As you move into this very unusual school year, the entire team at ST Math wants you to know we're here to support you in whatever model or plan you've adopted. This Focus On: module will give you some ideas and resources that you can use to harness the power of ST Math as a remote instructional tool. With it, your students can make significant progress in math and build a strong conceptual understanding no matter what your situation.
The most important message is that the best use of ST Math is at home as an independent learning tool (Part 1).
Then, when you are ready, your students are ready, and parents are ready (especially for the littles) you can begin to leverage ST Math as a remote instructional tool (Part 2 coming soon).
After that, or in coordination with using it as a remote instructional tool, think about ways that you can deepen and extend that learning, making connections and building understanding (Part 3 coming soon).
First, if you are new to ST Math, we highly recommend that you complete the first unit in The Essentials Course. It will give you the background you need to implement ST Math in your remote or in-person classroom.
Then, review the information on this page and decide how you want to incorporate ST Math into your plan. Remember that research is clear that having students play the recommended time each week results in significant growth in mathematics but all time on the games is beneficial.
Setting Students Up for Successful Independent ST Math Use
Introduce ST Math
There are three important elements to making sure your students are ready to get the most out of ST Math:
- Introduce ST Math to Students - if students are new to ST Math, they need to understand that it's a bit different from other math games they might have played. Even students who are familiar with ST Math will notice some changes this year.
- Introduce the Learning Cycle to Students - the Learning Cycle takes the perception-action cycle and makes it actionable (and not just in math class!). When students consciously use it, they take their learning into their own hands.
- Introduce ST Math to Families - Families need to know what ST Math is and how to support their students using the Learning Cycle.
Introduce ST Math to Students
If students aren't familiar with ST Math, it will be important to introduce them to the program.
Share this introduction activity with groups of students.
Link for the activity above: https://play.stmath.com/raft/resources/interactive_activities/guided_intro/index.html
For more information about introducing ST Math to Your Students, go to the Academy's Introducing ST Math module.
There are three important elements to making sure your students are ready to get the most out of ST Math:
- Introduce ST Math to Students - if students are new to ST Math, they need to understand that it's a bit different from other math games they might have played. Even students who are familiar with ST Math will notice some changes this year.
- Introduce the Learning Cycle to Students - the Learning Cycle takes the perception-action cycle and makes it actionable (and not just in math class!). When students consciously use it, they take their learning into their own hands.
- Introduce ST Math to Families - Families need to know what ST Math is and how to support their students using the Learning Cycle.
Introduce ST Math and the Picture Password to Students
If students aren't familiar with ST Math, it will be important to introduce them to the program and the picture password.
Share this introduction activity with groups of students.
Link for the activity above: https://play.stmath.com/raft/resources/interactive_activities/guided_intro/index.html
For more information about introducing ST Math to Your Students and videos to introduce the Picture Password, go to the Academy Introducing ST Math and the Picture Password module.
Introduce the Learning Cycle to Students
Teaching students to follow the four steps of the Learning Cycle will help them work their way through puzzles they might be having a hard time with.
- Notice - What do you notice on the screen? Click on the screen to see what is highlighted. That's where you should focus your attention.
- Predict - Before you click the green Go Button (or in games without the button, before you enter your answer), what do you think will happen?
- Analyze - What did happen? Was your prediction correct? Double click on the screen during the animation and you get the controls to replay and stop the animation so you can understand what happened.
- Connect - How does this puzzle make sense to you? What other math ideas does it make you think of?
You can use this activity with groups of students to go over the Learning Cycle.
Link for the activity above: https://play.stmath.com/raft/resources/interactive_activities/npac_shoes_guided/index.html
Introduce ST Math to Families
Because families will likely be working with their students, it's important that they understand what ST Math is. You can provide this link to your families and they can learn how to support their student using the Learning Cycle and get a chance to play some games themselves.
You can try it for yourself here:
Be sure to remind families to:
- Share the joy of learning growing together
- Encourage effort and progress
- Take breaks
- Create their own learning environment
- Have fun
Communicate Expectations
Setting up and communicating clear expectations and goals is vital to your students' success with remote learning in general and ST Math specifically. While any time on ST Math is beneficial, these are the recommendations for the best results.
Make sure that families understand how to help students who get stuck. Remind them of the questions in the Learning Cycle (covered in the Family Introduction Activity at bit.ly/welcome_stmath).
Consider sharing this graphic with them.
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If families report that students are very stuck on a game and they're having trouble, remember that you can access that game directly from your account. Click on the student's name in your roster. Expand the alert (or click the student's name) and click on the Level information. You can use this to have a quick meeting with the student to talk through the difficulty they're having.
To learn more about how to Support Students, complete the Supporting Students module in Unit 2 or Helping Struggling Students module in Unit 3.
Create a Schedule
We understand that, although the mind is important, it must be balanced with the heart.
The team at MIND Research Institute, the creators of ST Math, remind you to:
- Take care of the socio-emotional before the rest.
- Ensure students have an opportunity to socialize, see you, see their peers, interact and feel important.
- Balance whole group with small group and individual.
Research suggests a blend of instructional components is most effective:
- Synchronous time is time spent with the teacher live. This can be whole group, small group or individual time. However, consider using whole group synchronous time for celebrations, encouragement, whole group bonding, and reinforcing asynchronous lessons. Use synchronous time in small groups or one-on-one for for intervention and targeted instruction.
- Asynchronous time is when a teacher records instructional content or directions and students can watch and rewatch this in the most optimal time for the family unit. Consider communicating your most important content in this way, such as expectations, directions for multi-step tasks, and mini-lessons in any content area.
- Independent time should be included in the plan for the rest of the day and should include some playing ST Math. The research indicates that effective instructional time is limited, but students in a remote setting learn best independently with frequent, informative feedback and encouragement from the teacher, peers, and other adults. So plan this time wisely, but the research also supports choice. Be sure to balance your choices and set expectations and accountability so that students don’t always do the same things!
The blog What Makes an Effective Remote Digital Learning Program? provides some research-based ideas about distance learning in general and ST Math specifically. It's worth a read.
Plan to Track, Monitor, and Celebrate
Although you are teaching in a new way, planning is still the key to success. Having students play independently on ST Math is important but you need to be sure to decide how you will have students track their work, how you will monitor what they've done and when, and then celebrate all the successes.
Track
Although you can see in your ST Math Educator Experience exactly when and how long students have played and the puzzles they've solved (see below), it is beneficial for students to keep track of what they've done themselves. If you wish, you can use our tracking forms to help students record how much they've played.
Also available in the Resources section of ST Math Help (help.stmath.com), are Journals, Quiz Recording Sheets, Passports, and Exit Tickets with more resources being added regularly.
Monitor
The data that is available in your ST Math account can help you keep track of students' usage.
Students Tab
- Shows minutes and puzzles for this week, last week, and average week. Are students hitting the goals you've set?
- Alerts appear when students are struggling on a puzzle. They are a signal that you may need to reach out to that students and help them work through the puzzle.
- Sort by Currently Playing to see what students are working on and if there are groups on the same Objective. You may want to meet with those students and discuss what they're learning.
- If you sort by Currently Playing and filter by Alerts, it's easy to see if there are students struggling on the same Objective.
Usage Tab
- Shows information about when students are signing and how many puzzles they're solving.
- If you click on a student's name on the Students tab, you can see this information for individual students.
Objectives Tab
- Shows what Journeys (grade level curriculum) students are working on and which are complete.
- If you have used Assignments, you can click that button and see both Class and Individual Assignments.
Celebrate
No matter how crazy it gets, be sure to take time to celebrate! Whether it's an online party or a note sent to a student or their family (families like celebrations, too!), taking a few minutes to celebrate all the hard work and learning going on will never be time wasted.
Share Resources with Families
If you haven't already, be sure to share the interactive Introduction to ST Math for Families:
You can also refer families to the resources on ST Math's web site, stmath.com. They'll find many interesting and fun activities and information.
it's important that students and families know how to sign in to ST Math. This letter can be shared with families to help them sign in to ST Math with their students at play.stmath.com.
Letter Home (English)
it's important that students and families know how to sign in to ST Math. This letter can be shared with families to help them sign in to ST Math with their students.
Letter Home (English)
Letter Home fill in URL of district portal (English)
it's important that students and families know how to sign in to ST Math. This letter can be shared with families to help them sign in to ST Math with their students at play.stmath.com.
Letter Home (English)
Letter Home fill in Invitation Code (English)
Sign In
Follow the instructions in the Academy module Getting Ready for Day 1 or the Day 1 Checklist. to set up your class and add students.
If you're teaching remotely and haven't added your students yet, you can either take a screenshot (see how to below) of the Student Instructions screen (see above) and share it with your students, copy and paste the Invitation Code and tell them what to do, or you can use the Tickets to JiJi to provide the code and instructions.
- Students new to ST Math will go to play.stmath.com and click Invitation Code. After they enter their code, the program will ask them for their first and last names and then move automatically into Password Training. PK, TK, and Kindergarten students learn their first 8 pictures when they first sign in and the rest after they complete two Objectives.
- You can refresh your class page to see who has successfully joined.
- Note: The Invitation Code is valid for 72 hours.
From that point on, your students will sign in to play.stmath.com and enter their picture password.
If you have students who need some help with their Picture Password, you can click their name in your class list and, on the Actions Menu, choose View Picture Password. You can print it out or take a screenshot and send it to them.
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How to take a screenshot:
- Mac: Shift Command 3 (whole screen) or Shift Command 4 (select the area to capture). Click the image when it appears in the corner of your screen or wait until it appears on your desktop.
- PC Print Screen key (or FN Print Screen) captures the whole screen or Windows Shift S (select the area to capture) which saves it to the clipboard so you can paste it into an email.
If you have questions, check out ST Math Help (help.stmath.com), the Academy, or call Support (888) 491-6603 5 am to 5 pm Pacific).
Sign In
Your students will be signing in to ST Math using your district portal. Consider sharing a screenshot of where the ST Math icon is and what it looks like.
You might also want to let students know that if they don't sign out of ST Math (click on their name and click the Sign Out button), their session will be ended automatically. The good news is that, even if they didn't sign out, their progress will be saved!
If you have any problems with your roster, get in touch with your school contact person for the single-sign-on service you use (e.g., Clever, Classlink, etc.).
If you have questions, check out ST Math Help (help.stmath.com), the Academy, or call Support (888) 491-6603 5 am to 5 pm Pacific).
Sign In
Students with text passwords should go to play.stmath.com, click Student Sign In, choose Text Sign In, and enter their Username and Password.
You might also want to let students know that if they don't sign out of ST Math (click on their name and click the Sign Out button), their session will be ended automatically. The good news is that, even if they didn't sign out, their progress will be saved!
If you have questions, check out ST Math Help (help.stmath.com), the Academy, or call Support (888) 491-6603 5 am to 5 pm Pacific).
Sign-In
Your students will be signing in the first time using a text username and password you receive from your school or district. As soon as they sign in, they'll be taken automatically to Picture Password Training where they will learn their password (PK, TK, and Kindergarten students will learn only their first eight pictures until they've completed two Objectives).
From that point on, your students will sign in to play.stmath.com and enter their picture password.
If you have students who need some help, you can click their name in your class list and. on the Actions Menu, choose Print Picture Password. You can print it out or take a screenshot and send it to them.
If you have questions, check out ST Math Help (help.stmath.com), the Academy, or call Support (888) 491-6603 5 am to 5 pm Pacific).