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cahnIt's been *checks* a few months since I last complained about anything the kids are going through educationally, soooooo obviously it is time for me to complain about something else!
A's class uses a math computer program/app called "Prodigy." This is an internet-based (I think there is an app as well) program that is supposed to Make Math Fun. In practice, this seems to occur by giving kids avatars that wander through a little land and collect prizes, and sometimes they have to solve a math problem. (Note that although this description makes it sound like the problems are related to the wandering and prize collecting, they are actually completely decoupled.)
I have three main issues with Prodigy:
1. I'm vaguely opposed to education-gamify-apps in general -- I feel like there's something to be said in showing kids that the subject itself is fascinating (see also everything I've learned about 18th C history in the last couple of years :P --that wasn't because I had to, but because the actual subject was made fun for me) and not into turning it into something that is fun because of bells and whistles.
But on the other hand this is more of a vague objection, because let's face it, I was brought up on Oregon Trail, which a) has just about no educational value whatsoever b) even if there were, we all spent all our time playing the mini-game where you shot vaguely-pixelated forms that were supposed to resemble animals used for food c) I don't really feel like my life was worse because I played Oregon Trail; if anything, it's better because it's this memory that unites our US-educated generation, so... this is a thing that My Ideal School Would Not Do, but not enough for me to have done anything about.
2. The problems are too easy for A. I'm not sure whether this is a teacher or a Prodigy problem, because the teacher has assured us that she can change the difficulty level, but they're still really not hard enough. It's getting to the point where A. has decided he's bored with it, which, yeah, that's a problem.
3. It turns out that Prodigy is basically just all a big advertisement for getting parents to buy the monthly subscription for their child. It's apparently set up in such a way that if you buy the subscription you get, idk, the cool prizes and stuff. I don't agree with everything in this article, but For example, kids without memberships literally walk in dirt while kids with memberships ride around on clouds seems to be spot on.
I didn't pay all that much attention to it (idk, I feel like a lot of time gets wasted in school, I'm a bit resigned to it) until A. started bugging me for a membership ($10/month). I told him absolutely not. (In theory he could (almost) pay for it himself with his allowance ($2/week), which apparently one child at school is doing; in practice there are other things he'd rather do with his money.) Then A's FRIEND started bugging me to buy A a membership! Apparently he is the only kid in his 5-person class (he goes to this tiny startup school) who does not have a membership, because once one kid got it all the other parents were pressured more and gave in (except me, because this is the kind of thing where the more you pressure me the more I decide it's evil and dig my heels in). Fortunately the whole point of his school is to be inclusive and non-cliquish, and he is well-liked enough that he's not going to suffer from loss of social cred -- though I imagine this is part of why he doesn't like Prodigy any more, too, but... like... no. And then when I asked him about it last week he said he was bored, which was the final straw.
I talked to K, who is much smarter about this whole parenting thing than I am, and she was like, um, why not have him do Beast Academy Online at school instead? So: Beast Academy (again, hat tip to K, who told us about it when E was about A's age) is this AWESOME work that combines a graphic novel with learning about math, and has problems that are actually interesting and challenging. We have the entire paper-book series ("guides," which are the graphic novels, and "practice" books, which have problems in them -- they are workbooks, but workbooks that are actually interesting) and E worked her way through them over the years, and has now graduated on to the Art of Problem Solving books and classes (which I also absolutely recommend, along with their -- free! -- online problem generator/learning system Alcumus). And A. had started with the books but we hadn't gotten all that far yet.
These books a) make the math content fun/palatable to kids by putting it in graphic novel-story form (with cute monsters! And humor -- "sad little not-a-polygon," in the chapter about shapes where polygons are defined, has entered our family humor reservoir) but b) has the educational philosophy that kids learn from and are engaged by doing interesting problems, not that kids have to be tricked into learning with slick gameplay c) the problems are more interesting and challenging and require you to understand the material more deeply than in other math apps/curriculum I've seen d) they have challenge problems that can actually sometimes get pretty darn difficult. And e) they basically follow the Common Core curriculum, so no issues with integrating into the normal curriculum, they just go a little deeper.
Beast Academy was designed for strong math students. I would not necessarily recommend Beast Academy to a child who is not into math -- although, no, scratch that, if it were my kid I'd even more want them to do it; only I'd give them the grade level one or two behind their actual grade level, and be aware that I'd have to do a lot more hands-on help.
Anyway, fortunately he goes to a school that is extremely flexible (and honestly probably a little too much student/parent led, but since my particular kids are quite academically oriented, and every once in a while I bestir myself to complain about their academics, I guess that's ok??) so I emailed the teacher and asked if he could do Beast Academy, and she was totally up with that. (I should mention that there is a monthly/yearly fee, but I was happy to pay that.) So we got it all working last weekend and he has a shiny username and everything and is super excited, and we'll see how it goes. Right now it's still pretty easy for him (though not as easy as Prodigy) because he's doing material that he already did in the workbooks, so we'll see how it goes when he's done enough that he's going into new territory. At any rate I am pleased that he's no longer wasting half an hour every other day with stuff that's way too easy for him.
But can I say that, as usual, Art of Problem Solving has just done a REALLY REALLY good job with this. It's so rare in this world to find something that has both good content AND good delivery, and Art of Problem Solving has both. Well, I can't speak to the kid experience so much (I'm also basing this on E taking online classes with them, which I was quite impressed by, especially after seeing the crap job that CTY did with their user interfaces when she took an online class with them), but someone there has really thought this through, including the parenting interface. I can see every single problem he can, I can see exactly what he's doing, I have complete freedom to lock or unlock so that he doesn't decide he wants to skip and do Level 3 stuff that he doesn't have the prereqs for (that was today's discovery, haha -- I'd left it open on purpose because I hadn't figured out the whole system yet and wanted to give him some flexibility, but when I went in and looked at details, he was trying to do things he didn't quite yet know how to do), but I can unlock all the level 2 stuff he should already know so he can skip through that if he wants. I AM A FAN.
...In general, I feel like the educational pendulum has swung exactly the opposite way from when I was a kid. When I was a kid there was definitely too much boring stuff -- I was absolutely bored out of my mind a lot of the time. But now I feel like it's exactly the opposite; everything has to be Super Fun. And I worry -- well, I don't worry my kids will get out of school not knowing anything, but that's because I have a LOT of resources. I worry about this entire generation either getting out of school not knowing anything or not able to do anything unless it comes with a shiny app... although I suppose they'll learn it eventually? Maybe?
A's class uses a math computer program/app called "Prodigy." This is an internet-based (I think there is an app as well) program that is supposed to Make Math Fun. In practice, this seems to occur by giving kids avatars that wander through a little land and collect prizes, and sometimes they have to solve a math problem. (Note that although this description makes it sound like the problems are related to the wandering and prize collecting, they are actually completely decoupled.)
I have three main issues with Prodigy:
1. I'm vaguely opposed to education-gamify-apps in general -- I feel like there's something to be said in showing kids that the subject itself is fascinating (see also everything I've learned about 18th C history in the last couple of years :P --that wasn't because I had to, but because the actual subject was made fun for me) and not into turning it into something that is fun because of bells and whistles.
But on the other hand this is more of a vague objection, because let's face it, I was brought up on Oregon Trail, which a) has just about no educational value whatsoever b) even if there were, we all spent all our time playing the mini-game where you shot vaguely-pixelated forms that were supposed to resemble animals used for food c) I don't really feel like my life was worse because I played Oregon Trail; if anything, it's better because it's this memory that unites our US-educated generation, so... this is a thing that My Ideal School Would Not Do, but not enough for me to have done anything about.
2. The problems are too easy for A. I'm not sure whether this is a teacher or a Prodigy problem, because the teacher has assured us that she can change the difficulty level, but they're still really not hard enough. It's getting to the point where A. has decided he's bored with it, which, yeah, that's a problem.
3. It turns out that Prodigy is basically just all a big advertisement for getting parents to buy the monthly subscription for their child. It's apparently set up in such a way that if you buy the subscription you get, idk, the cool prizes and stuff. I don't agree with everything in this article, but For example, kids without memberships literally walk in dirt while kids with memberships ride around on clouds seems to be spot on.
I didn't pay all that much attention to it (idk, I feel like a lot of time gets wasted in school, I'm a bit resigned to it) until A. started bugging me for a membership ($10/month). I told him absolutely not. (In theory he could (almost) pay for it himself with his allowance ($2/week), which apparently one child at school is doing; in practice there are other things he'd rather do with his money.) Then A's FRIEND started bugging me to buy A a membership! Apparently he is the only kid in his 5-person class (he goes to this tiny startup school) who does not have a membership, because once one kid got it all the other parents were pressured more and gave in (except me, because this is the kind of thing where the more you pressure me the more I decide it's evil and dig my heels in). Fortunately the whole point of his school is to be inclusive and non-cliquish, and he is well-liked enough that he's not going to suffer from loss of social cred -- though I imagine this is part of why he doesn't like Prodigy any more, too, but... like... no. And then when I asked him about it last week he said he was bored, which was the final straw.
I talked to K, who is much smarter about this whole parenting thing than I am, and she was like, um, why not have him do Beast Academy Online at school instead? So: Beast Academy (again, hat tip to K, who told us about it when E was about A's age) is this AWESOME work that combines a graphic novel with learning about math, and has problems that are actually interesting and challenging. We have the entire paper-book series ("guides," which are the graphic novels, and "practice" books, which have problems in them -- they are workbooks, but workbooks that are actually interesting) and E worked her way through them over the years, and has now graduated on to the Art of Problem Solving books and classes (which I also absolutely recommend, along with their -- free! -- online problem generator/learning system Alcumus). And A. had started with the books but we hadn't gotten all that far yet.
These books a) make the math content fun/palatable to kids by putting it in graphic novel-story form (with cute monsters! And humor -- "sad little not-a-polygon," in the chapter about shapes where polygons are defined, has entered our family humor reservoir) but b) has the educational philosophy that kids learn from and are engaged by doing interesting problems, not that kids have to be tricked into learning with slick gameplay c) the problems are more interesting and challenging and require you to understand the material more deeply than in other math apps/curriculum I've seen d) they have challenge problems that can actually sometimes get pretty darn difficult. And e) they basically follow the Common Core curriculum, so no issues with integrating into the normal curriculum, they just go a little deeper.
Beast Academy was designed for strong math students. I would not necessarily recommend Beast Academy to a child who is not into math -- although, no, scratch that, if it were my kid I'd even more want them to do it; only I'd give them the grade level one or two behind their actual grade level, and be aware that I'd have to do a lot more hands-on help.
Anyway, fortunately he goes to a school that is extremely flexible (and honestly probably a little too much student/parent led, but since my particular kids are quite academically oriented, and every once in a while I bestir myself to complain about their academics, I guess that's ok??) so I emailed the teacher and asked if he could do Beast Academy, and she was totally up with that. (I should mention that there is a monthly/yearly fee, but I was happy to pay that.) So we got it all working last weekend and he has a shiny username and everything and is super excited, and we'll see how it goes. Right now it's still pretty easy for him (though not as easy as Prodigy) because he's doing material that he already did in the workbooks, so we'll see how it goes when he's done enough that he's going into new territory. At any rate I am pleased that he's no longer wasting half an hour every other day with stuff that's way too easy for him.
But can I say that, as usual, Art of Problem Solving has just done a REALLY REALLY good job with this. It's so rare in this world to find something that has both good content AND good delivery, and Art of Problem Solving has both. Well, I can't speak to the kid experience so much (I'm also basing this on E taking online classes with them, which I was quite impressed by, especially after seeing the crap job that CTY did with their user interfaces when she took an online class with them), but someone there has really thought this through, including the parenting interface. I can see every single problem he can, I can see exactly what he's doing, I have complete freedom to lock or unlock so that he doesn't decide he wants to skip and do Level 3 stuff that he doesn't have the prereqs for (that was today's discovery, haha -- I'd left it open on purpose because I hadn't figured out the whole system yet and wanted to give him some flexibility, but when I went in and looked at details, he was trying to do things he didn't quite yet know how to do), but I can unlock all the level 2 stuff he should already know so he can skip through that if he wants. I AM A FAN.
...In general, I feel like the educational pendulum has swung exactly the opposite way from when I was a kid. When I was a kid there was definitely too much boring stuff -- I was absolutely bored out of my mind a lot of the time. But now I feel like it's exactly the opposite; everything has to be Super Fun. And I worry -- well, I don't worry my kids will get out of school not knowing anything, but that's because I have a LOT of resources. I worry about this entire generation either getting out of school not knowing anything or not able to do anything unless it comes with a shiny app... although I suppose they'll learn it eventually? Maybe?
no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 10:22 pm (UTC)I always felt like they were always trying to make things fun for us, and the things that were fun for other people are extremely Unfun for me, and vice versa. This continued to be a problem well into college. But unlike some of my other methodological complaints, I'm willing to accept that this one is my alien brain. ;)
no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-29 06:43 pm (UTC)Yes, those. It's like you know me or something. :P
there was a lot of drills and doing worksheets and exercises that were all the same thing ten times.
That was boring for me in the sense that it was too slow, but not boring in the sense that it was Unfun. Drills and worksheets and exercises were fun for me, I just wanted them to go faster *because* they were fun!