By: Breanna Hensley
BCS Communications Dept.
Picture this: Sixth grade teacher Ms. Celeste Gay walks into her classroom at A.C Reynolds Middle School each day. She has a room full of Advanced Math 6 students and one helpful tool. What is the key to Ms. Gay’s excelling math students? A program known as Imagine Math.
This computer based program is challenging Ms. Gay’s students to reach their full potiental with arithmetic and in the community. The software pushes students that may be struggling, or challenges those that are proficient.
“The program gauges where the child is based off of the questions he or she answers correctly or incorrectly,” said Ms. Gay. “It adapts to help them with their lessons. Every time a student answers a question correctly, they receive ‘Think Points.’ In the end those points can be used to customize an avatar on their account, or they can donate their points to charity.”
Ms. Gay has one of the top sixth grade math students in her award-winning class. Michael Wilson is on level 47 of the program, and he is proud of the work he has accomplished this year through Imagine Math.
“I like how if you don’t pass the test right away the software will teach you the correct way to solve the problem,” explained Michael. “Because of my hard work in the class I have been able to donate some of my points to those in need. It feels great to help others from the classroom, and makes me excited to do something positive!”
The entire class donated points in the North Carolina Imagine Math’s “Do Math! Pay it Forward!” challenge last year. Ms. Gay is extremely proud of her class for winning Classroom of the Month from Imagine Math.
“It makes me proud to see how hard the students work to earn points,”she said. “So for them to give their Think Points to charity makes me thrilled to know they will do wonderful things in life.”
Since the class worked so hard, Imagine Math awarded them a $50 gift card. In the coming weeks, the class will celebrate their achievement with a pizza party.
Imagine Math also selected ACRMS teacher
Ms. Karen Gailey’s seventh grade class for Classroom of the Month. Imagine Español awarded Ms. Ruth Izquierdo Alfonso’s second grade Dual Language Spanish Immersion class at West Buncombe Elementary. BCS will feature the accomplishments of Ms. Izquierdo’s class soon.