Khan Academy Parent Notification September 13, 2012 Dear Parents, This year the students of room 5 going to use a brand new web resource called Khan Academy. This is a free website where anyone can go to watch videos and learn about virtually anything. There are thousands of videos from topics ranging from math to history to economics. Some of the videos are elementary level while others are college level. The website has just recently added a whole new way to interact with these videos. Students can set up accounts in order to work their way through various math concepts. This website is much like the IXL website, but even better. One improvement is that when the student doesn’t understand the concept, it will give them hints and a video that they can watch in order to help them understand how to do the problem they’re being asked to do. Another improvement is that the skills are put in sequential order so that students can work their way up from basic math concepts to their current grade level of math, allowing them to fill in any gaps they may have from previous grade levels automatically! We will be using the website during class time and assigning related homework for the remainder of the year. It won’t be our formal math curriculum, but will help us to supplement and challenge all student needs. It will give us a method of plugging all the holes in the “Swiss cheese” of math understanding that so many students have by the time they get to 5th grade. Too often students have moved on to the next topic without mastering the one before it because the class had to

move forward which creates these gaps. It will also allow every student to work at their own pace, which means higher level math learners can start learning concepts that would usually only be covered in a 6th or 7th grade classroom! I’d like parents to set up the Khan Academy accounts so they have instant access to their child’s progress. In addition, if parents set up the accounts, they will also be available for the students to use as they progress through school and won’t end when they leave Crestwood this next summer. Just go to www.mrsousa.com and click on the “Khan Academy Account Setup” link in the left-hand menu. Students are welcome to use the website whenever they would like. In fact, we’ll probably be assigning some things to do as homework in the future. By the way, one important thing to remember when students work at home is that calculators are not allowed. Finally, I would challenge you to participate in Khan Academy with your student and learn math concepts right along with them! You’ll need to set up your own account in order to create a student account, so you’ll be all set to go. I am working through it myself and I can tell you that it’s fun and addicting! If you have any questions (or feedback) at all about this new and amazing opportunity that I believe is going to change how we teach math, please let me know. Sincerely, Scott Sousa