Khan Academy Mapped to Irish Curriculum
Teachers & tutors at work on Khan Academy at our KA Symposium at eircom in September 2014
With the help of pioneering teachers and our friends at the ATECI Education Centres and PDST, who have offered dozens of workshops for and by teachers, Khan Academy is becoming increasingly popular in Ireland.
Click here for the Khan Academy / Irish Curriculum MapThe number of teachers using Khan Academy in Ireland increased 1200% from September 2013 to September 2014. During the 2014 MATHletes Challenge, number of overall and highly engaged users increased by 700% from the previous year.
These are staggering statistics, and should be celebrated.
However, as these numbers grew, I continued to talk to teachers. I heard their excitement about students’ engagement, improved test scores, and newfound confidence. But just as important, I heard questions, feedback, critiques and suggestions for how to make Khan Academy more useful and useable in the Irish classroom.
The same 3 questions kept popping up:
Does Khan Academy align to the Irish curriculum?How can I be sure that the exercises I am assigning are relevant to what students should be learning?How can I find exercises in Khan Academy for the specific topics or units I am teaching this term?Maths looks the same in Ireland as it does in the US, and across Europe.
However, there are differences in when and how students are expected to understand different maths skills and competencies.
The first step toward building confidence in Khan Academy in Ireland was a thorough analysis of where the platform aligns to the Irish Curriculum, and where there were gaps. (Similar Khan Academy mapping projects have been done in other countries).
The GoalThe goal was to create a resource for teachers, students and parents that shows how Khan Academy can directly support the teaching and learning of specific areas of mathematics stipulated by Ireland’s the National Council for Curriculum …Read More
Infographic: 2015 January Cup Stats
10,000 students spent over 1.1 million minutes learning maths on Khan Academy in the first month of the 2015 MATHletes Challenge, more than half of which was spent out of class. Check out all the stats on signups, engagement & learning in the infographic below!
2014 Champion Spotlight: Fingal Community College
Teachers, students and administrators accepting the first place prize for total skills mastered in the secondary division at the 2014 MATHletes National Championship
Today’s guest post comes from Sharon McGrath principal at Fingal Community College in Swords, Co. Dublin, who talks about the impact of that MATHletes & Khan Academy have had on the school.
MATHletes at Fingal CC
Fingal Community College are the 2014 MATHletes Challenge National Champions. The Challenge transformed the teaching and learning of mathematics in our school and made maths ‘cool’, fun and engaging.That’s no mean feat!
This innovative way to engage students in learning maths was introduced to Fingal Community College initially on a small scale by an single teacher in to her 2nd year maths class. The eagerness and enthusiasm of these 2nd year students was infectious and very quickly students in other classes and other year groups wanted to participate!
The maths teachers in Fingal CC quickly saw the potential of the MATHletes Challenge and grabbed the opportunity to promote the initiative among all Junior Cycle classes.The energy and enthusiasm of the teachers was the single most important factor in the success of the initiative. This zeal transferred to parents and students, and the entire project became was a remarkable example of all stakeholders working closely together towards a common goal.
The teaching and learning of maths in Fingal CC has been monumentally transformed by our involvement in the MATHletes Challenge. Self assessment and independent learning are key skills that Khan Academy fosters, and the fun and engaging nature of the competition made it a uniquely rewarding experience for all involved.
Benefits for StudentsIn Khan Academy students can practise maths at their own pace using the adaptive assessment environment. Students can make use of the extensive library of content, including interactive challenges, assessments, and videos from any computer with access to …Read More
2014 Champion Spotlight: Coláiste Bhaile Chláir
Coláiste Bhaile Chláir, MATHletes Challenge 2014 points per eligible student category winners in the Secondary Division from Co. Galway accepting their championship cup at the National finals in May.
Coláiste Bhaile Chláir was a new school for the 2013-14 year, with only 1st year students. All 160 CBC students participated in the Challenge – making it one of the few schools to have 100% participation, and helping catapult them up the leaderboards in the points per eligible student competition. CBC volunteered to host the MATHletes Connaught finals, and 11 of their student progressed to the National Championship in Dublin. Jake Larkin came in 3rd in Ireland for 1st years.
CBC teacher Gareth Callan and 2nd year student Jake Larkin talk about using Khan Academy at CBC and competing in the MATHletes Challenge.
listen to ‘Champion spotlight: Coláiste Bhaile Chláir’ on audioBoom(function() { var po = document.createElement(“script”); po.type = “text/javascript”; po.async = true; po.src = “https://d15mj6e6qmt1na.cloudfront.net/cdn/embed.js”; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();A teacher perspective: Gareth Callan
What was one of your most memorable moments of the MATHletes Challenge?
‘We were proud to host the Connaught finals (at CBC). Students and parents were willing to give up their Saturday morning and travel great distances in some cases to compete.’How do you use Khan Academy in your class?
‘Khan Academy provided instant feedback to both me as a teacher and to my students’. It was great for students who wanted an extra bit of practice at a topic and students who wanted to fine-tune their skills. It allowed students to move at their own pace, and access it from anywhere as long as they had a device.’What advice do you have to teachers who are new to Khan Academy?
‘Khan Academy & MATHletes don’t have to be a stand alone lesson – you can give it so students who are struggling, …Read More
‘We’re participants in their learning’: A parent’s perspective on Khan Academy
Today’s post comes from MATHletes Challenge mother Geraldine Exton, whose two sones Daragh and Odhran were Limerick County Champions for 2nd year and 6th class, respectively. Both boys were also runners up for the Munster Championship and National Finalists. Geraldine talks a bit about the family’s experience with Khan Academy
We discovered Khan Academy back in 2011. We’d been away for a year and the children had had some experience of other online Maths programmes designed to fill gaps in their knowledge; we heard that this new site was freely available and we decided to investigate. We signed up, firstly our two boys, and eventually our younger daughter as well.
Multilingual Education & Khan Academy
Studies into multilingual education suggest that teaching students a subject in their more comfortable language first, then reinforcing that learning later, in a subsequent language, is a powerful way to ensure that both the concepts and the language are learnt. In the process of overseeing our children’s transition from English- to Irish-language instruction, Khan Academy was a natural choice for us to support their learning.
In the process of overseeing our children’s transition from English- to Irish-language instruction, Khan Academy was a natural choice for us to support their learning.
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MATHletes Challenge: Recognition & Celebration
And then came the Mathletes Challenge. An added game layer, introducing competition and rewarding achievements by publishing the best performing students’ names on leaderboards, injected a frisson of excitement into the daily Maths routines. Suddenly there was a public outlet to recognise all the hard work that …Read More
Inside Khan Academy: Interview with James Tynan
This week, MATHletes visited the Khan Academy headquarters in Mountain View, California, to share learnings with the team about how MATHletes used ‘tournament play’ to generate excitement about Khan Academy. MATHletes sat down with James Tynan, Partnerships and Community lead at Khan Academy to get his thoughts on about what it’s like to work at Khan Academy, how he thinks about digital learning, and how MATHletes Challenge in Ireland is inspiring innovation at Khan Academy!
Huge thanks to Lauren O’Reilly, 5th year student on the Digital Youth Council, for her help on this post.
Interview highlights
…on working at Khan Academy:
“You end up sitting down with these amazing people…like maybe the first employee at Google.”
…on what makes Khan Academy a unique learning experience:
Education has been “informed by the limitations of what’s been possible in the past.What would learning be like if we invented education today?”
“You get instant feedback on whether you’re getting things right or wrong…Khan Academy helps you take control of your own learning”
…on whether online learning is the way forward for all aspects of school:
“in chess, a computer will always beat a human. But a human working together with a computer will beat any human or any computer”
…on what college courses/career prospects he sees for the next generation:
“The next generation will be about combining creativity with technology”
…on why the Mathletes Challenge ties in so well Khan Academy:
“It is about inspiring deep mastery based learning but doing it in a way that is really fun..that is why they tie in so well together.”
Listen to the full interview here’Interview with James Tynan’ on audioBoom
Thanks to Khan Academy for hosting MATHletes for the week and letting us share all the amazing stories from MATHletes students, parents and teachers!
Q&A: using Khan Academy for Adult Irish Education
Mayo Adult Educator Sorcha Moran has a background in Software Engineering, but changed careers after studying some post-graduate courses on Adult Education.
She has been working for Mayo/Sligo/Leitrim Education and Training Board as a tutor in Maths and Computers for the past 6 years. At the ETB they currently teach maths to part-time students at FETAC levels 1-5, and she personally teach levels 3-5. She uses a number of approaches in her maths teaching, including Khan Academy.
MATHletes asked Sorcha 5 questions about how she uses Khan Academy in her teaching. Here is what she told us:
1) Where did you learn about Khan Academy?
I was first introduced to Khan Academy when my daughter took part in MATHletes Challenge 2014. I was watching closely what she was doing, and it was clear to me that Khan Academy had a lot to offer my adult learners also.
2) What makes Khan Academy different from other online resources that you use in your teaching?
First of all, Khan Academy has an interface that appeals to all ages. Most of the Maths resources I come across online have a target audience of young children or exam-year adolescents, so they can be very childish or text-book looking. Khan Academy is a resource that is supportive and gives freedom to the learner at the same time, and it facilitates the theories of Adult Learning (Andragogy) very well.
The learner has full control over what they want to learn and when. They can follow a suggested order, or dip in and out of areas that are relevant to them at the time. It covers all levels from Early Math on so learners have the opportunity to fill their own knowledge gaps. Khan Academy has lots of intuitive/experiential learning which I love. It makes the learning of concepts much more concrete. My learners …Read More
7 ‘newbie’ Khan teacher tips: lessons from a Irish primary classroom
We first met primary teacher Claire Corroon on twitter @PrimaryCPD, and then when she came to our Khan Academy Symposium in September. She runs the site Primary CPD, which provides support, information and inspiration for primary teachers, structured inline with the Irish Primary School Curriculum.
A self-confessed ‘newbie’ to Khan Academy, Westmeath Primary teacher Claire Corroon tried out the site as part of the MATHletes last spring. After a bit dabbling here and there, she decided she was ready to get ‘stuck in’ this school year.
Well now she’s stuck!
Claire has her 3rd class at St. Etchens NS, Kinnegad, Co Westmeath up and running on Khan Academy, and has been learning loads to share with other Irish primary teachers.
Claire wrote a great blogpost on the Primary CPD site about her learning experience as self-described KA ‘newbie’, where she gives her observations on the benefits and limitations of Khan Academy, and compares the platform to other popular maths software and websites.
We love to hear the positive experiences that Irish teachers like Claire have had with Khan Academy, but her honest assessment and critical feedback are equally important as we try to improve the Challenge and the support we can offer teachers. You know your classrooms best. At MATHletes, we are strong believers in the idea that we don’t know what we don’t know, so we need you students, parents, and teachers in the MATHletes community to tell us what we should be thinking about!
Claire gives 7 great tips for Irish Primary teachers to get started, tailor content appropriately, and create extra incentives to motivate students:
Register yourself
Get permission forms
Use the KA teacher resources
Select an appropriate mission for students
Make recommendations to focus students
Motivate students with class challenges
Encourage students to try the KA computer programming tutorials
Check out her full blogpost post here.
You can follow Claire on twitter @PrimaryCPD, …Read More
Khan Academy tips for primary parents
Today’s blogpost comes from the magnificent teachers at St. Peters Primary School in Bray – the Co. Wicklow and Leinster Primary School Champions for MATHletes Challenge 2014. Back in September they wrote a blog introducing St. Peters parents to Khan Academy, and it was too good not to share! Check out the original post and other MATHletes stories on their award-winning blog at www.stpetersbrayblog.com/. Originally published 30/9/2014
Wednesday for Parents: Khan Academy
Welcome to this week’s ‘Wednesday for Parents’! As you may know, one of our success stories last week was our involvement in Mathletes, well documented here. Mathletes is a free tournament that aims to change the teaching and learning of Maths in Ireland. It’s an online and in-person competition that uses Khan Academy as a tool to improve the student’s maths skills and knowledge. Today’s ‘Wednesday for Parents’ is all about how you can use Khan Academy as a parent to improve your child’s Maths skills.
What is Khan Academy?
So, what is Khan Academy? Khan Academy is a non-profit organisation that aims to provide a world-class education to anyone, anywhere for free. It uses a combination of videos, practice problems and lessons to help students to develop their own learning.
How do I sign up my child?
You have the option to open a parent account and sign your child up, using your parent account, or, if your child already has an account, you can link the two accounts to monitor your child. When you sign up (for free), you’re instantly directed to seven tips about using Khan Academy as a family, such as how to monitor their progress, reward their successes and set goals and milestones. There’s also excellent articles on how to support your child’s learning when you don’t know the content and how to motivate different types of learners.
What can students …Read More
Spotlight on: Galway Khan Clubs
Thinking about starting a Khan Academy Club for the MATHletes Challenge?
Here is a ‘recipe’ from the Galway Education Centre for a Primary level Khan Academy Club, brought to us by Nuala Dalton, Galway EC Khan Academy Tutor.
We all know that the best meals are usually those that don’t follow the recipe exactly, making a few additions and substitutions depending what is in the house. So learn, tweak, and consider starting your own club for the next school year!
Recipe for Saturday Khan Academy Clubs (Primary level)
Serves: 150 primary students each week
Time:1.5 hours per club
Ingredients:
2 Khan Academy Champions: Education Centre tutors, teaching assistants, or volunteers (good substituions include retired teachers, newly qualified teachers, parents, second or third level maths students, or excited community volunteers!)
1 space to hold the camps: Space should have reliable Wifi access (allow for 1Mbps per student for watching videos). It can have its own computer lab, or students can bring their own devices. Khan Academy has additional information on technology setup, device considerations, and using KA with limited resources.
20 students (+ or -): A large number of the children who attended the initial Galway camp in Oct 2013 continued to sign up for each subsequent camp right up to June 2014. Demand for places every week was far greater than could be offered.
A dash of hard work, a sprinkle of organisation, and heaps of passion for learning maths
And the not-so-secret ingredient: Khan Academy!
Preparation:
Find your Champions
Advertise opportunity to local schools, through email, flyers, or word of mouth. Make the invitation open, or ask teachers to nominate 2-3 students who they think would be interested in, or benefit from the club.
Create a Khan Academy coach account, and student learner accounts. Create a class and add students to the class. Parents should sign permission slips allowing accounts to be created for their students …Read More