Maths Buddy

Maths Buddy

Mathbuddy is a New Zealand created, curriculum-based programme that is constantly updated and research-based. It covers students from Year 1 to Year 13, including A Levels. Its strengths lie in the teaching videos for every lesson, the lesson summary available for each lesson, and the access each student has to every grade, not only their own.

Each learning area is broken into Achievement Objectives. Each child starts at their level with a pretest (Standard Diagnostic) which identifies strengths and weaknesses, which also allows for monitoring through lessons, pretest and post-test (Comprehensive Diagnostic). There are also weekly revision tasks that can be assigned work completed, progress made, and struggles encountered are easily identified by the teacher's console. You can assign tasks and give time constraints if you choose. A timeline history gives a breakdown of every lesson viewed and attempted with the resultant mark. Also available are any lessons they have completed with the questions and answers.

The students get instant feedback on whether any given answer is right or wrong and what the correct answer should have been if their answer was incorrect. There is an 80% pass level as standard so if a lesson is not passed, the student can re watch the video lesson and attempt the lesson again. Then the Teacher is able to assist with specific lessons.

Strengths of Maths Buddy

• It meets every student at their point of need. There is a big emphasis on equitable outcomes and individualised programmes for each student. Each student is different. Each student works at a different speed and has strengths and weaknesses in different areas. Maths Buddy allows for all of these differences and allows each student to be challenged at their level. It doesn't hold back the progress of more advanced students and conversely, it doesn't push students who struggle beyond what they can handle.

• Every lesson has a clear teaching element which is designed to give the students the tools needed to complete the task. This frees me as the teacher from having to give what would end up being 40-50 lessons every Math period.

• If you are struggling in a particular area you can, at the click of your mouse, jump down a grade and complete the lessons at that level, cementing the groundwork for the lesson you will jump back to. This access to all grades can be a great help.
• It uses lots of real-life examples and 

• It covers the whole of the NZ Curriculum.

• When you finish your grade level, you can move to the next grade level and carry on. You are always learning and progressing.

What does that leave me as a teacher to do

Maths Buddy, just like any textbook or programme is a tool. It is something employed by me as a teacher to reach the goals I have in the area of Math. How you use Maths Buddy is entirely at your discretion. At the end of the day, my job is to teach my students how to understand and apply Math...

I have chosen to have students do a pretest. They are to wat and posttest. In need they can watch the video, open the lesson summary in a separate tab, and do the lesson. If they don't pass at 80%, they are to follow the first three steps again. If after two tries, they still have not passed, I will go over the lesson with them and allow them to try again. If this still doesn't work, I will get another student to go through their workings and resultant answer. When I am not giving individual lessons, I roam the room and check on the progress of each student and lend a word of encouragement or help as needed. I tend to have a good grasp of every student's work.

Through my teacher console, I keep an eye on each student's progress and struggles. I log the students progress in an easy to read XL spreadsheet and write any student's name in my planning book that is having trouble and the area I need to help them with.

Conclusion.

I very much appreciate Maths Buddy. Both my students and I have a positive attitude towards Math. all my students have progressed well over the course of the year. Many have made outstanding progress.

Student Voice

Design forLearning

• Structuring learning tasks so that all ākonga experience a degree of success, but also ensuring that they are required to stretch themselves to fully succeed.

Learning focused culture

• Effectively incorporating digital media into the learning environment.