Khan Academy in the High School Math Classroom

I love Khan Academy!

This is my first year teaching high school math, and I knew I wanted to start using Khan Academy in the classroom. After using it in the classroom a few different ways, I finally decided Khan Academy is best used as an additional resource for students when they are at home. Even though I think the videos are great, I found watching Khan Academy videos in class was not the best use of class time, especially since I was right there in the classroom to teach them! So I was determined to find a way to motivate my students to spend time on Khan Academy when they are at home and I'm not there to help, give more examples, or more practice problems.

That's when I started to play around with the idea of using Khan Academy as an extra credit opportunity. And the verdict is... I LOVE it!!

Here's how I set it up in my classroom:

1) At the beginning of the year, I have all of the students create a Khan Academy account and add me as a coach. You need to do a little prep for this. Just create a class in your Khan Academy account and give your students the class code.

2) I already use google classroom to post announcements, assignments, and extra resources. If there is a great Khan Academy practice or video for our current topic, I add a link on google classroom. This is not a required assignment, it is just an extra resource for any student who needs it.

3) Then, students who want to spend time at home (going above and beyond our usual assignment) can click on the link for an extra credit opportunity. Any student who is struggling with the assignment can also click the link to try to get more explanation to help guide them through the assignment.  Stronger students will use Khan Academy to challenge themselves, and lower students will use it when they need extra help.  Khan Academy is great for both high and low students!

4) Khan Academy will notify me each week of student progress. Over the weekend, I get an email from Khan Academy letting me know who has spent time on the site. If I would like more information, I can easily click the link to go to the webpage and see exactly what my students were practicing. Usually, they spend time on the links I provided on Google Classroom!

5) I hang a picture frame in my room for the Khan Academy "Winner of the Week" (you can find the graphic created by my husband here: KHAN ACADEMY WINNER OF THE WEEK POSTER). Each week I write the name of the student who earned the most points on Khan Academy, and I add a point of extra credit onto their last assessment. I don't make a big announcement about it each week, but the students definitely notice! It's like a secret, at-home competition and usually a few kids get super competitive with it. It's great for the high students interested in a challenge, it's great for the low students when they are struggling with a topic.  If you are a high school math teacher, you have probably been asked "What can I do to get extra credit?" Well, here you go! You will always have an answer for that question now!

I have 4 different classes throughout the day, but I only give out ONE weekly winner.  So, this competition is between classes as well.  I find I always have at least one student who spends extra time on Khan Academy.

Well, that's all folks! I hope you try using Khan Academy in the classroom!  Do you have any other tips about using Khan Academy with your students?