Khan Academy

     I've recently been introduced to Khan Academy, through EDUG 647 and through other teachers at my school. I was unaware that Khan Academy has free online courses, practice activities, and assessments for math, science and engineering, economics, arts and humanities, and computing. You can search by content area or grade and it will show the standards for that grade. Once you click on the standard it will show videos, practice problems, assessments. It can all be completed on the computer. That means that you can assign different activities to individual students, which is an effective way to differentiate. I like that you can assign activities to students based on the skills they still need to practice.

     Currently, I am just beginning to incorporate Khan Academy into my math lessons. I teach Kindergarten, and we just finished our addition unit and are starting subtraction. My school uses the Envisions curriculum, but I started to supplement with Khan Academy videos. I really liked how the videos from Khan Academy show how to solve a problem step-by-step, like how to draw a picture to solve. I like how the Envision videos pause and allow for conversation, but I don't feel that they do a completely thorough job of showing how to solve a problem step-by-step.

     I am hoping to, eventually, use Khan Academy even more in instruction. I would like to be able to have my students work on Khan Academy individually and practice the skills that they need. I have heard that you can input your students MAP scores and it will give options for videos and practicing skills. If you know any other useful features about Khan Academy, please let me know! I'm new to this, but exciting to try using it more.