This newsletter is full of great information on the latest Ontario happenings at ExploreLearning:

Welcome Back from Stephen Lippa

Ontario School Leadership Awards

Success with Reflex in Ontario

Ontario Educator Spotlight: Stephanie Minor

Get Started With Gizmos

Welcome Back from Stephen Lippa, OCT

Here is a special message from Stephen Lippa, your Ontario Project Manager.

Welcome back from your restful (or eventful!) summer break. A new school year brings new students, new colleagues, and new learning opportunities.

ExploreLearning Gizmos are here to help you make the most of those opportunities and energize your math and science teaching. Please pass along my newsletter to any new math and/or science teachers in your building so I can get them set up with Gizmos.

If you haven't seen it yet, please visit my new ExploreLearning Ontario Blog, which you can count on to keep you up to date on the latest happenings with Gizmos in Ontario.

I wish you and your students the very best of luck in all your academic endeavors and we look forward to working with you this school year.

Ontario School Leadership Awards

Last school year was another record-breaker for Gizmos in Ontario! More than 12,000 teachers are using Gizmos now.

The ExploreLearning Ontario Team honored nine schools where Gizmos have been hugely popular and presented those math and science departments with ExploreLearning School Leadership Awards. These outstanding schools include:

- Kipling Collegiate Institute,Toronto DSB
- St Edmund Campion Secondary School, Dufferin-Peel CDSB
- Holy Cross School, Niagara CDSB
- Sir William Mulock Secondary School, York RDSB
- Cameron Heights Collegiate, Waterloo RDSB
- Henry Street High School, Durham DSB
- Glenforest Secondary School, Peel DSB
- Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School, York RDSB
- Sandalwood Heights Secondary School , Peel DSB

We're looking forward to another record-breaking 2011-12 school year. We are eagerly watching how Gizmos continue to improve math and science instruction throughout Ontario, and hope to send the ExploreLearning Team to your school with an award next spring!

Success with Reflex in Ontario

Reflex, ExploreLearning's new math fact fluency product, has been received with enthusiasm in Ontario. Many school boards have tried it out and they have been thrilled with the results.

Reflex is an adaptive and individualized online system which helps students of all ability levels to develop instant recall of their basic math facts. It assesses students' abilities, coaches them in individualized sessions, challenges and engages them with exciting games tailored to their ability levels, and rewards them with tokens to "spend" in the Reflex store. Reflex also offers teachers powerful and intuitive reporting so you can monitor progress and manage usage.

Kelley Jones of Upper Grand DSB says of Reflex:

"My students find the games very engaging and interesting. They say they are more fun than most internet games…. Students are applying the techniques learned into their math problem solving — I wasn't expecting that."

If you want to see what Reflex can do for your students, take a free 14-day trial.

Ontario Educator Spotlight: Stephanie Minor, OCT

Stephanie Minor is in her tenth year of teaching, and her seventh with the DSB of Niagara. She has a B.Sc. in geology (University of Calgary) and worked in both mining and oil exploration before getting her B.Ed. from OISE. She taught for six years at Central Public School in Grimsby and is now teaching at the brand new DSBN Academy.

Ms. Minor has been using both math and science Gizmos for three years. When she can't get time for her students to use them in the computer lab, she presents them herself both to introduce and to reinforce concepts. For example, she uses the Density Gizmo as a highly effective intermediate step between a class lesson on buoyant force and a design challenge where students design a boat to float the largest load.

Last year, she also started using Reflex at Central Public School in grade 2 and in grades 5-8. She notes that even her eighth graders have had a lot of trouble with math facts but were of course too embarrassed to admit it. When she would approach the problem, she found they were "not inclined to do the awful, boring flash card type activities." With Reflex, however, she saw a real difference.

"Many problems were not ones of understanding grade 8 concepts, but rather errors resulting from incorrect math facts, or slow processing because of a lack of math fact fluency. Reflex definitely helped improve the students’ confidence in math."

Stephanie has been part of the DSBN Academy design team for almost two years. While reviewing students' applications she came to realize that math was going to be a major focus area. Specifically, she noted that she would need help building their confidence in mathematics, and she thinks Reflex is the right tool to build that confidence. Ms. Minor has worked hard to ensure Reflex will be available for DSBN Academy teachers.

Get Started With Gizmos

Gizmos are available to all Ontario grade 7-12 Math and Science teachers. Teachers who have not yet accessed ExploreLearning Gizmos should contact their school board's Science, Math or Technology Coordinator for a username and password. You may also contact Ontario Project Manager Stephen Lippa for assistance with getting started.

If you haven't personalized your ExploreLearning.com account, you may be missing out on news and information about Gizmos. All you have to do is click on the Settings button at the top-right of your “Teacher Homepage” and enter your name and e-mail address. This will allow you to receive the regular monthly newsletter and other important updates. Plus, it will allow you to retrieve your account information if you forget your password. ExploreLearning does not share your e-mail address with advertisers.

For information about licensing Reflex or Elementary Gizmos in Ontario, please contact Robert Burwell, your Canada Account Executive.

As always, if you have a question or comment about Gizmos, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support team. We would love to hear from you.