(upbeat music) - [Teacher] Students
are talking about math. They're talking about it in the hallways and on the playgrounds, and
they're wanting to go home and log into Khan Academy It's really exciting. - The question that high
performing districts, I think have to constantly respond to is, why change if things are going well. And it really came down to what our mission and vision were about. How can we make learning
meaningful for each student at the individual level? And looking at Khan
Academy or any other tool, it really comes down to what's
the benefit for the students? What's the benefit for the teacher? In that order. Khan Academy got
students, the instruction, the learning that they needed
at the level they were at, at the time they needed it. The value for the teacher
was the data elements that were available. Teachers could know at any
moment in time, in real time where a student was soaring successfully and where a student was struggling. - The benefits allow teachers
to rethink instructional time. We're actually finding we have more time. Teachers aren't spending time on skills that students already know. They're able to adjust
their time accordingly to truly meet the students' needs. So we started with three
teachers, 120 or so students, and now, in our second year, we have over a thousand students, using
Khan Academy as an online tool, and about 50 teachers
involved in the project. (dramatic music) - From the first time we started this, the kids were just
through the roof about it. I mean, they just couldn't
quit talking about it. They were excited. I could see that
enthusiasm, I could see that they were just wanting
to spend hours and hours of time doing math calculation. So right there, it's like
a huge like woohoo-moment, because kids don't wanna sit down and do math calculations very often. We're able to move faster
through the mandated curriculum. And so we've had more time
actually to pull in projects, to pull in other kinds of activities that aren't just out of your math book. Which is fantastic, because
that's where kids really learn and that's what they love. They get excited about
actually working on something to see how it actually is
applicable to their world. But we couldn't have gotten there without, I think having blended Khan
Academy into our instruction. - Well, I always wanted
to try to do other things. I always tried to pull in projects. I always tried to find ways
of hitting all the students at all their levels. And I just never felt like I was doing a very good job at it. So when Khan Academy came,
within the first two weeks, I could see the kids that were struggling, some kids were already
passing module after module, moving into algebra,
moving into places that I hadn't gotten to with them yet. I just looked at and said, oh my goodness, this is amazing. And I was able to pull
in small groups of kids to help boost them up, find
out where their levels were that were way below our
fifth grade was at the time. And it finally gave me the freedom to know that I was teaching
everybody and that nobody at any time was bored. - It helps in that I can
pinpoint certain areas. Sometimes you can go
for weeks and not know that a kid didn't get something
from two chapters ago. So with Khan Academy,
those things kinda show up a little bit more often and you can go in and sort of save the day. (laughs) - Khan Academy has really
had a great impact on most of my students. There are those high achievers
who use it to move ahead and they're curious about math, and they're wanting to move on and they're wanting to explore new things, and they have the ability to do that. Then we have the struggling learners, who are still struggling with basic math that they never mastered in
third, fourth or fifth grade. And this gives them a chance
to go back and fill those gaps in their understanding and move forward on a firmer foundation. These kids are actively
engaged in their learning. These kids are applying
their understanding of math to different situations. And they can have opportunities
for one on one interactions with me, or small group
interactions with me, where we can have math
conversations that really contribute to their learning. - In the past, I had to spend a lot of time collecting
papers, looking them over, carrying big backpacks, full of materials, to and from school and getting paper cuts. And now, I have all of
that data on my computer and it's so convenient
because I can be up 10 o'clock at night or five in the morning
or three in the afternoon, in the midst of my class,
and I have it all there. I've gotten emails from parents that said, we're having trouble on the homework, and I can go back and look
at what that child was doing that night, find the exact problems they were having issues
with, and plan my lesson for the next morning with that child. So my teaching is more
informed and more targeted. And I don't have to carry that
big backpack around. (laughs) (tense music) - The most exciting thing for me has been, just the idea of the door being open now to other possibilities, right? Because, the tool is gonna change, what we're going after
remains the same, right? Optimizing the learning time that we have with these students. - Teachers in this district
have gone through a series of trainings this year,
regarding blended learning and implementation of the Khan Academy. And we're seeing these emerging
practices from our teachers that are incredible and
they're doing wonderful things with the Khan Academy,
with other tools for kids. And so math instruction
has really become richer and more engaging for our students. - I inevitably am learning
alongside the students and sometimes it's really uncomfortable, but at the end of the day, I think it just is a really powerful experience because then the students
are seeing someone in action being a lifelong learner. And as a teacher, that's
what I really want, to show kids that it's not
just about learning math today or learning science this week. It's about how do you
learn for your whole life? - Give yourself permission
to not be the expert for a while, and to learn
alongside your kids. And that will create
an amazing relationship between you and your students, as you discover things together and as you celebrate
accomplishments together.