Sea Lions, Sasquatch Olympics, and Saving Time with USATestprep

Anne Edwards has been teaching middle school world history for the better part of thirty-two years. (Let’s hear it for Anne.)

A beloved teacher at Southwest Middle School in Orange County, Florida, Anne has been assessing, testing, remediating, wrangling, and enjoying her time in the classroom with her 6th grade world history students for twenty years. She started using USATestprep three years ago with amazing results.

USATP: Give us the headline on your thoughts surrounding USATestprep.

Anne: I love it!

USATP: And we love hearing that! How did you learn about us?

Anne: I was browsing online and read a review or found a page about it--I don’t even remember exactly what it was but I remember my reaction. I thought, “I have to try this.”

USATP: Were you using another online learning platform at the time?

Anne: No, I never used anything before USATestprep. Which is why it’s a little surprising that I’m such a cheerleader for the platform. But it truly makes life so much easier.

USATP: How so?

Anne: The remediation button alone probably frees up five hours a week of my time where I don’t have to spend a planning period working on remediation. Instead, I just click the button after an assessment and my students have everything they need to in front of them to shore up areas of weakness. It’s a huge timesaver because, obviously, not every child needs the same thing.

USATP: What do your students think of USATestprep?

Anne: The Sasquatch Olympics are a big hit--they talk about that all the time. But they also love that everything in the platform is short and gets to the point. Sixth graders can have the attention span of a gnat. They get a 3-minute video, they answer a few questions and boom. Done. They can move on.

USATP: How do you use USATestprep in the classroom?

Anne: I use it for in-class practice assignments, assessments, and remediation. The three other world history teachers and myself love the assessment data you provide. We have to provide a breakdown of the data by DOK standards and domain, and that’s exactly how the platform delivers it. I also use the data and tools for weekly one-on-one with my students. We sit together and they show me where they’re at, what they’ve done. They enjoy being able to track their own progress.

USATP: I believe you participate in the Green Dot Challenge?

Anne: We loooove the Green Dot Challenge! My kids are super competitive and we do an entire end-of-year sixth-grade world history green dot challenge.

USATP: Did you receive training on how to use our platform?

Anne: I’ve taken some over the years but really, I figured it out on my own. If I can do it, a monkey can do it. It really is that simple.

USATP: What’s the one thing you’d want to tell a teacher or administrator considering USATestprep for their classroom(s)?
Anne: Do it. You won’t regret it. There are so many things available and the company is fine-tuning resources all the time, which makes it even better.

Many thanks to Anne for her time and best of luck to all of Anne’s students in their testing. GO SEA LIONS!!