Win With Classworks!
Winners Announced

When we asked you for stories about how you used Classworks in your school, we never dreamed that the responses would be so overwhelming. All around the country you are doing amazing things for your students – and the stories you told made us smile, touched our hearts, and reminded us of the accomplishments teachers and students experience every single day.

With so much commitment to helping children learn, it was not easy to select winners – because clearly all of you are winning in the classroom.  But from the hundreds of submissions that ranged from poetry to punditry – our judges have selected ten winners and twenty finalists.

And the winners are…

• Angela Human, Lab Manager at South West Middle School in Gaston Co., North Carolina
• Barbara Estevez, Technology Teacher at NorthLake Park Community School in Orange Co., Florida
• Courtney Russell, Teacher at Ed S. Cook ES at Atlanta Public Schools in Atlanta, Georgia
• Lainie Smith, Resource Teacher at Crosswell Elementary in Pickens Co., South Carolina
• Martha Dove, Reading Teacher at Franklin County Middle School in Franklin Co., Georgia
• Melissa Michaelis, Kindergarten Teacher at Bunderson Elementary in Box Elder School District, Utah
• Paula Milford, Teacher at Fairmount Park in Pinellas Co., Florida
• Sara Frase, English Teacher at Sierra High School at Manteca Unified School District, California
• Susan Luker, Lab Technician at Lafayette Middle School in Lafayette Co. School District, Mississippi
• Tamra Smith, Technology Teacher at Wilkinson Co. Primary-Elementary in Wilkinson Co., Georgia

Click on the links above to read the winning submissions, and for a complete list of the winners and finalists, please go to www.classworks.com.

Congratulations on a job well done, and thank you for making Classworks an important part of teaching and learning in your school.

Angela Human

Barbara Estevez

Courtney Russell

My name is Courtney Russell. I am a second grade teacher at Ed S. Cook Elementary School, a public, Pre-K through 5th grade school located in the heart of downtown Atlanta. We are a Title I school, with over 90% of students on free or reduced lunch. Despite this challenge, we expect nothing but the best from our students, parents, and ourselves as teachers.

I have had the pleasure of working with Classworks for the past two school years and serving as the Classworks School Site Coordinator. As a teacher, I utilize Classworks with my students on a daily basis. At the beginning of each year, I have a training wherein I teach my second graders how to utilize Classworks independently. They are introduced to the various components, games, quizzes, and more for Reading, Language Arts, and Mathematics. I can honestly say that I have yet to find another computer-based program that meets my students’ needs as well as Classworks. I have designed and implemented a set technology schedule so that each child has the opportunity to spend at least two hours per week on Classworks. The students nearly beg each day to get extra time on Classworks before school, after school, and during enrichment periods, and I do my best to allow them as many opportunities as possible to engage with this resource.

Through a careful data analysis report I have complied that looks at student data, I closely examined my homeroom students’ results on the 2007 – 2008 standardized state test, the CRCT, versus their results from when they were in first grade in 2006 – 2007. When they were in the first grade, they did not utilize Classworks with their homeroom teacher. In my second grade classroom, the students had utilized Classworks for one full year. In 2006 – 2007 school year, many of the students met expectations. However, in 2007 – 2008, a large majority of these same students significantly improved their CRCT scores, many of whom moved into the exceeding expectations category in Reading, Language Arts, and Mathematics. I am confident that Classworks, coupled with strong teacher instruction, was the number one factor in moving my students from GOOD to GREAT!

As the School Site Coordinator, I have had the pleasure of becoming intimate with many of the unique features of Classworks. For example, I am amazed at the correlation between Classworks and our state standards sequence. By assigning students to activities based on Georgia’s curriculum and scope and sequence, we can ensure that the skills and knowledge students are acquiring through Classworks is in line with our classroom instruction. I am the number one advocate for Classworks in our school, regularly maintaining student login information and running reports to ensure that Classworks is being utilized to its fullest potential. I am constantly telling teachers at other schools how fabulous Classworks is and they have inquired further with their administration about how to secure this resource in their own schools.

Classworks is an amazing, useful resource that any school or school system would benefit from by adopting. The lessons Classworks teaches students are relevant, and the games are so thrilling to all children, whatever their learning style or interests may be. Thank you so much for creating this unique resource that improves my ability as a teacher to provide quality instruction to my students, and allows the children to reach their potential in school and later in life.

Lainie Smith

Martha Dove

Our system implemented Classworks. My own classroom consisted of the lowest students in the school, all boys, all reluctant learners, all turned off to learning, all ready to give up on themselves and give up on school altogether. They felt they had no chance to pass the CRCT and showed their distaste for school in the usual ways: truancy, behavioral problems, and disrespect to teachers who tried desperately to reach them. They were constantly in trouble. My job was to bring them up from failure and give them a reason to listen in class, a chance for success, a desire to listen to instruction because the instruction was immediately reinforced and their participation in the process rewarded. I had tried many rewards and incentives from food to monetary bribes. As an educator of 33 years, I knew in my heart the bribes were inappropriate, but I needed success as much as these boys. My reputation was on the line. The formula for success for this class turned out to be Classworks. I had the objectives, the texts, and now I had the motivation. Classworks lessons provided the exact blend of instruction, explanations, examples and reinforcement I needed to meet the needs of this unmotivated-oppositional high-risk group. Even the students with attention deficits maintained an active focus on the objectives because they knew practice sessions on the computer would clarify the lessons I had introduced to them. Having immediate feedback and repetition of key concepts at their fingertips proved to eliminate many of the problems associated with transition times. I didn't have to constantly monitor their work and stop individual and group lessons to explain something they had missed. Having Classworks is as beneficial to me as having a paraprofessional. I can offer differentiated learning units without intensive preplanning. I know exactly which skills have been mastered, monitor individual and group progress and use the data to drive my instruction.

Classworks engaged my reluctant learners, forced them to deal with their skills deficits and made them want to keep going lesson after lesson without getting bored. I could not ask for a better software program. During the past 34 years I've worked my tail off to find motivating educationally sound products for reaching those students who could not or would not actively engage in the learning process. Only one of the students in this class failed the reading/language arts section of the CRCT. All of the others passed. I'm not the only teacher at our school finding Classworks successes. We're hoping to make AYP this year. We have to. If we had additional computer labs with a higher rate of Classworks supports in place, I have no doubt that the other at-risk students would make great progress as well. We need Classworks access for every student on a weekly basis. I want my middle school off the failure list. Classworks worked last year for me. Why not this year!?!

Melissa Michaelis

Paula Milford

Classworks has made a dramatic impact on my students! I literally watched my students test scores increase and increase the more they used Classworks.

I like using it's instructional mode and tailoring my student's lessons to the exact focus skill and strategy that correlates with my weekly lessons. It's like give my students a double dose of instruction.

My students absolutely love to go in to the Classworks center. Little do they realize that what they consider fun is actually teaching them skills and strategies to become successful readers.

Sara Frase

I can still picture them, the dreaded blue, orange and green workbooks with the state of California on the front. They were already written in by previous students, and they were formatted to imitate the CAHSEE exam down to the last multiple choice letter. The students hated them. They seemed especially designed to confirm in every way what they already suspected, that when it came to education they were the second class citizens. After all if they could not even understand what the question on the test was asking for, how could they ever hope to pass the exam upon which graduation and all of their futures hinged?

As a young teacher teaching the CAHSEE English class a second time around, I have experienced my fair share of frustrations. My class is made up of Juniors and Seniors who have not passed the high school exit exam for a variety of reasons. About a third of them are English learners at different levels of grappling with English; a smaller percentage of them are RSP and 504 students who are only mainstreamed for my class and electives. The rest of my student population was divided between students who were absent the day the exam was given, students who are intelligent but too lazy to take the test seriously, and finally, students with poor literacy skills that are so used to failing that past experience has robbed them of their last ounces of motivation by the time they reach this class. Needless to say, it's a tough crowd to pitch success to, and this year instead of looking at a class of 18 like I had the previous year, 32 students stared back at me.

You can be the most captivating motivational speaker in the world and not reach these students, because life has taught them that their teachers may talk encouragingly, and their grades may improve, but without the skills to pass the CAHSEE they are still failures. They hated the old CAHSEE workbooks for the same reasons. These students know that being familiar with the format of test questions is not enough, until they can understand what a “metaphor” is, or how to correct a sentence themselves, taking the test is still going to be pure guesswork. Having danced with false hope too many times before, these students are not going to dare to hope for success again, until they see hard evidence of it.

That is the reason why Classworks was such an amazing tool for my CAHSEE class. Students could see themselves progressing, strengthening their skills in different areas of the test and scoring better as they worked on. They got hard evidence of learning daily, and so did I, because all the games, quizzes, and projects in Classworks connected to what I was teaching them in class. Blank stares started transforming into nods of recognition, and then it began, the daily question: “Are we going to work in the computer lab this week?” Students couldn’t wait to get back to Classworks and try out their knowledge in action.

And because of the way that Classworks is set up I was able to have students working not only on what we were covering in class, but also in those specific areas that I knew from their test scores they needed to grow in. Picture one student working on identifying the main idea in a newspaper article, next to her another student is making up their own words using Greek and Latin roots, and a third is adding prepositions to sentences by having a toucan eat them in a game set in the tropical rainforest. Just ten minutes of setting up student assignments based on their scores, and I have a classroom of thirty students all working in different skill areas. Talk about your differentiated instruction! Students and teacher alike who walk into the lab have to ask what class this is; students because it looks “too fun for high school”, and teachers because they can’t believe how focused the students are each on their own monitors. Classworks is different from workbooks and lectures, because it is so individual and interactive; it engages students’ interest and keeps it as their confidence as readers and writers grow.

It is for these reasons that I would recommend Classworks to teachers at the secondary level. But Classworks is not just for CAHSEE teachers, it’s for English teachers, EL teachers, after school tutoring teachers, any teacher who is facing a challenging demographic of students. In education right now, with all the emphasis that is currently being placed on standardized tests, the question we keep asking is, how can I help my students who are not passing? For them, Classworks can be an answer.

Susan Luker

I have found Classworks to be an incredible asset to our school. The sky is the limit when it comes to implementing the sequences to adjust to each child’s specific instructional needs. Each time a class comes to the lab with their teacher I am challenged to come up with unique and diverse sequences, activities and levels that meet their needs. It would be very difficult for a teacher to introduce such a diverse program within the regular classroom with only one instructor and no technology support.

Part of my challenge has been to sell the teachers of our school on the program. As such, I have found communicating with teachers is imperative in order to understand the needs they are focused on in their own classes. After collaborating with the classroom teacher regarding special challenges I have been able to suggest custom sequences for some and skipped sequences for others. The flexibility of Classworks to allow individual students to work at any level in both Mathematics and Language Arts has been vital in obtaining teacher support. Additionally, I have found the technology support provided by Classworks to be invaluable. Whenever I am unable to provide an answer or even a partial answer to a teacher I am confident that I can call tech support and they will assist me in working through the problem. I have always been able to resolve the problem or provide an answer to a request with the support team’s assistance. Because the support team is so helpful each time I contact them I end the conversation feeling like I have expanded my own knowledge of the Classworks program.

Currently we have implemented the Classworks Programs into the Language Arts classes, Special Education classes, Math classes, ELL students, and the school’s Afterschool Tutoring Program for at risk students. Within the Language Arts classes we have found that students, who frequently miss the same Unit/Activity, can be put into a custom sequence to remediate and reinstruct. Having the flexibility to move students into and between grade levels without stigmatizing the child, has allowed us to bring students up to grade level by really working on the areas where they are deficient. We are seeing particular success with our Afterschool Tutoring program. The students who are experiencing success are responding with confidence and pride in their improving grades along with enjoying the interactive teaching games in the sequences/units.
One unique situation is our Special Education classes. The teachers are able to bring their students to the lab prior to a school holiday or extended break. They are then able to pull up a particular sequence, skip all units except one, test the students on the skill all in approximately 15 minutes. Upon return to school the students can be retested on the same skill and the teacher is provided with documentation of the need for ESY (Extended School Year) retention. By eliminating the preparation of paperwork to document this requirement, the teacher is able to devote more time to one on one instruction with the students.

Our ELL, primarily Spanish Language, students are able to improve their speech along with writing and reading abilities aligned to their grade level through the Language Learner Series in Spanish. It is incredible to watch their growth and advancement.

Classworks is a great way to keep up with documentation. We have documented ESY requirements, IEP (Individual Education Plan) needs, and progress for individual students. I feel in just one year of working with Classworks, we have only scratched the surface of the potential this program has in helping students succeed in school. Classworks does not take the place of a classroom teacher or of classroom instruction. It just broadens the teacher’s range of resources to ensure student success.

Tamra Smith