This post is in partnership with MIND Research Institute. All opinions are my own.
What does math instruction look like in your blended or distance learning classroom? As you work to meet your students’ needs both in a traditional, face-to-face classroom and during a remote learning initiative, there are ways to personalize this math learning experience for students.
This fall, I had the chance to connect with the MIND Research Institute team, who are behind the popular online learning tool, ST Math. You might remember how I featured their math program on my blog last year and talked about their visual software for students. They now have an assignment feature within their tool that lets teachers personalize the learning experience for students.
Dynamic Math Learning Opportunities
Teachers can now assign specific assignments to individual students, small groups, or their whole class with ST Math. This is a great way to introduce a new topic to your students, especially when you’re not right in front of your students — if you are teaching at a distance. This feature can help your students prepare for synchronous instruction with an asynchronous experience before a video call.
With the new assignment feature, everyone in your class has something to work on that connects to their needs. The resources geared towards elementary school-aged students (PK to 6th grade) are the most content-rich part of their offering. However, there is a version for middle school (6th to 8th grade) students, too, which serves as a supplement for students who need additional support. With this resource, students have access to remedial support, targeted activities, and an enrichment component.
In this blog post from the team at ST Math, you’ll find a breakdown of all the new components. It gives a closer look at the students’ view of the assignments and what will show up on their screen when they open up the platform.
Learn more about ST Math here >>
Differentiation in the Math Classroom
As you can see in the video below, ST Math gives students an opportunity to dive deeper into math concepts. They have resources and puzzles that focus on visual representations and helping students work through challenges. This program focuses on a spatial and temporal approach to help students tackle a wide variety of topics.
With ST Math, teachers can support their students with any content they choose from the program, with plenty of assessment data to help make decisions about where students might need additional focus. The combination of math assignments and adaptive software allows teachers to make supported decisions throughout the school year.
Math and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)
One thing that came up in my conversation with Elizabeth Neiman from the ST Math team was their platform’s connections to social-emotional learning (SEL).
They’ve thoughtfully addressed math anxiety issues, especially with families that might not have a lot of math confidence but are motivated to support their students. ST Math’s homeschool version is free for the rest of the calendar year. So if you’d like to take a closer look, this is a perfect time.
In this blog post from their team, you can find out more about the research conducted around ST Math and student self-beliefs. They’ve also created instructional resources that you can check out for free as well.
ST Math is standards-aligned and includes 35,000 puzzles for students. Teachers can set up students on this powerful platform that deepens conceptual understanding. Or they can assign specific activities for students based on standards connections or individual needs.
Ready to learn more? Head over to their landing page to get more information on this math learning tool for students!
