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Announcer: Welcome to Mondays with Maria, presented by ADDITION Financial Credit Union. Here's OCPS Superintendent, Dr. Maria Vazquez.
Maria Vazquez: Hi everyone. Jamie Holmes is here with us today. Jamie, one of the questions I get all the time is from our parents and how can I help my child at home? What resources are available so that I can partner with the school and help them at night when we're doing homework or even on the, on the weekends?
Jamie Holmes: Well, it's a whole new world out there, right? It's, I mean, the, that list of resources, courtesy of the internet, and even the district, it's almost endless.
Maria Vazquez: Yeah. There's quite a number of resources that are available to our families, and I would point them to their child's device. Every one of our students has a device and they can access free resources through launchpad. If they're not using their child's device, as long as they on their computer, they are logging onto launchpad, they are going to be able to see just a plethora of resources that are available to them all year long.
Jamie Holmes: And a lot of that's broken down by topics. So literacy. Right. Very important for the district. Very. And there's a lot of options out there.
Maria Vazquez: There are, and I want maybe to just highlight a, a couple of them. Right. So we have resources in the area of literacy that help children learn to read. So, they would focus on comprehension, phonics, phonemic awareness, and fluency. Like what's the rate that they are reading? One of those programs is Lexia. We, we also have programs that once you have learned to read, you are reading to learn. And that then helps children develop comprehension skills, higher level cri critical thinking skills. We have reading Plus that is a very, very popular program that has been around for quite a while, that our parents can also access to help and monitor how their child is doing in the area of literacy.
Jamie Holmes: Wow. There's a lot out there. I didn't even know that.
Maria Vazquez: Right. And one more would be learning A to Z. Again, that focuses on early literacy skills, and it's a great free tool for our families to be able to use
Jamie Holmes: Math. That was my favorite <laugh>. I loved it. What's the math with the letters?
Maria Vazquez: <Laugh>, you're so funny. <Laugh>. Yes. Math is also an area where parents want additional help.
Jamie Holmes: Oh, that was a pun. That's pretty good. <Laugh>.
Maria Vazquez: Gotcha. You're in just rare form today. And there are tools available, again through launchpad for families to be able to access and work with their child. One of them is Reflex Math, and that's for our first and second grade students. And it includes addition subtraction. And for our third, fourth, and fifth graders, we get into the dreaded multiplication and division. We also have another tool I hope parents are familiar with it. It's called Success Maker. And this is a little bit different. This is a personalized learning tool that actually assesses the skills that the child has and then provides activities based on either areas that they should know and don't, or it tries to accelerate them.
Jamie Holmes: Wow. One thing that really floored me is what the library system has to offer. I mean, that is incredible.
Maria Vazquez: It is. The public library has been an incredible partner with OCPS for so many years, and most individuals will think about accessing books, right. I get to check out books at the library, at the public library, but there is also free language learning research databases, and there's also tutoring that's available every day from two until 11:00 PM and I think that it's called Brain Views. So I, I don't know about you, but
Jamie Holmes: Oh, I could use it. <Laugh>.
Maria Vazquez: Well, but sometimes working with your child is not an easy thing. And so here is another free resource that's available to our families.
Jamie Holmes: And that's a live teacher, right? Wow. That's impressive. It is. Wow. I definitely should be signed up. What about middle school?
Maria Vazquez: Yes, that's actually, yes.
Jamie Holmes: Wow. That's impressive. It is. Wow. I definitely should be signed up. What about middle school?
Maria Vazquez: Right, so for middle school math, I want to focus on two. We have I XL and Math Nation. Both of those help to support instruction that is taking place in the classroom. I XL actually has a tool where parents are able to monitor their child's progress and see how well they, they're doing so easy to access very easy to use and interactive.
Jamie Holmes: And of course, the big one, right? High school.
Maria Vazquez: Yeah. So one program that I'd like to highlight for high school is Gizmos. It's actually sixth through 12th grade. And it's a resource, again, that reinforces concepts that have been taught including graphing. Sometimes students have a very hard time with that. Also, some different types of analytics proofs, measurement, all of those that sometimes are a bit challenging.
Jamie Holmes: I know how you're looking at me. <Laugh>. <laugh>.
Maria Vazquez: So Gizmos is another great resource available.
Jamie Holmes: I, yes, I had challenges with all of those. <Laugh>. Let's talk, one big one in our house was Khan Academy. How was that as a resource? Yeah.
Maria Vazquez: Khan Academy has been around for a long time, and most people associate that with SAT prep and, and it is a great tool for SAT Prep, but it can do so much more. Actually, Sal Khan developed this because he was tutoring I believe his niece or nephew. And it's a great interactive tool. You can, you have videos, there's step by step instructions, and so it can help you in math, it could help you in biology, so many subject areas. If you're struggling or just want some reinforcers in those subject areas. Khan Academy is amazing.
Jamie Holmes: And when you do it, you say KHAN! That was my Star Trek joke. <Laugh>, that just dated me.
Maria Vazquez: It certainly did. Oh my God. And the visual. Oh my goodness. Yes. As Jamie mentioned, there's so much available for our students on their launchpad dashboard. I encourage you to sit down with your child and look it over. They will probably impress you with all that they know there are little digital natives. Thank you for watching. Remember to like and follow us on social media and hit subscribe on YouTube to get notified when a new episode is posted. We'll see you next week on Mondays with Maria.
Announcer: For an extended conversation on today's topic. Listen to the Mondays with Maria podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts. Mondays with Maria's presented by edition Financial Credit Union. Count us in for every step of your financial journey. Learn more Additionfi.com. For more OCPS news and information, visit TheSlice.ocps.net. I'm your announcer. Kaleb Priester, a senior at Jones High School. Thanks for watching and have a great week.