Over the weekend my principal ask me to lead a portion of our upcoming Curriculum and Instruction day. These are those teach inservice days we have been given in place of our prep-time this year.
I was asked to talk with our staff about IXL and how I use it in my classroom. If you have not heard of IXL you are missing out!
For the past two years our district has purchased a license for the site and every teacher and student in the district has access at home and at school. Each student has a username and password. When entering IXL they can practice skills at any level from pre-k through eighth grade. As the teacher you have access to reports that show individual student performance, time practiced, skills mastered, skills student need more practice on and more. Before our district purchased a license I created a 30 day free trial using my email. I loved it so much that I just could not give it up. My students practiced at home and loved when I would get them a specific challenge to complete. When my 30 days were up I have to confess (shhhhh) I created another 30 day trial on another email address. I considered asking families to send $5 for an IXL membership the next year. Lucky me, the district was on the same page and I didn't have to!!
While exploring IXL, I have discovered that :
-You can change your students passwords to something generic and easy
-You can hide the grade level labels so that students don't feel self-conscious about practicing a 1st grade skill when they are in 3rd grade (very handy for me)
- You can print a letter to send home to families with each student's username in password
I am going to share these tricks and several more with my team teachers next week. You should check out the site and create yourself a few 30 day trials too. I am sure you'll love it. Oh yes, I forgot to say that all of the skills and practice are based on CCSS!
Let me know if you have any questions about getting started. My kids and their families love it!
Love ixl but it's hard to fit in all the extra programs i purchase. My kids love the free ones too!
ReplyDeleteI changed all our ixl passwords to our room number...none of them can forget that! I didn't know you could hide the grade levels. Must go look into that!
ReplyDeleteLaurie
Chickadee Jubilee