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Using technology in your classroom can be a huge
change, so we wanted to share with you some tips
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on the easiest way to use Khan Academy in
your classroom.
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And hopefully, this will help you to get started
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rather quickly.
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So, the first piece of advice that we have for you
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is to use Khan Academy in a way that is
completely supplemental.
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Instead of being concerned about having
a perfect match of a video to a lesson,
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or, a perfect exercise that matches a lesson,
or a standard you are teaching.
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Instead, when you get started,
have students use Khan Academy
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just starting at the top of the Knowledge Map.
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In this way, it requires no prep on your end.
Students are immediately feeling
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successful in reviewing basic arithmetic
and math concepts that are important
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for a strong math foundation. And
it's giving you time to get familiar with
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the coach reports and all of the data
that comes through
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on the students' end.
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The second piece of advice we have
for you, is to give the students a routine
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amount of time every week, to use
Khan Academy. And,
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if you are using Khan Academy at school,
whether it's in a learning lab,
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or stations, or with a mobile card
that you check out a couple times a week,
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we recommend that the amount of time
you give students is at least 30 minutes.
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This is because it takes time to turn computers on,
to turn them off... and 30 minutes will give
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students time to go through those procedures
while also having time to actually be on Khan Academy.
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If you have a long amount of time -- 45 minutes
or an hour -- even better. And we'd also suggest
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that you give students 3-5 times a week
to work on Khan Academy.
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The third piece of advice we have for you,
is to set small goals.
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Here we're really thinking about the
first month of implementation --
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-- what should you hope to achieve?
One of those small goals that we'd recommend
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is to make sure that all of your tech
issues are resolved.
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In that first month you might realize that
you don't have enough bandwidth,
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or maybe the connection goes in and out ---
all of these technical difficulties can be very
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frustrating.
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So it's important within the first month
or two months to make sure that
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those issues are completely resolved.
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Along those lines, you wanna make sure that
your system and procedures, become efficient
and smooth.
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This means everything from making sure that
kids are not tripping over charging coords, and
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that computers are returned to the right places,
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and that students are really respecting
the technology and using the time effectively.
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All of those systems and procedures
take time to figure out.
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Another small goal that would be good to
have in that first month is to start looking at data.
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Maybe this means that you choose
just one report -- for instance the
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progress summary report. To start
looking at every day, every week,
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to become really familiar with it
so that it can start to inform your instruction.
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Finally, in this first month we think it's
reasonable to open up time in your classroom
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for peer-to-peer tutoring.
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This will probably start to happen
naturally, but we'd just like to
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encourage you to allow this to happen
in the classroom.
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It's a pretty powerful thing to see
a student -- not only show
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mastery over a skill -- but be able
to prove that mastery by teaching it
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to another student.
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So, these are all good goals to have
for the first month or so.
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We would say that these should be amongst
your top priority for this first month --
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-- instead of worrying about integration
into the curriculum, or having things work
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perfectly -- we would say: to start small
and to just start, in whatever way,
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makes the most sense for you,
and your students.