Exitticket and Mastery Connect: Free resources, but upgrades available.

Before my state adopted the CCSS I had to spend hours matching resources to the state core. Most publishers didn't match their books to the Utah state core. And why would they? Write a book that matches California's core, and Utah can figure it out.

But now I have more resources than I can sort through. I'm not just talking about math books. In fact, many of my favorite resources are free, or mostly free.

Formative Assessment
I need to know what students need tomorrow, within a week, and longer periods of time. Last week I talked about how I've been using Plickers to find out what kids know right now.

Someone at exittix.com messaged me, and told me about their software. Pretty useful stuff, and I approve. Like socrative and kahoot, this "web-based clicker system" runs pre-loaded assessments. The cool thing about exittix, is that you can monitor students as they take the assessment. The graphics are totally cool, too. Because that matters. The system seems to be created mainly for secondary schools, but I've had a lot of success with it in an elementary setting.

A neat thing about Exittix, is that it's expandable through their library of apps. For example, you can add badges for your students if gamifycation is your thing. You can add functionality that aligns your quizzes and exit tickets directly with the core. There is another option that will connect Exittix with systems like Powerschool, so your students' scores can be directly imported. If that's your thing.

I was also impressed with their customer service. I had a suggestion to add multi-user functionality so I emailed them. Within minutes I had an email response from an actual human that responded in a meaningful way. So that's awesome.

Mastery Connect is another pretty awesome system that allows you to record student responses quickly. The system is fully integrated with the CCSS. There is also a robust social network where teachers can share common assessments. You can search for assessments by grade level or domain. If you and your team are full subscribers, you can even compare student data from common assessments. This is something we've been doing for a long time, but MasteryConnect just does it faster.

Maybe one of the most gimmicky and fun things about Mastery Connect: You can use your webcam to grade a bubble sheet. Super cool.

Both resources off many of their functions for free. But just like those free apps on your phone, if you want everything the systems have to offer you have to pay. Mastery Connect is a little more pricy, at $6 a student. Exittix offers apps on a monthly basis. It might cost you between $60-$90 for a school year depending on which apps you purchase. I think the cost of both systems is worth it.

Georgia gets it
The Peach State hit a pedagogical home run with this website. A group of researchers and educators put together resources to develop meaningful mathematics tasks that correspond with the CCSS.

These resources are awesome, and free.

There are hundreds of pages of tasks. These tasks are sorted by domains, linked to the core, and are classified according to the task purpose. I've used these for the past two years as launching points for new topics, practicing and solidifying procedures, and even task-based assessments. I don't subscribe to one program exclusively, but I probably use this resource more than any other.