Introduction

As we progress forward into an education world that is data driven, technology

supported, and student-interest centered, we need to find strategies that incorporate all three.
One online program I have found to support all three is called Prodigy. I have been using it in
my classroom and found great success among my students. The idea of the program is
centered around play. Students are given an avatar to explore a “gamified” world where the
objective is to unlock tools and other places. The only way to unlock these places is to get math
problems correct. The teacher then has full control over what common core math topics are
being assessed. The program collects data from student’s success rate and organizes it by
class and by individual students.
This program has become my center focus with a 3rd grade teacher in my school. My
goal is for her to fully implement the program in her classroom, use the data to instruct her
lessons, and engage her students through a different technology. The ongoing goal will be to
use the data she collects from Prodigy to guide her math instruction.

Timeline

Week 1: January 25th Set- up mentorship

Week 2: February 3rd First meeting to talk about what I will be

showing and the goals for this mentor project.
Introduce tentative plan and give an
introduction to using Prodigy.

Week 3: February 10th Reflect on positives during mentees first

session with Prodigy with entire class. Talk
about goals for the next few weeks and any
questions or concerns with the program.

Week 4: February 17th Look at mentee’s class data and create

realistic goals. Where does she want the
class to improve? Does she want to work with
 individual students?

Week 5: February 24th and March 3rd Explain various data purposes on Prodigy.
Look at mentee’s class data so far and create
assignments on Prodigy steered by data.

Week 6: March 3rd Discuss student use and home vs. at school

Week 7: Create plan for the next three weeks.

Differentiation goals based on student’s
needs.

Week 8: Reflect on progress so far and if any goals

are being met.

Week 9: Analyze class data and see which standards

need to be met by the end of the year.

Week 10 and 11: Select three lowest students and change

Prodigy assignment to gauge their level of
understanding. Choose three highest and
assign challenging standards.

Week 12: Talk about week 10 and 11 and if targeting

the lowest and highest helped challenge
either group of students using Prodigy. Look
at successes/failures of Prodigy.
Improvements? Questions? What went well
and how did this use of technology benefit
mentee’s class?

Week 13 and 14: Mentee will fill out evaluation and form a final
opinion on the benefits of using Prodigy.

Data Collection:
 Aside from an ongoing reflection journal that I will report to after our meetings, I will also
look at the mentee’s class data with her. Mentee will share data collected on Prodigy and this
will guide us to change and adapt future instruction.
The final report will include the mentee’s evaluation report through a written reflection.

Reflection
As a mentor for technology I chose to do Prodigy, an online free math software, that promotes
math proficiency based on the Common Core standards. During this mentorship, not only did I
gain valuable strategies and tools, but I was able to document key aspects my mentee
experienced. These are as follows:
1. First meeting on 02/03/17 Talked about what Prodigy is and how I have been using it in my class.
Ran through what it is like to sign up as a student Looked at teacher's options with progress
monitoring/student report/parent connect/creating assignments and plans. Talked about what
game is actually like once playing . Briefly discussed alt. programs she has been using
successes/failures (have to complete problem in prodigy before moving on and can compete with
other students)
2. Mentee reported on 02/10/17 that students were very engaged and excited about the new
program. Mentee had questions, such as, how do you use plans/assignments feature.
3. Mentee reported on 02/17/17 that students were still engaged and looking forward to the Prodigy
time. “They felt very compelled and engaged.” Concerns were: the program quizzes them on
above grade level content even when there is a plan/assignment in place.
4. Mentee reported on 03/01/17 that she was not sure how to use all of Prodigy’s features. We sat
down together and troubleshooted some areas of confusion. Mentee was able to understand data
better and use that to guide her instruction.
5. Mentee reported on 03/23/17 that students were using at home and she was able to track their
use at home and school. A few students bought the paid membership to access more features
and get to more levels.
6. Mentee reported on 03/31/17 Students were getting significantly better at their multiplication facts
and fractions. She said these were the two areas she focuses on with Prodigy and it has been
noticeable. Students reported better understanding of math facts because of Prodigy.
7. 04/10/17 Mentee and I discussed ways we can both use this next year more productively and
purposefully. We both created different goals and ideas to implement at the start of the year.
Mentee wants to focus on how she can hold her students more accountable for their learning
through Prodigy.
 Conclusion

The overall collaboration went near flawlessly and effortlessly. My mentee and I already had
built rapport before this collaboration so the foundation, trust, and communication was in place.
Her willingness to try this program frequently with her class made our mentorship easy and
smooth. We both used it weekly so it was nice to bounce ideas off of each other and see how
each other’s classes were reacting to the program. I was able to give advice on how to do
certain things and she was able to experiment and figure out what works best for her class.
While I used Prodigy as enrichment for my advanced kids, she was using Prodigy as
differentiation and more support for her struggling kids. Other elements that made our
collaboration seamless was our communication. Whether it was a formal meeting after school,
or a quick check-up in the hallway, she was open to sharing her struggles and success with
Prodigy. It all felt very genuine and purposeful for everyone involved.

A few times before, during, and after the mentorship I looked online for videos, tutorials, and
reviews on Prodigy to make sure we were both getting the most out of it as possible. One
review in particular said, “Prodigy program has been an invaluable tool to my students and me. My
students are motivated to practice their math skills in a fun and interactive way both at school and at
home. The greatest benefit for my students is that they are able to work on skills currently being
taught in class and Prodigy automatically adapts based on their performance (Jacque, 2015).” Both
the mentee and I found this to be incredibly true for our classrooms. The interactive game interface
makes the math intriguing and a challenge. Students forget they are learning and focus on the
game’s goal: to level up. I feel incredibly successful with this mentorship because my mentee will be
using it again in the future and said, “I would not have been using this program if you hadn’t shown
me it.”

Jacqui. 2015. Website Review: Prodigy Game. Retrieved from

http://askatechteacher.com/2015/02/16/website-review-prodigy-game/

Mentee Evaluation of Prodigy and Mentorship

How often did you use Prodigy? (once a week, multiple times in a week, every other
week?)
I use Prodigy 1-2 times a week.

How successful was Prodigy in your classroom?

Prodigy was very successful in my classroom. Initially, the students were extremely engaged
and dying to play the game. I thought that their enthusiasm would wear off as time passed, but
they have continued to be excited and engaged to play the game. One student even said while
we were playing one day, “Who knew math could be fun?!?”

What did you notice worked or did not work implementing Prodigy?

What worked really well was the ease of implementing the program in the classroom. It
required very little setup or prep before-hand. Also, because it is free, I didn’t have to worry
about paying for monthly or yearly subscriptions. As I mentioned before, the program is
extremely engaging to students. In some ways, I don’t know that they even realize they are
practicing math while they are playing. It definitely was a great supplement to my in-class
instruction to give students added practice and experience with different math strategies that we
were learning.

One This I would like to know more about from the program is how it sets up its diagnostics and
determines what questions to ask to students. The plans and assessments that I was able to
use were helpful, but I felt that sometimes the questions seemed rather random and I didn’t
know why certain students were not receiving the questions to complete the assessment. It
may be that I just need more time to become familiar with the program.

Did you use Prodigy to guide your instruction?

I wouldn’t say that I used Prodigy to guide my instruction, but that I used to to supplement and
accompany what we were already learning in our math program. It was certainly a very useful
tool for some topics, specifically multiplication facts, where it helped kids have lots of additional
practice with those facts when they were needed.

How did this improve your teaching practices? Do you think this type of technology
improves how you teach and how students learn?

I believe that a variety of formats and mediums is always helpful to students when they are
learning something new. That is where Prodigy was definitely able to improve my teaching
practices. It gave me another tool and another format for students to be able to practice and
engage in math practice. For students who would be disinterested and disengaged during our
regular math lesson, they were able to engage and see the same types of problems in a format
that was fun and exciting to them.
In that way, I definitely think that technology like Prodigy helps to improve both how I teach and
how students learn in my classroom. I was able to monitor student progress, connect with
parents more effectively, and excite students about learning math!

Would more or less guidance have helped (from mentor) while implementing Prodigy in
your class?

Jule did a great job of giving me just the right amount of guidance when I was implementing
Prodigy in the classroom. She helped me initially get the program setup, and was always there
if I had a question or issue that I needed help with. I’m so happy that she was able to introduce
me to this great program and tool.

Other comments:

Nothing else to add, except thank you!!