IXL in my Classroom

I love using IXL in my classroom. 

	Last week	School year
Problems attempted	504	12,452
Skills practiced	22	164
Time spent	2 hr 34 min	113 hr 52 min

If you've never heard of it before, it's a math skills website that reviews everything the kids learn throughout the year.  There is a built in motivation factor, since the kids want to earn prizes on their own game board. The above snapshot is from the weekly "report card" that I get delivered to my inbox.  Below the little snapshot in the weekly email shows how many minutes and problems each student worked throughout the week.  The weeks that my class gets to visit the computer lab the numbers are a lot higher.
There are so many teacher reports on the site as well.  I can see the specific skills, measure the progress of an individual child, etc.  There is so much information available!

This was taken from the IXL website - you can see how the game boards are set up.

 

On the website there is a way to see the specific skills for each standard.  I don't mind if the kids work ahead, but I don't want them to get frustrated with it.  I ask that they complete the skills after we have learned the information.  
On my class webpage, I have a page dedicated to the specific standards and skills per chapter.  The text below has been cut/pasted from my class site.
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IXL Skills to Work On - By Chapter  
Please work on AFTER we learn the material

*We will head to the library 2x a month.  On most occasions, students will be able to use the computers in the 
library to take AR tests, and work on the skills mentioned below.  These are review of the skills that we have already learned in class.  This is in addition to any moments they might be able to use the classroom computers.  
*The easiest place for your child to work on these skills is at home where they have access to a computer and they can really focus without distractions.  
*If you would like your child to go ahead, please know that it may be difficult for them to grasp the concepts.  If your child has already completed the below skills, they can go back and work on 3rd grade skills to review what they learned last year.  They should not be going back to any other grade.
*I will only update their end of month chart to show what they have accomplished in the 4th grade skills.  


Chapter           Standard         Description          Skill 

Chapter 1         N.S. 1.1           Place Value         A.3
                        N.S. 1.2           Comparing         A.9


Chapter 2         N.S. 1.3           Rounding           A.6
                        N.S.  1.4          Rounding +       B.9
                                               Rounding -        C.7
                        N.S. 2.1           Estimate +         B.8
                                               Estimate -          C.6

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Yes, we're up to Chapter 9, but I thought you might get the point with just a couple of chapters shown.  As I update the class website with the chapters, I also send my class families an email with the same skill numbers.  I want to make sure that I am doing everything possible to let the families know what their children should be working on.  

The students have a chart that we update together after each chapter to show what ones they are able to do, and as they complete it they get a signature or color it in as long when they master the skill.

At the beginning of the year it was easy to just give them a bookmark with the specific skills to work on when we went to the computer lab.  Now that we have so many different skills as options, we bring our charts with us.

At the end of the month I update their parent information sheets.  I update how many problems completed, skills practiced, time spent, and medals earned on their sheets (along with their AR update).  It shows the kids how much they were able to accomplish in a month's span.

Other than just the normal student review sessions during computer time, my class also uses it as they finish up their math classwork, and we complete the skills full class using whiteboards to review.  I want them to feel successful so they want to practice the skills by themselves.  The problems get increasingly more difficult as the "smart score" increases.  The goal is over 80% to pass the skill, and 100% for mastery.

Do you use IXL?