This newsletter is full of great information on Gizmos®, Reflex and the latest happenings at ExploreLearning:

Math Gizmo Updates

ExploreLearning Educator of the Month

Outstanding Professional Development

Corn Mazes & Monkey Theorems: News from Twitter

Math Gizmo Updates

We've recently posted three more sets of new Lesson Materials! In addition, the associated Gizmos themselves were updated to gain some new problem types, so your students will be able to get more practice with more types of problems.

The following Gizmos have updates to both Lesson Materials and problem types:

- Dividing Exponential Expressions
- Multiplying Exponential Expressions
- Factoring Special Products

Each set of updated Lesson Materials includes a Student Exploration sheet, SE Answer Key, Teacher Guide, and Vocabulary sheet, all of which are available as a .doc and a .pdf.

ExploreLearning Educator of the Month

Stephanie Minor is in her tenth year of teaching. She has a B.Sc. in Geology and worked in both mining and oil exploration before getting her B.Ed. She is now teaching at the brand new DSBN Academy, an Ontario public school geared toward empowering students to become the first in their families to graduate from a post-secondary institution.

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 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.

Outstanding Professional Development

ExploreLearning's Professional Development team continues to grow in terms of people, offerings and reach. We are again outpacing previous years in terms of numbers of teachers trained and we are not slowing down! In September alone, we trained over 2,000 teachers to use Gizmos and Reflex!

	Jason Kopish

We are receiving fantastic feedback from educators about the value of the training we offer. For example, Katrina Granger, a math teacher in Palm Beach County, Florida told one of our trainers, "Jason, You're an awesome teacher and presenter! Very engaging session. I learned so much this morning."

	Betty Korte

An inclusion teacher in Falmouth, Massachusetts wrote to us about another trainer, saying, "Betty was just terrific and adeptly read the 'pulse' of our staff as tech-savvy and tailored an afternoon which was just perfect for my staff. She was totally knowledgeable about all aspects of the program, kept the training moving at a good pace for the audience, she was wonderfully pleasant and kept to the agenda in a timely manner."

	Sandy Van Cleef

We even hear from students when our trainers work as instructional coaches in classrooms. For example, just recently we heard from eighteen students in a Miami-Dade County, Florida class who wrote to Sandy Van Cleef after she modeled teaching with Gizmos by acting as
the instructor for a lesson while the teacher observed. One student said, "I am so amazed by the many ways to use Gizmos and I am so grateful that you shared your knowledge with us." And another said, "I knew how to use Gizmos before, but you expanded my knowledge both about the Gizmos and math and science — all while having a great time."

Our top-notch Professional Development team brings a wide variety of training offerings to schools, from Initial Gizmo Training which helps teachers start off right with Gizmos, to targeted offerings helping teachers utilize best practices in math and science, to customized support programs to sustain broad use of Gizmos over time.

Corn Mazes & Monkey Theorems: News from Twitter

	Photo courtesy of SpaceFarm7.com

Did you know NASA commissioned huge corn mazes in a play on the notion of crop circles? Or that a long-known West Virginia crayfish was just identified as a distinct species? Or that a software developer designed a test of the Infinite Monkey Theorem?

These are some of the recent news stories we've put out on the ExploreLearning Twitter feed, where you'll find a steady stream of timely stories that are both interesting and potentially useful as part of a lesson.

Our Twitter feed also keeps you up-to-date on the latest news about Gizmos, Reflex, and happenings in the world of math and science education. Follow us and stay in the loop!

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