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Wimauma elementary school takes first place in national math competition

Most students just learned how to speak English
Posted at 5:48 PM, Mar 06, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-06 18:36:15-05

A Wimauma elementary school is $15,000 richer. Their students took first place in a national math competition and those kids just learned how to speak English.

 

RCMA Wimauma Academy, a charter school, took the crown in the online Matific Math Games.The school strictly serves the migrant community in Wimauma. 100% of their kids are Latino and most have learned English as a second language. We asked the teacher who led them to victory and a student for advice.

 

"They should keep trying even though they think they can't, they can still achieve their goal," said student Aidan Alercon. He made top 5 in the math competition for 3rd graders.

 

3rd grade math teacher, Mandy Johnson, says she has one tip for other teachers on a way to make math stick.

 

"Singing and chanting," she said, "A lot of these skills that they are required to learn at the different grade levels, we have chants for those."
     
The kids even showed up to school over the weekend to stay at the top of the leaderboard because some had no internet at home.The school plans to use the prize money to build a pavilion.