Khan Academy in Los Altos School District

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 in to Khan Academy it's it's really exciting the question that high-performing districts I think have to constantly respond to is is why change if things are going well and it really came down to what our our mission and vision we're about how can we make learning meaningful for each student at the individual level in looking at Khan Academy or or any other tool yet 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 allowed 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 a hundred and twenty 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 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 calculations so right there it's like a huge like whoohoo moment because kids don't want to 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 description well I always wanted to try to do other things I was 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 of 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 or 5th 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 and sometimes you can go for a weeks and not know that it kid didn't get something from two chapters ago so with Khan Academy those things kind of show up a little bit more often and you can you can go in and sort of save the day 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 those 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 life 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 5:00 in the morning or 3:00 in the afternoon in the midst of my class and I have it all there I've gotten emails from parents that said they'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 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 going to 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 has really become richer and more engaging for our students i neva tably 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 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 you