Why lose ground over the summer?
By pairing classic homeschool ideals together with cutting-edge technology!
Echoes math classes are journeys that take students throughout the world and even into the stars as students learn the ways math impacts their daily lives. Students will meet a variety of fun characters along the way who show them the joys of wrestling with difficult equations as well as some of the incredible doors opened by a mastery of mathematics.
Math practice in Echoes is offered through one of the most innovative practice solutions available. The Arcade is a practice system that allows students to pair their assignment with a variety of fun and challenging games. Students can find themselves blasting asteroids, racing against their friends, or even defending a city from waves of invaders as they strive to memorize times tables, divide decimals, graph lines or practice any of our many other problem types.Ā
The Arcadeās feedback system is even more exciting for parents and teachers. While most systems simply mark a student as incorrect, the Arcade walks students through each step of every equation, encouraging them when they are correct, but also offering tailored explanations to help guide them through any mistakes. This means that the Arcade does not just let students practice their skills, it helps them practice them perfectly.
Teachers and parents can also make assignments in the arcade to offer their students targeted practice on any skills that require additional practice. Do not allow math worksheets to erode your studentās joy of learning. The Arcade can ensure students get the practice they need, make the process of practicing fun, and remove the burdens both of grading countless equations, and the arguments from students who cannot stand to stare at one more worksheet.
āSince it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.ā – C.S. Lewis
Here at Echoes, we believe that stories open new worlds to students and allow them to wrestle with realities that are beyond their reach. That is why the echoes literature program is full of only the best titles. It is critical that students see heroes, observe struggle, and are inspired to find their own place in the world. Whether seeing the value of friendship in Charlotteās Web, the resilience of Laura Ingalls, or even Travisās struggle with grief in Old Yeller, even young students can draw lessons of the human experience from classic literature.
One of the greatest signs of the need for educational changes in our country is the falling literacy rate that we are seeing reflected in American schools. A 2022 study found that American literacy had fallen to rates similar to what it had thirty years ago. Writing is one of the most important skills we can offer to our students, but it has always been challenging and time-consuming for parents to teach this skill to their students, until now.
The Echoes writing and grammar program takes studentās third and fourth-grade years to lay a theoretical foundation of grammatical principles that our 5th through 8th grade programs build upon. In 5th grade and 6th grade, the main focus is sentence construction. Why ask students to write paragraphs and essays when they are not well-versed in constructing beautiful sentences. Echoes teachers give students feedback and guide them through the process of becoming skilled writers. And the best part for parents? No grading!
Echoes team of qualified teachers grade all student writing and return the feedback that helps them mature into great writers. This means that parents are freed from the tedious process of grading grammatical errors and instead celebrate the incredible things your student has written, which will be displayed to you weekly on your studentās page.
The Echoes student experience is embedded within the world of Galilea, a long-abandoned land with a troubled past that is now home to a small settlement of refugees looking to make a better life. Students take their place amongst this small group as they create a character and join the settlement.
While completing their work, students will have opportunities to explore Galilea, build their homestead, and discover hints of the events that led to this strange land. The story of Galilea has been crafted to show students the impact that they can have on their world by striving to make the right choices and uplift their community.
This role-playing game has been tightly integrated with our educational system to motivate students to engage more deeply in their education so they can gather resources and become more powerful in the world that they are working to craft.
Everything is always better with a friend! Echoes is built with multiple opportunities to engage with friends that are also participating in Echoes Summer School. Students challenge real-world friends and with every lesson completed, students earn moves in turn-based games such as Tic-Tac-Toe.
If you are a teacher, or parent with multiple students who wants to assign additional math practice, students can complete that assignment together while playing multiplayer games such as math dash or space shooter! Have your students ever been excited when you assigned them math practice? With the arcade, they will be!
For many students, academic challenges are symptoms of underlying emotional issues. Through the use of a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) surey validated in the largest SEL study ever conducted, Echoes produces a regular report on students social-emotional health that is combined with suggested interventions to help you reach the root of studentsā challenges and help boost their confidence and encourage them to achieve more.
While the internet provides us with the opportunity to offer your students an unparalleled learning experience, we also know that the internet is full of dangers and distractions. After reviewing existing systems and finding them lacking, we built our own solution. The EchoBook is a computer with a custom operating system that allows students to access the websites approved only by you. All other features and workarounds have been removed to ensure that your student can walk away with the computer and you have nothing to worry about. If you have to check what is on their screen, it means you arenāt using an EchoBook!
If you would like to learn more about the EchoBook, click here.