OP here - thank you, I will definitely do this. |
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I completely agree. The movement to put everything online is going to seriously backfire. These kids need actual textbooks available to them, and they don't need to waste their limited time on confusing and laborious websites. -OP |
AND, the new pacing guides aren't even complete. They're getting them out to us about two weeks before the start of each new unit. We only have a vague idea of which SOLs go with which unit now and it makes planning impossible. We are seriously struggling this year... |
Yes..and the techbook barely matches what we're teaching. Unit 1 - conversions, ordering, real number system, square roots, tax, tip, discount, interest, proportions, percent of change, balancing a checkbook. The techbook has square roots, CUBE roots (not even in curriculum), and rational/irrational (but nothing on the rest of the real number system). Super helpful. We were sort of excited about the online assessments with the techbook but when we tried to create one, not only does it not have questions relating to about 85% of the unit, but the questions it does have are repetitive and either ridiculously easy or ridiculously hard. |
This sounds awful for everyone! Good grief! |
This just brought up my temperature and I'm not even involved and was just browsing this forum! What a ridiculous dumbed down crutch. So the kids who can see things one step ahead have to fall in line and write everything out? Ridiculous... |
Fcps math teacher here and I despise this program. I’m happy to spend the time looking at my students’ paper/pencil work. Computers can’t decipher student thinking. |
I asked my 8th grader in Algebra 1 about this. He is an A student in Math.
He hated Mathspace from the first day of school and while has tolerated it, he is not loving the experience at all. He said that what would take him 15 minutes in pencil and paper would take him 45 minutes on Mathspace because he would have to type in all the characters in the way that the program wants to see it. The program is also really slow. This is really discouraging. 30 minutes of additional homework time + frustration isn't conducive for learning anything. |
Our DD complained about Mathspace to me a lot about a month ago, when she just started using it. She said the system is confusing and doesn't work properly. |
Every single link to a math book is dead. |
This is actually illegal. It's the first FERPA rule most teachers learn... |
Students can't see other scores. They see "points" based on amount of time spent in the program. |
And even then, it's only a kid or two with similar points, and I can't remember (no real training, yay!) if it's anonymous. |
Mathspace is horrible!
My kids are excellent at math, and they came to me frustrated beyond belief over it. They showed me how it worked, and how it fails them at every step of their work over things as simple as an extra space on the line. This program should not be used, period! It doesn't work, and will only turn kids away from math! As for no textbooks, I can't understand how any child can achieve at math without a physical textbook? Yes, they can look things up online, or use the klunky online textbook, but if they want to help the kids achieve at math you need a physical textbook! What is worse (and worse for the trees), is that the teachers have compensated a bit by handing out printouts every day of the materials. By the end of the year, the kids have 2 textbook thickness of handouts from the teachers. This has got to cost more than a text book to print out every year for every student. If anyone has connections, PLEASE, get them to get rid of Mathspace!!! |