PE5_EnVisions MATH_Online Planner

Ciao! Now here's something new from Ann Cannizzaro.

PE5_EnVisions MATH_Online Planner

For this posting, I went to an online access point for Pearson Education.  There, I learned more about the online tools that are available to teachers using Pearson products.  For the EnVisions MATH program, there are some great materials available. The Premium edition allows teachers to set up classes online, and provide student access to lessons and activities from any computer – at school or at home.  For me, this may allow a student who is struggling, to view a lesson several times at school or at home with parents, which can aid in clear communication about lesson content.  Also, students who miss lessons can easily view them online and make up missed work.  I feel there are some teachers in my school who would take advantage of this feature.  It is difficult to help students catch up on missed lessons, as we have very little time for one-on-one assistance.  Having this access to lessons would really benefit the student.

The lesson planner is built onto a calendar, and lessons can be entered day by day or for a whole year.  The lesson planner provides access to standards and content for each lesson.  Teachers can assign lessons to individual students or to an entire class for remediation or enrichment.  One component that I didn’t know about was the access to additional content and activities to enhance and support each lesson.  You can reach a variety of learning styles with this capability.  There is a search tool to find activities.  You can search for videos, multimedia items, music, e-text, and many other materials, which may enrich your lesson presentations.  

Students can access the website to complete extra credit activities, and teachers can differentiate instruction using this option.  I feel that this is a valuable tool to investigate further.  Another plus is that the planner can be printed out for use in the classroom, and to leave instructions for a Substitute.

Finally, I learned about online tests that can be built and assigned to students.  They are then scored immediately, providing feedback to students and teachers.  The tool will automatically assign new activities to students based on the scores they receive on the test.

I’m providing a link here to get you to a video featuring Stuart J. Murphy.  He is the Visual Learning Specialist who helped develop the unique visual learning features of the EnVisions MATH program.  He has written a whole series of Children's books called "MathStarts", to help children learn a variety of math concepts.  I have several of these in my classroom.  I had purchased them a few years ago to enrich my math and literacy program.  This link will take you to a  “myPearsonTraining” web page.  If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you’ll see the group of Author Videos.  Click on Stuart Murphy, Specialist, and watch. 

Remember to scroll to the bottom of the page for the Author Videos!

Stuart Murphy explains his understanding of Visual Learning.  He describes what it is and what it is not.  This caught my ear because I had recently viewed the Wimba session from last week.  The definitions of various literacies were under discussion.  I thought of visual literacy, and how this program helps to promote it. 


 I hope you’ll take the time to link to it and view it.

http://www.mypearsontraining.com/products/envisionmath/2009/tutorials.asp