Last night at about 10 pm, I received an email from a student kindly and maturely explaining that she was utterly confused by dividing decimals into other decimals. Only an hour or so prior to this, I had g-chatted a student who also was in a pickle about dividing decimals.
I scratched my head and decided to watch the Khan Academy math video I had assigned one more time to asses it for confusing pieces. After watching it through, I discussed it with my husband and we came to the conclusion that while I understood the video, a 10 year old at home with only Mr. Sal Khan and his or her math notebook for guidance might find the video confusing.
Post video assessment, I logged onto Khan Academy to view the work of my students (one of the many benefits of using Khan academy both in and out of the classroom is that one can actually see the modules that students are struggling on, haven’t started, are proficient at or need to review). Once I found the two selected modules I had assigned, I noticed that quite a few students had been struggling. What I also noticed is that quite a few students seemed to give up after a few problems.
At this point two thoughts crossed my mind 1) Did they give up because they truly didn’t understand? or 2) Did they give up because they wanted the answer spoon fed to them?
My biggest cultural shift since coming to Korea as a teacher, has been realizing that my students truly need to learn how to critically think about their work, understand why something is the way it is, and then apply their knowledge.
That point aside, I brushed my teeth, put on my PJs, and hopped in bed with my ipad and stylus. Then I opened up Educreations and started making a video for my students regarding dividing decimals. What I realized was the kids needed a real life situation to think about dividing decimals in and they also needed a simpler problem in which to first learn the concept.
Upon arriving at school, we watched the video as a class. As the kids watched the video, I watched their faces. It seems some concepts were sinking in, it seemed that some questions were cleared.
I am a firm believer in the power of explanation and Educreations makes it incredibly easy to explain a concept exactly as you would like your students to understand it. Additionally, there is great worth in exploring Educreations in general as there are many videos already created by other teachers that you can use.
Using Educreations in congruence with Khan academy also makes even more magic happen.
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