The Gates Notes: Teachers in Los Altos

it's a tremendous impact actually that I'm seeing through Khan Academy the most impact I see are for those kids who really need the challenge and I also see the spark in the kids who've struggled who in a whole group math lesson can appear to be lost and then shy and then try to hide and now they can hide behind their computer screen so to speak and continue to work at their own pace a lot of students are very cognizant of where they are in relation to their peers some of them won't want to appear smarter some won't want to appear slower but those students will hesitate to ask questions they just want to be right there in the middle teaching to the middle only does the middle good and you see it seems like you're leaving out two-thirds of the class that way and so there has to be a better way to do it Khan Academy offers an assessment piece that's incredible it's so right they're an immediate it's a quick picture of where students are at where they are having issues where their struggles are so I know who I need to visit with and where I can help them where I can come alongside and remediate and support and they love those aha moments where they can be the teacher and they can tell me about something that they think I don't know how to do my students select weekly goals for themselves based on their own data so I have them looking at their own data now in a graphic way they're able to visualize in a very concrete way their progress you know usually you just moved through a math classroom it's like okay yeah we finish this chapter we finish that book but the kids don't really see everything that they've accomplished and this lets them see it and it makes it real for them and then at that point I was excited for my kids because I saw that again as being a tool for them that ultimately would help them become responsible for their own learning and deciding hey this is where I need work the kids are enjoying it because it's very engaging for them I'm enjoying it because my kids do my students do kids go home excited about math and that's what parents see they see that kids are talking about math they're discussing what they did in class they're showing them something on the computer that they just learned how to do parents know their kids better than anyone so they can encounter a Khan Academy problem if they're working through it with their child they can say hey remember when we were at the bee and we did this and this is what was involved and so they can really help me tie these new concepts to previous learning if they get involved with their kids with the Khan Academy at home meth I always found after teaching for 21 years kids love it or kids don't or don't love it and now I think I've got 27 kids in my class who could at some point during the day say hey I love math you