Community reviews for ST Math: K-6

ST Math, aka JiJi (the site's penguin mascot), is a great learning and practice tool for maths. The students are motivated by passing different levels and teachers can easily monitor student progress and activity from their own laptop/tablet/desktop. Initial setup is a bit arduous as students have to learn their (very long) visual passwords, BUT I am always amazed at how quickly they remember because of the way students are "taught" their passwords - very cool. Another great feature is that teachers can control and organize what is taught/practiced according to their standards/pacing calendars. Overall this is a really effective tool for teaching concepts and majority of students really are improving their skills because of it. Our district piloted the program 3-4 years ago and it was so successful that it is now required.

I've been using ST Math (lovingly called Jiji due to the penguin) now for two months in my classroom. I think that it is giving my students good practice in developing basic skills that build on each other. I can access reports that tell me who is getting low post tests, who is off task, and who is struggling a lot. Also on the computer or ipad screens it shows yellow around the screens when a student is struggling so you can help/focus them. I think that sometimes the multistep directions of some of the games is too much for some of my students (especially ones with special needs)-example: first students must skip count by 5's, but then they are putting in how much money they need with dimes and pennies. Most of the kids really like it and it keeps most of them engaged until they are at a hurdle. It is great that there are not wordy descriptions, so for my class with many ELL students they are not struggling due to the language element. We are trained to ask questions to the students about what they have previously encountered with Jiji to help them come to the solution and sometimes it is very difficult to guide students in that method.