By Scott O’Connell, The MetroWest Daily News
A young math teacher fresh out of college in Baltimore in the 1990s, Heffernan became frustrated trying to get his students to catch up with the basics. “I was like, ‘I have a computer science degree – I think I could do this better,”‘ Heffernan recalled. The hundreds of teachers that now use the software program he developed as a result of that revelation – ASSISTments – tend to agree. “It’s something I’ve been waiting for in 38 years of teaching,” said Natick math teacher Jeanne Watts, who has been using the program with her students at Wilson Middle School. “It’s really pretty amazing … and I don’t get excited about many things.” The multifaceted software program helps students master their homework in math, science, English and other subjects by giving hints on questions they initially get wrong. The system also aids teachers by keeping track of those trouble questions, so they’ll know what to work on the next day in class.
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