Anyone having serious issues with Mathspace? FCPS
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Anonymous
My daughter's Algebra class has been using an online math program - "Mathspace". It is extremely difficult to navigate and has caused much frustration and tears. I spoke to her teacher who was very nice, but said that FCPS has adopted this program and will be using it as a replacement for textbooks. 
I don't know who to contact within FCPS to express my utter disgust at such a time-wasting, complicated system. Any ideas? |
Anonymous
| I have serious issues with a lack of actual textbooks, period. I’m not convinced that students are learning much these days - no grammar, spelling, writing composition, etc. The math curriculum is especially confusing. If it’s not specifically on a SOL, forget it. |
Anonymous
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Is the teacher using it as a primary teaching/learning tool in the class? Or is it just a supplementary tool for kids to access at home if they need help? Is your daughter's frustration with not being able to complete assignments and it's affecting her grade? Or is it b/c she's looking for help at home and the book is too difficult to use in that respect?
If it's just an at home resource for your daughter, then tell her not to use it. Ask the school for a copy of an old Algebra textbook or buy one online somewhere and use that instead. Or google. Or use Kahn Academy. Whatever. If the teacher is actually assigning work in there and your daughter can't figure out how to find it or complete it b/c the book is too difficult to navigate, then I'd have your daughter sit down with the teacher when she has time and have her basically teach her how to use the textbook. I spoke to one Algebra teacher here where I teach and she does find the MathSpace book more difficult to work with than the new Discovery Techbook that we are now using in Pre-Algebra. But she basically just told her students that the book is a resource for them and that the instruction and assignments would be good old fashion pen/paper from her. |
Anonymous
| Why did they do away with the textbook? I see some schools are still using it. |
Anonymous
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I would call or email Mr. Sloan Presidio,Assistant Superintendent, Instructional Services Department of FCPS.
Contact info : https://www.fcps.edu/department/instructional-service-department Also, you need to call your school's math department and speak to the department head to voice your concerns. |
Anonymous
Please consider joining the Facebook group FCPSOff. It's about setting reasonable guidelines - actually any guidelines - for technology use in FCPS. Currently there are no guidelines at all and it's a bit of a wild west out there. I can't imagine how children are learning without textbooks. Studies show people learn much better with pencil and paper. I think it's going to come back and hurt this generation of kids. |
Anonymous
I applaud FCPS Off for asking for some guidelines. I do have some concern with the high number of parents of very young children in that group who make a lot of assumptions about learning without any direct experience. Their concern for their child's 1st grade classroom can easily be extracted to a future concern for their child's middle school classroom that may not be desirable. Some of them react out of fear of the unknown rather than advocacy for changed based on observation and study. Many of us have seen our children go through grades in FCPS where kids did not get a textbook or technology and it has not been a better learning environment. Teachers were spending hours making copies and creating or pulling online sheets that were barely readable, haphazard, and sometimes barely related to the content being taught or the academic level of the students. Often they were just reading from the one book they had to the students because there were no other materials. With the push for little to no homework and less worksheets, kids weren't writing with pencil and paper at home or in school. All educational initiatives can be good in moderation. But there needs to be a more overarching review of the curriculum material, it's cost, and how it all works together to help children graduate. |
Anonymous
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OP. Cooper Middle School says they still use a textbook for their math courses as well as math space. Could you use these books as a supplement?
https://cooperms.fcps.edu/resources/resources-students/textbooks-and-homework-help |
Anonymous
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As a prealgebra/algebra teacher, I am FURIOUS at how this software was rolled out and presented to us.
1) They chose to implement 2 different programs for middle school and high school courses. Middle school teachers now must utilize two completely different (night and day) programs if they choose to use them at all. 2) They rolled this out in a year where we also got new standards from the state, new pacing guides from the county, and are supposed to be implementing new teaching methodologies using math workshop. It is too much change in one year to do anything more than half assed. 3) The software is buggy and we weren't given solid training on it. One teacher from each school went to an all day training over the summer, and then was supposed to do "turn around training" in 3 hours during our back to school week. We now have representatives from math space coming to our department meeting next month to discuss any concerns we have (and apparently they're going to all schools with this). 4) The program will not accept x = 4, it wants X=4. It won't accept -3, it wants T=-3. If the problem asks you to distribute 3(x+2), you have to write at least one midway step before writing the answer, so it won't allow you to go straight to 3x+6, you have to do 3(x)+3(2) first. It's soooooo picky about how you answer problems, so kids are getting frustrated and not understanding why they did something wrong. 4) It doesn't work on your phone. 95% of my students don't have reliable computer internet access at home. They get on the internet from their phones. A year or two ago when they first started talking about new "basal resources", the county math office sent out a survey asking what we wanted. I responded that I'd rather have $200 to spend on my own materials and continue using the old textbooks. I stand by that. The new stuff is a waste of my time, a complete waste of money because I'm not using it, and is just way more work for teachers. |
Anonymous
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Oh, and one more thing. The level of difficulty of the problems in mathspace is nowhere near the difficulty on the SOLs. The level of difficulty in math techbook (the pre-algebra/math 7 book) is way too hard. Neither is sufficient for assigning homework or creating an assessment.
I know staff well at 4 different county schools, and only 1 school is using it at all. WASTE. OF. MONEY. |
Anonymous
| DD taking HS precalc/trig and hates that everyone in her class can see her score on an assessment in Mathspace, especially when simple typing errors are the only issues. Technology detracts from the math completely and just another annoying tool to add to Blackboard and Google. Too many tools and no standardization just leads to added stress foe these kids. |
Anonymous
Scores are shared? Why? |
Anonymous
OP here. You are my hero. I agree completely with everything you said, and your description of how to input answers was spot-on. It is so frustrating for my daughter to input the correct answer, but then be told to go back and painstakingly type in the steps. This wouldn't be a problem with pencil and paper - it's just this computer program. |
Anonymous
+1,000 And I had no idea the scores were shared - that just makes me even more furious. |
Anonymous
OP here again - my child is at Langley and her teacher said this is being used county-wide? She said the goal is to stop using textbooks altogether. At least this year, she has a textbook she can use at home, but apparently that won't be the case next year. I definitely plan on emailing the administration.
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