Introducing UnLock Math

Built on the belief that numbers don’t need to be scary, UnLock Math offers an innovative, interactive approach to learning online. Husband and wife team, Matthew and Alesia Blackwood, are revolutionizing math instruction.  A teaching professional for over 14 years (now 20+) Alesia has instilled a love of math to thousands of students showing them that everyone can be a “math” person. After years of teaching in public and private schools in the U.S. and Canada Alesia wished to reach more students than she could in person, to share her love of math and combat the math anxiety that so many have. She envisioned a program that could be utilized as an entire curriculum and also as an online tutor for those students who need additional help to improve their confidence, ability, and mastery of concepts. With her husband Mathew Blackwood,  a successful restaurant manager who also has television production experience, she began to lay out a path to achieve her goals.  Every venture needs a starting point and they decided to start with “UnLock Pre-Algebra“. Algebra had been Alesia’s favourite subject to teach but too often students had come into her classes without the foundation they needed to succeed. This was an opportunity to change that, to design a Pre-Algebra curriculum that would lay the proper foundation for moving into Algebra and beyond! UnLock Math now offers online math curriculum for grades 6-12, Foundations, pre-Algebra, Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Pre-Calculus with Trigonometry, and Financial Literacy. Along with Integrated Highschool Math for those that prefer that approach, Math 1, 2, and 3.

It starts with a passionate teacher. A teacher who loves math and teaching!

UnLock Math has been built from the ground up to be completely online, be easy to navigate, available anytime, and be effortless for parents. UnLock Math will put your child into a safe virtual learning environment where they are the only student. No distractions. Just math. With a certified, accomplished and passionate teacher with a proven ability to engage students, erase their math anxiety, and give them the skills and confidence they need to succeed. Each day students will begin with a warm-up to get them into math mode, and to reinforce previously covered concepts. They will then view a video lesson each of which has been designed to get kids hooked on mathematics! You can pause and rewind Alesia as many times as you need to fully understand the concepts being covered. Not just audio coupled with graphics. You get to see Alesia as she clearly explains each concept, goes through examples and relates it to the real world, just like in the classroom. Yes, this takes us longer and is more costly to produce but take a look at our videos and you’ll see that it’s worth it!  Afterwards, they will have practice problems to reinforce what they have just learned, they can practice as much or as little as needed to make sure they understand the concepts being covered in the videos! We know that some students need more practice to really “get it” while others are frustrated by programs that require “too much” practice. This is OK! That is why  UnLock Math has been developed to adapt to each student’s individual needs. Need more practice problems? We have them for you! Ready to move on? Go ahead! Students will then have the opportunity to take a challenge problem for “extra credit” which is great for those who like a little extra challenge. There are also handy reference notes that are included for review with each lesson that can be viewed online or printed out and kept in a binder for future reference. With a convenient pacing guide included for parents, it’s like we have thought of everything to make it easier for YOU!

That’s just the beginning! We have partnered with DigitalEd using Möbius to power our testing and assessment platform.

Of particular value are the testing and assessment features of UnLock Math, not content to include only multiple choice questions like most online courses, Alesia partnered with DigitalEd, a world leader in STEM Education, using their testing and assessment platform Möbius Assessment to design questions, many of which are free-response including questions that have more than one correct answer. UnLock Math also supports the use of standard mathematical notation in both the question text and student response. Students only see ONE question at a time. This helps to focus their attention and prevent them from being overwhelmed with a whole page of “math” that too often causes anxiety. The powerful Maple computational engine evaluates responses intelligently and instantly. Students are able to view fully worked solutions and/or feedback for each question. This feature is invaluable in helping them discover where they “went wrong” in questions they answered incorrectly. With grades tracked in the UnLock Dashboard, students can view their progress each time they log in.

Our UnLock Dashboard

Upon logging in students are taken to their personalized Dashboard where they can see their progress at a glance, choose their next lesson, connect to the “UnLock Math Learning Community”, download a Pacing Guide and click on a detailed Progress Report that is updated in real time. A powerful feature that can also be accessed through the Dashboard is a Course Gradebook where each assignment can be viewed in detail. Grades can be viewed and printed anytime

We want to be YOUR math solution and end the math anxiety that so many have!

Whether you are a home educator looking for a complete math curriculum or a parent whose child is struggling in school and find yourself in need of a tutor to improve your child’s confidence, ability, and mastery of concepts, starting with UnLock Pre-Algebra, UnLock Math has been designed with your needs in mind. Parents are able to relax and leave teaching math to us. We look forward to unlocking your child’s math potential!

‍