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Khan Academy

Good Morning! Enjoying a relaxing morning at my parents' house for a family visit. We were watching CBS This Morning and saw an interview with Salmon Kahn about his Khan Academy. It offers online videos of a grand variety of topics so that all students can have a "world class education".



However, it ALSO has benefits for teachers, other than being FREE, it offers detailed profiles on individual students with an at-a-glance tool for seeing every video that that child has viewed and a class summary graph to show progress or need for remediation. The site also offers a vertical continuum of skills so that you can go straight to the topic you need and/or go back to more foundational skills to tackle more difficult skills. Lastly, the site awards "badges" for student mastery of skills.



Students must create their own account and then add the teacher as a "coach". There are several safety features to keep students from posting private information, as well as parent controls. The Khan Academy is working on multiple log-ins from one account, but doesn't have this option available yet. The teacher also creates an account and can then "see" students who have added them as a coach.



This is something I will definitely be using in my classroom for differentiation! It will allow my talented math students to challenge themselves and my need-more-practice students to get more practice and a 2nd teacher, virtually. There is also a free iPad app for Khan Academy.
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Comments

  1. Stacy LJuly 17, 2012 at 8:22 AM

    Hey old roomie,
    I just stumbled upon your blog. :) I'm teaching 4th this year, and trying to gather resources and do other stuff since I can't get into my classroom yet (new school. . .new classroom). You have a lot of good stuff on here! AND, this post caught my eye because Sal Khan went to my high school. He was a few years ahead of me, but I knew several people who were there with him. Small world!

    Stacy Lindsey

    ReplyDelete
  2. GinnyDanielsNovember 27, 2012 at 8:54 PM

    Hey Stacy!
    That's cool! Let me know if you ever need anything. I saw on FB post that it's your 6th year to teach. Congrats! I felt so old this year - my 11th year! If you have something cool, send it my way. Do you have an ePal? I was thinking about signing up for that, and since you teach 4th, it might be cool to be ePals with a class in a different state.
    Ginny

    ReplyDelete

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