Wowzers is used around the country in a variety of different types of teaching strategies. In this teacher feature, we chatted with Gladys Sanchez, a bilingual 3rd grade teacher at Long Elementary in Harlingen, Texas, who uses Wowzers for an intervention tool. Ms. Sanchez has been a teacher for 13 years and a digital leader in her school for the past 2 years. She takes advantage of the cloud-based nature of Wowzers and has her students access the curriculum through the Wowzers iPad app, the browser-based desktop, and the laptop version of Wowzers. Students also use Wowzers at home on their own computers or tablets.

Ms. Sanchez says that the data and reports she receives from Wowzers allow her to see how her students are progressing through the curriculum. By reviewing and grading their extended response answers alongside the Wowzers rubric, she’s able to quickly assess their skill level. As an experienced teacher, Ms. Sanchez understands that her students all work at different levels, at a different pace, but loves that Wowzers allows her to differentiate their learning by discovering their strengths and weaknesses. Using the data and the information the curriculum provides gives her the ability to override the students’ learning paths at any time when she sees evidence that a student is struggling.

“I am the only bilingual teacher in my grade level and I have seen so much growth in my students.”

Ms. Sanchez says she has seen impressive results as her students progress through Wowzers, and she’s also noticed more engagement. Her students enjoy the interactive games, which, in turn, creates a positive and rewarding learning environment. “You learn while you have fun,” one student said. “In order to get coins to be able to buy things, you have to get the problems correct.” The students also appreciate the help Wowzers gives them. As one student explained, “Number lines using addition and subtraction gives me trouble. Wowzers tells me how many steps I move up or back.” As we often say at Wowzers, engagement is key, and it seems that’s as true as ever in Ms. Sanchez’s class.