Think Through Math revisit

We spent some time today revisiting Think Through Math and our goals.  There were some parts of TTM that my students did not know about, so I took some time to explain them.  Some of these were:

• Messages - if they have a notification of a message they need to check it.  The message is usually from me.
• I explained how to look at their dashboard to understand how they are doing on TTM.
• I reminded them about our goal of Think30.  Every student who passes 30 lessons by April 20 will go on a trip to visit Chuck E. Cheese and attend a movie. Also, for every 5 lessons passed, students earn a bead for their Outdoor School necklace.

Then I explained how students could use TTM to earn extra credit.  The following is the email I sent home to parents explaining the extra credit as well:

Since returning from Christmas Break, there has been more math homework coming home in the form of Countdown to STAAR.  This is because I am now doing either Intervention or Social Studies for 30 minutes of my class time every day.  This means we lose 30 minutes of time on task.

​These assignments will typically come home on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.  They will have 6-8 questions.  This means that each question is worth quite a bit.  Missing one takes you to a "B".  However, this is a necessary evil.  The Countdown to STAAR is written specifically to address the rigor students will see the day of the STAAR (April 20)​.  This also means that grades are lower.

I placed math grades into the grade portal today.  If you have not set up viewing your student's grade portal, just contact the elementary office.  They will give you the information you need to login to this valuable resource.  For those of you who have been accessing the grade portal, you can see the scores your child is making on our assignments.  Many times parents will ask me for extra credit assignments.  One way to earn extra credit is to correct the problems that were missed for a grade of 70%.   However, I have decided on a second way to allow students to earn extra credit...

To earn extra credit, your child need only work onthinkthroughmath.com at home on evenings and weekends.  Now, I do not want your child to sit in front of a computer all evening.  Kids need to play!  However, I am able to see how much time was spent on evenings (5:00 pm - 7:00 am) and weekends and for every 45 minutes spent on the program, your child will have earned $20 PRIDE Bucks to spend in our PRIDE Store on Fridays AND a "100" in the gradebook.