intelligence for Remote Learning

One of the greatest challenges that teachers face is the ability to personalize learning for each student. With only one teacher and often more than 30 students, teachers have trouble finding the right pace. What may be too fast for some students is too slow for others. The solution many teachers settle on is to teach to the middle student. The slower students often get left behind, the more advanced students quickly become bored.

Even teaching one student, the teacher is challenged to find the right curriculum path that meets the needs of that individual student.

Using artificial intelligence, Wowzers adjusts the content, tailoring learning to each individual student. Additionally, teachers are able to monitor student progress through the Wowzers’ Learning Management System. This is extremely beneficial as the new normal adjusts to Remote Learning.

Wowzers takes advantage of the power of artificial intelligence in its adaptive nature and design. When a student makes a mistake in the curriculum, the program automatically checks for common errors and detects what the student did incorrectly. This information is used to craft an intelligent response to the student to get them back on track.

In the practice portion of the curriculum, artificial intelligence is used to balance the questions asked of the student. When the student gets multiple questions correct, the math becomes harder, but they’re not required to answer as many questions. When the student begins to struggle, the math becomes easier, but they’re presented with additional problems before they progress to the next activity.

Artificial intelligence is also used when the Wowzers system syncs with NWEA’s API to fetch RTI scores to intelligently create a personalized curriculum that challenges the student at their individual skill level.

This decade will see more use of artificial intelligence to help guide students on a path of learning that includes the ability for more student choice based on data. Wowzers is proud to be a part of the first wave in the development of a product that uses artificial intelligence and intends on growing and expanding content using artificial intelligence to enhance the learning experience.

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15/04/2025
Upcoming Features for the New School Year

With virtual learning more relevant than ever, we at Wowzers are working hard to release a variety of new features for the upcoming 2020-2021 school year. As more schools make the move to virtual learning, our goals are to better support the diverse needs of students, provide more automation and adaptive features to personalize content, and encourage student accountability over their own learning. Here’s a rundown of what to expect in the coming months:

Automated Personalized Learning Paths

Soon, Wowzers will be able to automatically generate a personalized curriculum for all students. After completing our comprehensive pre-assessment, your students are assigned a curriculum path that meets them at their individual needs. As students work seamlessly across grade levels, they receive exactly the right content to accelerate their learning and engagement. This new feature is in addition to our integration with NWEA, which gives each student a personalized learning path based on their MAP Growth assessment results. Now, even schools that don’t use NWEA assessments will be able to automatically generate a personalized curriculum for all their students.

Offline Mode for the Wowzers App

Available on Chromebooks, iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS, our new app can be downloaded on almost any device. Because each student’s progress is stored in the cloud, they can switch devices whenever needed and pick up where they left off in the curriculum. With new optimizations, the app downloads up to four times faster than when students access Wowzers via a browser window.

Even when an internet connection isn’t available, the Wowzers app will soon be able to work offline, which allows students to work on Wowzers anywhere. Their progress is immediately retrieved when they sign in where there is an internet connection. The app is a perfect solution for students living in remote areas of the US, and the rest of the world, who don’t have internet access at home. When using the Wowzers app offline, it also requires very little time to load and uses less battery power.

K-2 in Spanish

The kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade content in Wowzers will soon be available in Spanish! Both the text and the voiceover can be switched to Spanish to support our younger ELL students.

New Student Dashboard

The new student dashboard allows students to more easily track their own progress. They will be able to easily see their latest scores and usage, encouraging them to remain accountable in their education journey.

New Remediation Videos

We’re also adding brand new remediation videos to the kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade content, just like the ones found in the older grades. These 100+ videos target exactly where students are struggling and help get them back on track with a short whiteboard lesson.

Additional Adaptive Features

When a student doesn’t quite pass the cumulative assessment at the end of a section, we’ll now move them backward in the curriculum to review the content. Teachers no longer need to manually adjust students’ curriculum paths when they’re struggling and not quite ready to move forward.

Our hope is that these features will make all our users’ lives easier, from students and their parents to teachers and administrators.

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15/04/2025
Using Wowzers with Google Classroom

We’ve been receiving a lot of questions lately about how Wowzers can be used with Google Classroom. Google Classroom is a fantastic tool that helps students and teachers organize assignments, boost collaboration, and foster better communication, particularly for virtual learning. By assigning work from one central platform, teachers and students can easily find all their assignments, grades, and feedback in one location. We’ve put together some suggestions and tips on how to best incorporate Wowzers into this tool.

Assign work through Google Classroom

The first step is to assign specific content to students through Google Classroom. This can be a particular activity, section, or amount of time. For example, one of our teachers who currently uses Google Classroom often assigns, “Complete at least one lesson, game, and assessment in Wowzers.” This allows students to follow their own personalized curriculum path, but keeps all students moving at the same pace so no one gets left behind. When a student completes that assignment, they can mark it off as complete so you know it’s time to check their report. At that point, you can immediately review math concepts together using a digital whiteboard, if needed.

Open a line of feedback

Google Classroom allows students and teachers to communicate about particular assignments. Encourage students to provide feedback about each lesson. Was it too hard, too easy? Did they understand the content? Use this feedback to adjust the student’s curriculum path as needed, such as assigning an extra remediation video to reinforce a concept, or even moving them back to review a previous concept. Similarly, be sure to communicate back to your students. Congratulate them when they’re thriving or completing extra work, and provide support when they struggle. Let them know when you’re rewarding them with extra Wowzers coins.

To keep a record of this communication, you can open up a private Google doc with each student and attach it directly to the assignment in Google Classroom. You could also consider using a digital whiteboard to review concepts and collaborate. To review a student’s progress, share your screen with the student, and go over their recent reports. It’s even possible to use tools such as Google Docs to group students into a collaborative discussion. This allows all students can participate and contribute.

Provide supplemental activities

Did you know Wowzers includes offline activities, worksheets, discussion questions, and projects as well? These supplemental materials are available as PDFs, which can be attached to an assignment in Google Classroom. You could even use Google Docs or Google Slides to have students work together as a group and prepare a write-up or presentation of their project to share with the rest of the class. Using the rubrics available in Wowzers, you can grade these supplemental activities directly in Google Classroom.

Do you use Google Classroom alongside Wowzers? We’d love to hear your tips and tricks as well!

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15/04/2025
Teacher Feature: Stacy Maxwell – Wowzers

We recently got the chance to speak to Stacy Maxwell, an elementary school teacher in Battlement Mesa, Colorado. Ms. Maxwell used Wowzers in the classroom and took advantage of Wowzers easy transition to remote learning when schools closed. She uses Wowzers to facilitate small groups and takes advantage of the program’s many resources to supplement her students’ learning. Each student has their own personalized curriculum path, which she believes has helped them become more successful in their learning, and meeting students’ specific needs in math

As her students progress through Wowzers, Ms. Maxwell tracks their progress using the teacher dashboard. Each week, she checks their usage and uses it to highlight their successes. Celebrating her students’ successes has been more important than ever as they adapt to virtual learning. The dashboard also helps her identify where she needs to supplement and step in to assist her students.

Ms. Maxwell’s students have been enjoying their Wowzers journey as well. They’ve remained engaged in the program and particularly liked creating an avatar to personalize their adventure. The progression in Wowzers allows them to feel successful as they move through the curriculum. They’re motivated to work hard in order to earn more game time in Wowzers.

By customizing each student’s curriculum, Ms. Maxwell was able to create a specific learning goal for each of her students. This has been her favorite part of implementing Wowzers since it gives her the ability to easily meet each student where they are. This helps supplement the students’ learning and pushes them in the right areas exactly when they need it. Ms. Maxwell also takes advantage of Wowzers’ supplemental materials. The downloadable activities, worksheets, games, and discussion questions allow her to personalize the program to her state’s specific standards.

We appreciate all our Wowzers users, and love hearing about how teachers customize the program to meet their classroom’s needs.

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14/04/2025
Preparing for the 2020-21 School Year with Wowzers
The upcoming school year brings a lot of unknowns, but whether you’re looking at remote learning, in-person learning, or a combination of the two, Wowzers is designed to make learning both effective and engaging. In this blog post, we’ll go over the different ways Wowzers can be set up to meet the needs of students in a hybrid teaching model.

Using the default scope and sequence

Each grade in Wowzers contains a default curriculum path built around the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). All CCSS and state standards are addressed, and each 3-8 grade level is designed to take a school year to complete. The online curriculum can also be supplemented with related offline activities, worksheets, discussion questions, and games. With the default curriculum path, you don’t need to worry about whether students have the required prerequisite knowledge; the curriculum follows a natural progression and each section builds upon the previous ones. We particularly recommend the default scope and sequence for parents using Wowzers with their children, since there’s no need to understand all the pedagogy and math concepts; Wowzers does the work for you.

To use the default curriculum path, assign students to the Classroom Path without editing it. Remember that you can always edit the Classroom Path to put the sections back in numerical order if you already edited it.

Using the Wowzers pre-assessment to assign a personalized path

Brand new for the 2020-21 school year, all students have access to their own personalized curriculum. After completing our comprehensive pre-assessment, students are assigned a curriculum path that meets them at their individual needs. As students work seamlessly across grade levels, they receive exactly the right content to accelerate their learning and engagement. This new feature is in addition to our integration with NWEA, which gives each student a personalized learning path based on their MAP Growth assessment results. Now, even schools that don’t use NWEA assessments will be able to automatically generate a personalized curriculum for all their students. Like the default path, the personalized path is designed to take an entire school year to complete.

To use this feature, have your students take the Wowzers pre-assessment to generate their personalized curriculum path. There’s no need to edit it or re-assign them to another path unless you determine they’re struggling or need more advanced work.

Using the NWEA MAP Growth Assessment to assign a personalized curriculum

For schools that use the NWEA MAP Growth Assessment, Wowzers is able to directly import each student’s RIT score. Because both the MAP Growth assessment and Wowzers’ curriculum are aligned to Common Core State Standards, we look at how the student performed on each standard in the assessment and then match that with the corresponding Wowzers curriculum. With this data, Wowzers automatically creates a personalized math curriculum to meet students where they are and help them master the content they’re ready to learn. Since each path is individualized, it can include content from multiple grade levels to perfectly suit the student.

To use this feature, follow our video tutorial.

Align Wowzers to match your classroom’s math textbook

If you’re using Wowzers alongside a textbook, you may want to adjust the Wowzers curriculum to match the scope and sequence of the textbook. If you’d like assistance, we have documents that outline how to rearrange the Wowzers curriculum to match most major textbooks, including:
- Bridges
- My Math
- Glencoe
- Eureka
- Go Math
To request a correlation guide, feel free to reach out to our team at math@wowzerslearning.com. To edit the curriculum path to match a textbook’s scope and sequence, use our path editing feature to rearrange the curriculum as needed. For more information, see our video tutorial.

Whichever way you choose to use Wowzers, our goal is to get students up and running with minimal setup time. By eliminating much of the busywork involved in setting up a new program, teachers have more time to spend working 1:1 with students and focusing on the more important aspects of teaching. With our built-in Learning Management System (Teacher Dashboard) at their fingertips, teachers can easily track their students’ progress at a glance and quickly determine which students need additional intervention. For more information about our LMS, see our video tutorial.
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14/04/2025