Anonymous wrote: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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I am the OP of the above info.
Every call and email matters. Parents need to speak up and let FCPS know our frustration and our kids' struggle with this new tool. I know my DC's math teachers aren't happy with MathSpace either. But I understand why as FCPS employees, they are reluctant to advocate for parents and students.

Please also consider calling or emailing:

Amy Hunter

K-12 Mathematics Coordinator
Instructional Service Department

office: 571-423-4725
email:aehunter2@fcps.edu

8270 Willow Oaks Corporate Drive, Fairfax, VA 22031

Everyone please go to the following website and post questions to Mr. Sloan Presidio as well. He is the Assistant Superintendent, Instructional Services Department of FCPS. Here's the website for his contact info : https://www.fcps.edu/department/instructional-service-department

Btw, I have gotten very general responds from Amy, but she did not address any specific question I asked.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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...

My DC just took a quiz on mathspace and said it was confusing and cost him points. I believe this because DC just took a test and got a high A. DC also usually says if he doesn't understand a topic. He asked the teacher if he could just write the question and answers on paper because the program was confusing him and the teacher said no. Students shouldn't have their grades affected by a glitchy program. Im trying not to be "that parent," but Im not sure how long this will last.

That's interesting--is be curious to find out how the teacher managed to give a quiz on it. We wanted to use it as a pretest/post test for the year, as it has a feature allowing the questions to regenerate with different numbers. We realized we can't give assessments with it though, because it forces you to show all the steps and get things correct. If a student types in the wrong step, it will label it incorrectly and ask them to try again. We abandoned it for assessments (thank the lord!) and went back to ecart for dara purposes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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...

My DC just took a quiz on mathspace and said it was confusing and cost him points. I believe this because DC just took a test and got a high A. DC also usually says if he doesn't understand a topic. He asked the teacher if he could just write the question and answers on paper because the program was confusing him and the teacher said no. Students shouldn't have their grades affected by a glitchy program. Im trying not to be "that parent," but Im not sure how long this will last.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I am the OP of the above info.
Every call and email matters. Parents need to speak up and let FCPS know our frustration and our kids' struggle with this new tool. I know my DC's math teachers aren't happy with MathSpace either. But I understand why as FCPS employees, they are reluctant to advocate for parents and students.

Please also consider calling or emailing:

Amy Hunter

K-12 Mathematics Coordinator
Instructional Service Department

office: 571-423-4725
email:aehunter2@fcps.edu

8270 Willow Oaks Corporate Drive, Fairfax, VA 22031

Everyone please go to the following website and post questions to Mr. Sloan Presidio as well. He is the Assistant Superintendent, Instructional Services Department of FCPS. Here's the website for his contact info : https://www.fcps.edu/department/instructional-service-department

Btw, I have gotten very general responds from Amy, but she did not address any specific question I asked.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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...

Anonymous wrote: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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If anyone has connections, PLEASE, get them to get rid of Mathspace!!!

Supposedly we spent $9m on online materials and signed 7 year contracts. The county isn't getting rid of it. Hooray... (believe me, I complain at every department chairs meeting I attend!)

Anonymous wrote: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!!!

Anonymous wrote: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.

Anonymous wrote:If anyone has connections, PLEASE, get them to get rid of Mathspace!!!