Situation: Imagine a classroom of 30 students with an overwhelmingly diverse knowledge of foundational math skills? On top of that already difficult situation, the students have vastly different confidence levels as it pertains to math. This situation happens in schools all over the country from New York to California to Texas. In one such classroom, you’ll find Ms. Kelly Rust, a seasoned educator who has been teaching for 18 years and has specialized in math and science for the last six years.

This month’s Superstar Teacher, Ms. Rust, understands the struggle of engaging her students in math. She has students at all levels in her classroom and creating a personalized learning plan for each individual can be challenging and time-consuming. Her goal is focused on closing the learning gaps in her classroom and getting her students excited about math.

Ms. Rust found a solution with Wowzers when one of her students was struggling in math and experiencing extreme anxiety. Due to these feelings, the student didn’t like to participate in Ms. Rust’s traditional math lessons. As an experiment, Ms. Rust started her on Wowzers, and witnessed a drastic shift in the student’s attitude towards math. Now, this student asks to log on to Wowzers anytime she has a free moment and is finally excited about learning math.

Ms. Rust loves the structure and versatility of the Wowzers program so much that now all of her students use the program to enrich their math skills. “I love being able to customize the curriculum for every student or groups of students,” she explains. “Using the reports, I can see very specifically where a student is struggling, and from there I provide remediation or change the student’s pathway to close those gaps.”

Ms. Rust recommends that if other educators are curating a personalized and engaging learning path for each student, they should complete the online professional development course to take advantage of all that Wowzers has to offer. Ms. Rust loves what Wowzers has been able to give to her students, which is a compelling and comprehensive approach to math.

Finding an engaging approach to math was an important element for Ms. Rust when she was considering a personalized math program for her students. Now all of her students, no matter what level of learning, beg for Wowzers time. Her students love the storylines  and how the math is embedded in games. “My favorite part about Wowzers is the quests because it has math and adventure!” one student added. Another chimed in, “I like practicing my math skills during the games and I like talking to the different people during the quests.”