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برچسب: Wowzers

  • Teacher Feature: Katherine Bueler – Wowzers

    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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  • Teacher Feature: Julie Nicholson – Wowzers

    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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  • Chinese schools use Wowzers to help students learn remotely during Coronavirus crisis

    Chinese schools use Wowzers to help students learn remotely during Coronavirus crisis


    eLearning student

    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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  • Using Wowzers with Google Classroom

    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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  • Teacher Feature: Stacy Maxwell – Wowzers

    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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  • Preparing for the 2020-21 School Year with Wowzers

    Preparing for the 2020-21 School Year with Wowzers


    Mother and Daughter home learning online math

    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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