ST Math?

[Kanin]

Has anyone tried ST math? I did a few sample games and they were pretty nifty. I especially like that there are limited/no words on the games.

https://www.stmath.com/

[EKS]

I was actually asked to become the ST Math "liaison" (for lack of a better term) at a school my son attended, and as a result, I reviewed it fairly extensively.  I ended up declining the position because I came to the conclusion that the program was idiotic.  This was quite a few years ago now, so I don't remember specifics, but I do remember that one of my problems with it was that instead of coming up with "games" that really nailed the concepts being taught, every game had to have a JiJi overlay that would often detract from the depiction of the concept.

That said, there are lots of people who think it's wonderful, and it is very possible that I was missing something.

 

[Kanin]

Aw, bummer. I was thinking about something computerized that would provide some worthwhile practice for 15 or so minutes a day for my 5th graders. I don't want Prodigy because I can't control what the kids work on. I don't think I can control the topics with ST Math or ALEKS either... hmmm. IXL is not good either because the kids will not want to click on any 3rd grade math topics when they're in 5th grade. 

[Cake and Pi]

On 12/30/2019 at 4:20 PM, Mainer said:

Aw, bummer. I was thinking about something computerized that would provide some worthwhile practice for 15 or so minutes a day for my 5th graders. I don't want Prodigy because I can't control what the kids work on. I don't think I can control the topics with ST Math or ALEKS either... hmmm. IXL is not good either because the kids will not want to click on any 3rd grade math topics when they're in 5th grade. 

You can control what they work on in Prodigy. You just have to be signed in as a teacher, not a parent. Then you can use their lesson planning tools to assign topics to meet a chosen standard or specific problem sets you choose.

I don't know anything about ST Math, but I'm interested in reading other people's experiences, too. I have a kiddo who needs his math instruction separated completely from language, and someone recommended ST Math.

[Terabith]

I taught in a classroom where we were required to make the kids play on ST math for 20 minutes every day.  It was absolutely useless and pointless.  I mean, theoretically, I'm sure some child somewhere benefitted.  But none of my first graders did.  

[Kanin]

On 1/4/2020 at 3:57 PM, Cake and Pi said:

You can control what they work on in Prodigy.

I didn't know this! Thanks! 

[Kanin]

On 1/6/2020 at 8:23 PM, Terabith said:

I taught in a classroom where we were required to make the kids play on ST math for 20 minutes every day.  It was absolutely useless and pointless.  I mean, theoretically, I'm sure some child somewhere benefitted.  But none of my first graders did.  

Ok, you guys have convinced me against. We started playing Zeus on the Loose, and they love it (and have remembered how to round to the nearest 10!). More games like that would be awesome. 

[Kanin]

On 1/9/2020 at 12:58 AM, CuriousMomof3 said:

There is a setting in IXL where you turn off grade levels.

Well geez, guess I don't know much about these programs after all 😁

[annegables]

We have used ST Math and it highlights one of my main frustrations with a lot of online math stuff (note: I dont have special needs kids, so take this for whatever it is worth). My kids and I cannot stand online math stuff where more time is spent waiting on the "gamey" part to finish instead of actually doing math. ST Math makes 10 minutes worth of math problems turn into 30 min of watching random creatures walk across a screen. This is also my problem with Dreambox and I think Prodigy, but they all blend together now. 

I like the way ST math teaches place value for adding and subtracting, but once again, you spend so much time moving stuff on a screen and then watching some &^(% flower petals fill up that it made me want to rip my hair out. I also found that ST Math (and most online math programs) penalized for not being able to use a touch pad super accurately, or having pudgy fingers touch a screen. If there is anything I dislike more than watching random stuff on a screen, it is knowing the correct answer and not being able to touch my computer precisely enough. 

[happycc]

you know... now that you mention this... There is nothing between Prodigy, ST math, and Dreambox vs Moby Max and Iready. 

It is either extremely gamey or really drill based like flashcards on the screen which will not work for my kiddos. 

[Drama Llama]

Some of the Mr. Nussbaum math games, and the math games on Education.com do a good job of having a game component but getting pretty directly to skills.  But you have to look up a game for the specific skill and assign it.  You can easily spend 15 minutes finding and playing a game to see if it's what you want, that then engages your kid for 15 minutes.