TenMarks

With the end of the school year in sight for many teachers, the days seem to lend themselves to meetings, grading those final exams and essays, and meeting with students and parents to evaluate progress. The days can seem to go on forever. However, this week I can honestly say I learned some valuable information while attending those meetings.

I have been sitting in promotion/retention meetings all week. For each student we have met on, there have been strategies, helpful tips, and the information about summer school shared. In several of our meetings, my colleague and math wiz shared a program with our group. The program is called TenMarks. Until these meetings, I had never even heard of the program, maybe because I do not teach math, but nonetheless, she felt the program would offer needed assistance to many of our struggling math students.

As soon as I left the meeting, I went straight for the computer. I had to see what this program was all about and how it could help students. To my surprise, the initial website offered wonderful information. Many times this is not the case, but this company knows how to market. Because of this new information I stumbled upon, I wanted to share it with all of you. (I am not a sales person for the company or any related entity to it. I learned about it, and I felt it was information many math teachers would love to have.)

Upon further browsing, I found links to the state standards, content covered for grades 1-10, differentiation, and remediation. If I was a math teacher, I probably would have been turning cartwheels down the hallway! It had so many ideas and resources to reinforce what the teachers were teaching in the classrooms. It is aligned to the SBAC and PARRC; their are example questions that familiarize students with these assessments. There are short video clips that explain content. The instruction is data-driven and individualized.

By the time our meetings rolled around today, our instructional coordinator had informational materials to hand to the parents about this program. A school system can purchase it, or individuals can pay a fee to use the program. It is a fantastic tool for students to use over the summer to continue to practice those concepts and be ready for the next grade's standards. It is also a wonderful resource, whether a student is struggling or not, to use throughout the summer break to keep their minds working and retaining the learned information.

If you teach math or if you are a parent of a child in grades 1-10, I would highly suggest checking into TenMarks.

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!