Bulk Actions Button for a group of students:

First, select the students to whom the orange ‘Bulk Actions’ button will apply

When you want to change something for a group of students, you will use to the orange button on the right side above the names that say “Bulk Actions.”  You will first have to select the students to whom the bulk action should apply.  We’ll explain the functions below.

First select the students you want to affect. 

To select the students put a check mark in the little box at the left hand side of their row.  If that will be tedious, you can check the Select All box, a check mark will go onto all the students showing on your screen. But be sure they are all showing before you choose this.

How many at a time do you want to see or export?  Above the word Select you can choose how many of your students you want to show at a time on your screen.  The Show entries options are: 10, 25, 50, 100 or All.

Or use the search bar to select who you want to see in your display.  You can use the search bar to limit who shows up–for example entering a teacher’s name will display only her students.  Then you can use “Select All” to put a check mark only in front of that teacher’s students.

Remember: on the Bulk Actions button somebody has to be selected (have checkmarks in front of their name) or nothing happens!

7 things you can do for a group of students on the orange ‘Bulk Actions’ button

You can hover over the Bulk Actions button to see the menu of actions you can do to a group of students.  Click on the button to choose one of the functions, outlined in orange in this picture.   Bulk Actions functions include:

1. Export progress of a group of students

Get an excel file of how they are doing.  Explained in the How to Monitor Progress FAQ.

2. Export Learning Track Summaries of a group of students

See how far each student has gone in each Learning Track they’ve worked on. Explained in the How to Monitor Progress FAQ.

5. Erase Students

Deletes the selected students, deletes their credentials and their progress records, and makes the seats available for different credentials for other students.  If this is for a new school year, you might want to use the Update Database button instead.

6. Change Play Time–You can do it, but should you?

Our 20-minute “Battery Down” forced break is a feature not a bug!  Slamming through these facts at the rate of 3 seconds apiece (or less as they go faster) is very INTENSE.   Students will do this game for a couple of hours at a time if you let them.  But, here’s the problem.  They will only do it for a couple of days, and then they will just wear out.  They just won’t want to do it anymore. We don’t want them to lose their enthusiasm, so……. 

After five minutes of play, up comes this screen (to the right).  We say the battery is down and will need at least 20 minutes to “recharge.” The countdown timer shows the amount of time left until the student’s break is over.  The student has to take at least a 20 minute break.  We want them to do a little practice a couple of times a day, but spaced out over a month or two.  The it takes for them to get through an operation, (the longer this is spaced out) the longer they will retain the information.  And they need to know these facts for a lifetime!  So a little bit each day is far better than sitting down for long periods of time until they are sick of it.

We purposely planned for your students to end a session anxious to play again.

Yes, they may complain that they have to stop, but that ensures that they will want to come back again later.  You want them to end their sessions wanting to play more.  That’s how you can get them to play and practice, time after time, day after day until they reach Level Z.  That’s how we win and that’s how they win! before the forced break.

You can now increase play time to ten or 15 minutes, but should you?  Only if they still LOVE it! 

After years of game play lasting only five minutes at a time (under pressure from customers) Dr. Don allowed a change.  We added a feature to allow you, the parent or teacher, to adjust student play time UP to ten or even 15 minutes. The option is found under on both the orange bulk Actions button and the blue individual Action button.  

But with this freedom comes a great responsibility.   You have to make sure they are still enjoying playing! If you increase the time, you have to make sure they are not getting tired of playing!  The minute you hear a student moan or groan or complain, please move them back to 5 minutes! Seriously!! The first time anyone complains, move them back to 5 minutes.  And anyone else who does it, move them too.   They can learn just fine only working five minutes at a stretch!  

Remember, you want them to practice at home also, which they won’t do if they are getting sick of it.  You want them to practice the whole time they are assigned to do it–and they won’t do that if they aren’t motivated to keep going.  So you better be sure if you move them up to ten or fifteen minutes.   

7. Change Game Speed–You can do it, but should you? 

You can change how fast the student has to answer, but you probably should not.  The main goal of Rocket Math is for students to commit facts to memory, to be able to answer them instantly, from recall.  The fast pace means they don’t have time to “figure out” a fact–they just have to remember it.  If they don’t remember, then the game gives them a LOT of practice on a very small number of facts until they do remember them.  If the students are not used to “recalling” facts they will think that the game is just “too fast” for them.  But really, almost everyone can do it.

Only if their difficulty score is over 3.0 do they need an adjustment made.  Their difficulty score, from the Review Progress screen tells you whether or not the game is too fast. You can sort your class based on their difficulty scores–as the teacher did in this picture.  You can then change the speed of play for the students with difficulty scores over 3.0.

A difficulty score under 3.0 means the student has to start over on average fewer than 3 times for each part passed.  That is not too difficult.  Some students have difficulty scores under 1.0 and Rocket Math is very easy for them.  Only students with difficulty scores over 3.0 should have their speed changed.  On the other hand, students with difficulty scores under 0.1 should be challenged to take on the Faster speed!

The options for speed are:

• Normal, at 3 seconds to answer (double that for two digit answers)
• Slow, at 4.5 seconds to answer per digit
• Slowest, at 6 seconds to answer per digit
• Fast, at 2.25 seconds to answer per digit

BEWARE!

Students may ask you to change their Learning Track, just as soon as it gets a little hard.  They may have to start over a couple of times and if they lack much perseverance, they will want to quit. But they only learn the facts if they stick with it.  If they skip around they are going to be wasting their time.  If you assigned it, then they ought to be learning those facts.

Here is a link to a “Toughness Certificate” you can use for students who have a hard time with Rocket Math and need to be encouraged to stay the course.

Starting all over.  You can also tell students (and this is a fact) that if they leave a Learning Track, when they come back, they start over at Set A.  So they lose all they have gained by quitting before they reach Level Z.  I believe that teaching the lesson that hard work and perseverance helps you succeed, especially when you are getting discouraged, is the best thing we can do for young people.  Encourage them to stay the course.  Then celebrate mightily when they succeed!  Woo-hoo!  They are learning a great life lesson.