Weeks 1-6

Khan Academy Journal
By Derek Oldfield

I have decided to implement Khan Academy with all of my students this year.  Starting with the first week of school, I’m going to get my students in the lab and begin the registration/log in process.  

Week One: Registration has been a real pain.  The process is time consuming and slow moving.  Students have no experience with WVDE webmail, so I’m having do most of it myself.  It is necessary that students have an email address in order to sign up in Khan Academy.  

Week Two: Students need introduced to the entire system, searching for an exercise, finding a video, navigating the dashboard, reading the data, graphs, etc.  No way to show them all of this at once, so move slowly.  The dashboard loads slowly on our mini laptops, so students are frustrated trying to use the dashboard.  It’s necessary that they learn how to navigate though because it’s the easiest way to see which skills they have completed and how all the skills interconnect.  I would suggest introducing the system little by little.  There is so much stuff!  Watch a video with your classes, and model model model how to watch a video.  Students should practice taking notes, pausing, rewinding, and working problems along with Sal.  This is something I did not do at first, but should have.  Explain the difference between watching me instruct in class and watching Sal on KA.  

Week Three:  My students are still forgetting that they can log in using their username instead of the long email they can’t remember.  Some students are forgetting passwords over the weekend.  I suppose this is to be expected for a while.  Continue to review how the dashboard works.  Some students don’t know you can use the mouse wheel to zoom in on the dashboard.  I have taken simple tasks like that for granted.  At week three, I have already got a lot of data and I’ve started to show some of it to my classes.  Important: continually praise those who are working from home.  During class time, (homework, class work, instruction) I’m beginning to see which students are falling behind, or which students did not master the prerequisite skills from last year.  When I cross-reference those same students with their progress in KA, I can see they are struggling with beginning topics in 8th grade math.  I started the year with adding/subtracting negative numbers, absolute value, combining like terms, order of operations, distributive property.  I’m using class-time to prep students for an upcoming test in week 4.  I am currently struggling to decide how much 1:1 computer time to give the students.  So far, I’ve been able to get adequate lab time at my school.  I almost feel as if I could teach from a computer lab every day.  But how do I assign grades that way?  I feel as if I’m meeting more student needs when we’re on KA.  Some days, class time feels “wasteful” to the high students or low students.  My honors students are eating it up, some have even tried Calculus!
I also tried an internet assignment this week.  Students had to try a new exercise(s) and watch at least one video for HW.  This was a weekend assignment.  Very few students actually did this .  I did not record it as a grade. 

Week Four: We tested on Friday of this week.  

I was unable to get lab time this week, so if students used Khan Academy, they did it from home.  Some students are getting on from the library or the computer class, once all other work is finished.  Few students got on KA this week.  I should have emphasized it more.  This first test serves as a tremendous foundation for the rest of 8th grade math.  (See topics listed above).  It’s very frustrating trying to design and differentiate my classroom teaching to meet the needs of everyone present.  With KA, it’s easy.  In the classroom, I end up teaching to some students, but others don’t get the necessary time and practice to master the skills in which they are struggling.  Other students that are beyond where I’m instructing, are probably bored.  We’ve talked a lot about how inefficient a HW assignment is because there is no immediate feedback.  Students can practice 30 problems for HW, but bring it in the next day with half of them wrong.  Do I give them the grade they earned?  On KA, students get immediate feedback.  A lot of students are teaching themselves through KA.  If they try a new exercise, they apply what knowledge they do have about the skill, try an answer, then adjust the next answer depending on the feedback provided from KA.  KA allows them to choose a hint or watch a video of instruction, choose an answer, then tells them if they are right or it says “try again.”  I’ve got lots of students completing exercises on skills I have not yet taught from class. 
The Test: Overall, students did better than last year’s.  The data provided from KA indicated which students would fail the test.  After cross-referencing KA data to test scores, there was a strong correlation between progresses made in KA to students‘ test scores.  I need to determine how I could force those students that failed to stay behind and gain proficiency in those skills they have not yet mastered.  The students need to understand the importance of these foundational skills. If they do nothing to demonstrate proficiency in those skills, they will likely fail the next test.  I have exhausted all metaphors used to describe the situation to my students.  If a one-size fits all approach to teaching does not work, then why should every student move on?  Though I don’t have the time to spend re-teaching every student, KA does!  Those students need to put time into demonstrating they can add/sub/mult/div integers.  If they don’t take the necessary time and practice, how will they gain proficiency? It sounds boring, but students are developing strong and durable connections in the brain as they’re completing exercise problems.  With the feedback provided in each problem, they constantly adjust and strengthen strategies used to solve each problem.  Students are telling me “Mr. Oldfield, I figured out a different way to do it, and it works every time!”  

Week Five: Week Five: Going to the lab 3 days this week.  I’m hoping to fill in all gaps with students by this week. (EDIT 11.1.12 That was a ridiculous statement lol) We started with 27 students who have not become proficient in adding and subtracting negative numbers and many more who have not become proficient in multiplying and dividing negative numbers.  I typed up a list of topics, a schedule for students to progress through.  Only students who are caught up will be doing those skills.  On Tuesday, I had number lines printed off and in the lab.  Number lines will be used to help students add/sub negative numbers.  Students are using the scratchpad on KA to help with leave change change.  I also open up a new tab in their web browser and provide them with a multiplication table from mathisfun.  This is what they use to help with mult/div negative numbers.  Students that are ahead of schedule are learning new skills without any instruction by me.  By end of school Wednesday, only 9 students had not achieved proficiency in add/sub negative numbers.  By end of school Thursday, every student had mastered add/sub negative numbers.  It’s neat to look and see how many problems some students had to complete to demonstrate mastery.  One student had to complete 168 problems before he answered enough consecutive problems correctly to demonstrate proficiency. We talk a lot about persistence!  Incredible things are happening after school hours.  One student spent 85 minutes on KA one evening and completed 21 skills to proficiency that evening.  One student spent 49 minutes on add/sub negative numbers, but he achieved proficiency that evening and never gave up.  On Wednesday evening, a total of 18 students were on KA working on problems voluntarily.  From Tues-Thurs we had celebration after celebration for students that passed sections they’d been working on for a long time (+,-,x,/ negative numbers).  Other students are chipping in to help struggling students pass a section.  Students are asking “Can we go to the lab tomorrow?!”  Students do not hate math anymore.  I’m not looking forward to staying in class without computers on Friday.  I wish I knew how to assign grades based on KA progress…?  I’ve created an assignment from a collection of skills that students have been working on this week (fractions/decimals).  Students will complete this assignment in class Fri or finish for HW over the weekend.  

Week Six: Allow students time to check their own progress on Khan Academy.  (Edit: I should have done this earlier, weekly even.)  Review the charts with them, focus chart, skills passed, navigating the dashboard.  Show the class progress to them to see where they stack up against others.  Ask if their parents know about Khan Academy.  Have their parents seen their stats? 
Khan Academy is proof that all students learn at a different pace.  When provided the opportunity to demonstrate proficiency, some students require 24 problems to demonstrate proficiency. Other students require 8 problems, while other students require 240 problems.  To fill in gaps and holes, students need time and practice.