What inspires kids to come in early, work without complaining, and exceed both your expectations and theirs?

Contests!!

Last week, we challenged teachers and students to compete in a MobyMax classroom contest featuring the MobyMax Language module. This comprehensive module teaches students key skills tied to the Common Core language standards. By working in the module, students learn to master parts of speech, verb tenses, punctuation, and new vocabulary, all of which improve their writing.

Though teachers customized their contests to fit their classrooms, they all had one thing in common: they made practicing grammar
fun, competitive, and cool. Some kids were motivated by the opportunity to win a prize. Others wanted to win just for glory. Still others were driven by the chance to rank among the top 3 on their classroom leaderboard. Students who normally don’t participate or do their homework were coming in before school hoping to work on Moby before class even started.

Exciting news! MobyMax just released a brand new motivational tool called Moby Friends. Moby Friends are fun cartoons that follow students around as they work in the program. Have students click on the Moby Friends button in their student dashboards to get started.

Students can Choose or Build their Moby Friends. Using the "Choose" option, students can pick from a ready-made list of friends. To select a friend, simply on the desired thumbnail.

Early Reading teachers know how critical it is for students to learn sight words. Learning high frequency words by sight allows students to fluently read sentences and passages without having to waste time on decoding. That's why we've added Dolch and Fry Sight Words to the MobyMax Phonics suite. Students will learn these words using engaging manipulative questions and fluency speed drills, ensuring that students memorize these critical words in a flash. All they need to do is click on the "Sight Words" button today to get started!

Moby just released a brand new module to help your students learn to read: Phonics! Phonics is a comprehensive phonics course that covers everything from the alphabet to Latin and Greek roots. It uses animated Teach Me lessons, interactive manipulatives, and adaptive practice sets to keep students engaged.

This module uses a new question type called quiz manipulatives, which allows Moby to automatically score student responses to manipulative questions. If a student gets one of the question types incorrect, he or she will be automatically given another question of the same type. This ensures that students focus on the question types they need to work on the most!

When your students sign into MobyMax, they'll take flight with our updated Daily Challenges! Challenges are now available for Math, Language, Vocabulary, Reading Stories, Reading Skills Lit, Reading Skills Informational, Writing Workshop, Science, Social Studies, and Fact Fluency. As students work on their challenges, they will gradually see their progress on the Daily Challenge screen. Once completed, the student will receive a notification of what award they've earned. Daily Challenges will vary for each kiddo, so make sure everyone signs in to see their special challenge!

Last month, the popular blogger Bubbly Blonde Teacher shared her story of discovering MobyMax. Her story is like many in our teacher reviews; she started a job in a school that was “failing,” according to state guidelines.

She began the year knowing she had a lot of gaps to fill. She needed independent work that allowed students to be successful, wouldn’t take much pre-teaching, and would hold students’ attention. She needed a program that would reteach as needed and provide her with data to support small and whole group teaching.

The answer… MobyMax!

Read her full review to see why MobyMax is “a win for any classroom!"

Last week, we challenged teachers to have their students compete in a MobyMax Fact Fluency classroom contest. We wanted to make sure teachers were aware of this simple but exciting way to motivate students to master math facts.

Teachers easily learned how to use Moby’s contest module to set up their classroom contest in less than 2 minutes. Teachers could also decide what rewards and incentives to put in place in their own classroom. Thousands of teachers participated! One big take-away? A little competition makes a big difference!! 

Why were the contests such a hit? Here’s how some of the teachers explained it.

“Today when my kids found out that kids teachers in other states won yesterday, they were first of all SHOCKED that kids across the nation were participating. They thought it was super cool that there are kids at different age levels and cities and states using this as well, and our small chat turned into a spur-of-the-moment geography lesson! It was great! :) It made them want to try even harder and do their best on their facts today! This morning my top student has 4,018 seconds and a score of 90 points. He's excited to see his points growing as well as his confidence!” ~ Kayleen Renee Durant, Griffin School

We have added Phonics! This new curriculum uses interactive manipulatives and automatic read-aloud sound to help students master letter sounds, segmenting, blending, and spelling. With four different modules (and more on the way!), you're sure to find the right tool for your early readers.

Phonics Sounds introduces students to consonant and vowel sounds with direct instruction, practice, and focused speed drills.


Phonics Blending teaches students to blend sounds together with a list of more than 4,000 words.


Phonics Spelling quizzes students on spelling words, re-teaching them the words that they miss with drag-and-drop manipulatives.


Spelling Lists allows students to practice spelling thousands of Moby words. You can even create word lists of your own!

While MobyMax has 21 modules, you and your students will love the Social Studies lessons on Thanksgiving. Your students can take these lessons on their own, or you can use the lessons on your smartboard or projector for the entire class.
 
Here is a partial list of some of the lessons that cover the Thanksgiving holiday:
Grade 1     Customs
Grade 2     National Holidays
Grade 2     Traditions: Connecting with the Past
Grade 3     European Explorers and Settlers
Grade 3     Cultural Holidays and Celebrations     
Grade 4     European Exploration and Colonization            
Grade 4     History of the Southeast, Part I            
Grade 5     The Pilgrims and the Puritans

Here’s a quick look at the lessons that are just right for the holiday:

This week, we challenged teachers to have their students test out MobyMax Science and Social Studies.  MobyMax Science takes advantage of our proprietary Touch Curriculum™ technology by using more than 20,000 cognitive skill manipulatives to deepen students’ mastery of science concepts. MobyMax Social Studies lessons also use cognitive skill manipulatives to push students to think critically about history, geography, government, and economics.

We were thrilled to hear from over 1,000 teachers about the progress their students were making using these two tools! Here's what teachers had to say:

“My top 3 students blew me away. I teach 5th grade special education in a resource room. My top three students completed, respectively, 32 problems with 89% accuracy overall, 28 problems with 92% accuracy, and 28 problems with 92% accuracy...Moby has been a true blessing...Thanks for the awesome technology! Makes life as a teacher a little easier.” ~ Ashley Nicole, National Road Elementary School