When Ms. Sheri Sparling was first placed in her 5th grade classroom in the Lambton Kent area of Ontario, Canada, she realized that despite their best efforts, her students were struggling with their math fact fluency. Sheri says, “They struggled to do mental math because they didn’t understand the basics of making ten, or even multiplication facts. This meant that as we tried to do things like algebra they would have difficulty as their fluency/automaticity was slower than it should have been.”
That’s when she decided to try ExploreLearning Reflex. “I really loved that the program would assess their knowledge, and then essentially build an individual program path for them so that they were learning what they didn’t know every time, rather than repeating what they already had learned.”
After her trial ended, she decided to take the next step, and became an advocate for Reflex in her school and community to secure year-long access. She knew that for her students, “Reflex had been essential for them to understand how numbers work.”
So Ms. Sparling brought data from her own classroom to her administrators, and presented her idea to parents. “I pitched this to parents on our community math night by having several of my students show how to use Reflex to any parent or child that came. And the biggest take-away I wanted to explain to my principal is that this program isn’t just a memorization game. This truly teaches students how numbers work. To me, that is the best part of Reflex and the part that I loved most.”
And Ms. Sparlings’ hard work paid off! She was able to convince her community of admins and parents to purchase Reflex, and her student’s abilities continued to improve. “They began to get more and more answers correct due to their experience with Reflex and they became more and more confident in their own math abilities. Consequently by the end of the year the vast majority of students would often say that they loved math. When you feel confident in a subject and you feel comfortable and enjoy it, you also become more engaged. It’s just a process that naturally happens.”
She was also able to continue collecting data in Reflex to better support her students. “This has really changed how I see my students and how I can teach them. Now I know exactly which strategies to use to help a student stuck at a particular spot in math. I can pull students in small groups to help them with others having the same concerns. I think as a school this has helped us be more aware and intentional about math strategies and concepts.”
Now I know exactly which strategies to use to help a student stuck at a particular spot in math.
Sheri uses Reflex in a variety of ways. “If I have a whole-class approach that day students automatically know to come in from recess, get out their Chromebooks and log into Reflex. When I have done stations, Reflex has become a station in my rotation.”
And by the end of the year, her entire team was onboard with Reflex. “We were amazed by how much more comfortable the students were in math after the year. The second year the school was supposed to get a site license. I didn't need to present anything to my principal, she already saw the value in the program.”
And this year, as a board level consultant, Sheri Sparling gets to see just how many schools are thriving due to her work to pilot Reflex. “In each school that has Reflex, I can see how the program positively helps students using it.”
Ms. Sparling adds that “Reflex is amazing! That’s my impression. It did everything I wanted it to do and more.”
