Success Stories

Cassandra Koch really knows how to make the most of the distance learning experience for her and her students! Queen Sparkle Ninja explains, “I have been utilizing Legends of Learning to offer my students learning experiences in the midst of virtual learning. It offers my students a way to delve deeper into each SOL content strand in a fun, interactive way and increases engagement, motivation, and retention of the curriculum standards in science.”

Even better, Cassandra incorporates the data she receives from Legends of Learning during her virtual meetings with students! “I then analyze the data from the questions in each playlist to offer more personalized instruction or small-group Zoom sessions to address any misconceptions.”

Amazing work, Cassandra! You truly rise to Legendary Teacher status!

Mattie Henson has become a pro at using Legends of Learning for distance learning the past few weeks. Mommy Shark explains, “I’ve been using Legends of Learning to at least give the students the chance to explore material that we won’t get to cover while we’re away. Giving them Instructional games has been very helpful with exposing them to the content, and then I can see how they did with the custom assessment afterwards.”

With this very intentional pairing of Legends of Learning Instructional games and custom assessments, Mattie knows that students aren’t missing a beat while they’re not in the classroom. “It’s been very useful for us!”

Thank you, Mommy Shark, for keeping your students engaged, even when learning from home!

Angela Porter has been using Legends of Learning all school year. When her school closed, she immediately turned to Legends because “the first few weeks we were only able to give review work to our students, so I was assigning Legends of Learning to my kids on stuff we have already learned and covered.”

After the initial transition, Mrs. Porter still incorporates Legends on a regular basis. “Now we are able to start teaching new content, but we have to start where we should be at this time [of the school year]. So, I assign Legends of Learning to them [to cover] the stuff that we missed so [students aren’t behind when entering] their next grade. That way they will get a little bit of everything that they need.”

Thank you, Angela, for ensuring there are no gaps in student learning and that students have everything they need to succeed…you are a true superhero!

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Jacob Trew, like many teachers, is faced every day with a classroom of students who love games. He has spent this past school year tapping into his students’ love of video games to inspire their love of learning as well: “Getting to do that [play games] while learning is the best of both worlds”.

Dr. Mad Trewth enjoys using instructional games to introduce his students to new content. He was excited to see that Legends of Learning had a huge impact during a unit on genetics, inheritance and DNA sequencing: “We could do as many punnet squares as I’d like and it still didn’t seem to make sense what traits they should end up seeing and why. Legends of Learning to the rescue. After getting to play some of the games that had them match specific Genotypes to specific Phenotypes, it started to click. Once they could see the parents’ inherited traits in the offspring they created, it was truly a game-changer all thanks to Legends of Learning.”

Thank you, Jacob, for helping students truly understand what they are learning. You are a true superhero!

In his second school year of using Legends of Learning, Jeff Krus has found that the platform works best for him as a review and reinforcement tool. Dr. Dendrite explains, “The program hooks students into learning and reviewing concepts.” This hook is exactly what his students need to fully engage in end-of-unit and end-of-year review.

With Legends of Learning, Jeff has been able to reach all of the students in his classroom. As a result, he says, “It has been a great way to get reluctant students to engage in learning”. Using games to review and reinforce, Dr. Dendrite gets to enjoy a classroom of students excited about the content at hand!

Thank you, Jeff, for making your classroom Legendary!

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Terry Ward, The Silver Sensation, is not only a leader of her district but also of the entire science community, serving as President of the Texas Science Education Leadership Association.

Terry met Legends of Learning in 2018 at the Metroplex Area Science Supervisors Big Event. She saw the benefits of game-based learning, but wanted to see data before adopting the program. “We are all about program evaluations, and without data to support the program, it doesn’t fly in our district.”

After conducting a short pilot program during testing season, Terry brought on Legends for Northwest’s middle schools. “We were looking for an engaging way to extend the learning for our struggling students.” Extension of learning outside the classroom has become a topic of discussion among Legends schools this spring, with many districts looking for distance-learning alternatives while planning for potential school closures.

Terry plans to collaborate with Legends to assess the impacts of the program after the 2020 testing season, but she is pleased with the impact on student learning so far: “One of our 8th grade teachers was so excited about Legends and how engaged his students were in the program. They were truly excited about science. Seeing one of our inclusion classes so engrossed in the games was amazing.”

Look for The Silver Sensation in the coming year at TSELA, CAST, and MASS Big!

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Susan Moore, also known as “The Integrator”, leads the highly innovative Blended Learning team for Meriden Public Schools in Connecticut.

Sue is always looking for new and creative ways to engage kids with rigorous STEM content while reinforcing key concepts from core curriculum.

She decided to explore using game-based learning because “when students can transfer their learning to new applications it helps deepen their understanding of material!”. And of course, students love the engagement of games.

Sue has used Legends for three years now, but the key to success with Legends was to clearly identify early on how the program supports teachers with learning both the “why” and “where” it fits into instruction and the “how” of using the program in the classroom. Critical to Legends’ success in Meriden has been leveraging power users to get other teachers excited.

According to Sue, “one of the greatest things about Legends is the immediate connection it creates between students and teachers. When a student logs on for the first time and sees his/her teacher’s Legends avatar the reactions are priceless and the teachers are instantly elevated from Instructor to Science Super Hero.”

Sue’s favorite moments are getting into classrooms and watching students solve complex problems, fail, iterate and ultimately succeed. The excitement, perseverance and sheer joy in accomplishing hard tasks demonstrate the love of learning Sue hopes to help instill in all students, every day.

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