What Happened to LearnZillion – A Great Resource For Teachers
What happened to Learnzillion? It was a go-to resource for many teachers but now things have completely changed about the offering.
For those of you with school-grade children, it is no secret that the past couple of years have been rough, to say the least. The COVID pandemic has turned our education system into something many are furious over. Battlelines have been drawn between parents and school districts and it doesn’t appear to be letting up anytime soon. But through it all, dedicated teachers continue to look for ways to help them better their teaching styles in order to keep students engaged. One of these ways teachers were bettering their methods was through a website called LearnZillion. So, what was LearnZillion all about, and is it something that teachers still use?
WHAT IS LEARNZILLION?
Most of what we’ve brought to you in the past was information on how to help students. Whether it be for homeschooling and its various types or giving advice on how to prepare for college, much of our information leaned toward the student or parent. LearnZillion is different though. While it can still be geared toward the student, it is mainly a source of helpful information for the teacher.
LearnZillion is a website with teachers’ minds at heart. It provides teachers with a vast library of lessons, quizzes, videos, and student assignments in such areas as interactive math and language arts. The website also helps teachers track student progress and their achievements on a dashboard that teachers have full access to.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE?
The main purpose of the LearnZillion website is to assist teachers with new ways they can introduce and further students’ education in various subjects. A teacher first would need to sign up and create their account. Once they have done this, the website quickly points you in the right direction, allowing users to pick and choose grade levels and subjects. The grade levels range from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade.
WHAT MAKES LEARNZILLION SO SPECIAL?
LearnZillion has a database of thousands of short, teacher-created, videos. These videos are geared toward the teacher but can also be used to assist the student as well. The videos are broken down first by grade level, then by subject, then by the standard. Teachers from across the country have contributed to making LearnZillion videos. And while we are on the subject, the math videos are based on Common Core standards.
The three- to five-minute videos also come with lessons. They have leveled practice problems, writing prompts, and anchor texts. For teachers, the videos can supply inspiration. If you have a tricky subject, LearnZillion help you work your way through them. It can show you how to differently explain a concept. Not only that, but it also offers complete lesson plans with teaching notes, any prerequisites that would be necessary for the intended subject, and anything else that would help ease the burden of the complex subject.
When you present the material to students, these LearnZillion lessons (videos) can be done as a whole classroom or you can even break them down into smaller groups. One example would be using the LearnZillion math videos. You can turn your classrooms into smaller “math labs” and give each smaller group a different set of math problems that would ultimately work toward their specific needs. LearnZillion allows you to assign practice exercises that are “just right” for the group of students that you can base on the group’s level of understanding. This allows freedom of movement around to room to check their progress in order to guide them and offer assistance when needed.
After class work, if more instruction is needed, you can assign a few of the LearnZillion videos as homework for the students. This follow-up would help students retain the lesson you taught.
LEARNZILLION’S NEW NAME AND PARTNER
So, all this wonderful talk about a slick website that truly helps out teachers and now we have to give the bad news. The LearnZillion website as we discussed is no longer. LearnZillion was recently purchased by Weld North Education (WNE) and now calls itself Imagine Learning Classroom.
Why then, you may be asking yourself as well as us, are we talking about LearnZillion when it now goes by Imagine Learning Classroom? Well, IL Classroom has taken what LearnZillion created and enhanced it. The immediate change that teachers will see is that when they reach out to the LearnZillion website, they will be directed over to the IL Classroom website instead. The IL Classroom logo replaces LearnZillion’s and there is an entirely new navigation and menu that will hopefully make your overall experience on the new website much more pleasant. IL Classroom has also updated LearnZillion’s colors and fonts.
What IL Classroom has not changed is the overall goal and mission. Their intent is to keep what LearnZillion did well and let it continue. IL Classroom will take the curriculum and software that made LearnZillion such a popular match for teachers and continue to give them the customizable and engaging classroom-ready tools that will help students see greater outcomes.
“This is a major step forward for Weld North Education and underscores our unwavering commitment to transform education by building the best digital curriculum company in the world, serving students, teachers, parents and administrators,” said Jonathan Grayer, Chairman and CEO of Weld North Education, to Business Wire. “LearnZillion has cracked the code for delivering a digital-first core curriculum to schools across the country, reducing the reliance on textbooks. With the addition of LearnZillion to our portfolio of leading K-12 digital curriculum businesses, we are well on our way towards redefining how teachers teach and how students learn by unleashing the power of data-driven instruction through engaging, adaptive products.”
What made LearnZillion such a popular target for WNE is the fact that LearnZillion’s curricula have received EdReports’ highest rating. Although WNE purchased them, the entire LearnZillion team, led by CEO Eric Westendorf, will remain with the business. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
“LearnZillion meets a critical need in the market by making high-quality curricula accessible and usable by teachers. That significantly boosts both teachers’ ability to bring the curriculum to life and to meet the needs of all their students,” said Westendorf. “Now with resources of Weld North Education and Edgenuity, we will be able to fully leverage the advantage of technology for teachers in the classroom—content customization, embedded supports, and real-time data—to continue to improve student outcomes.”
So, while it may first appear that LearnZillion has vanished, they truly haven’t. They are now on a bigger platform, one that may be even more accessible to more educators across the country. The name may have changed, but the product remains the same.
