Khanacademy

This weeks' blog post is going to be about khanacademy.org, a one man mission to teach the world math, finance, and physics . . . among other things. Though this doesn't have much to do with my subject area, I can immediately see three applications for me personally in my life and teaching career--

1.) I can direct students in my English classes where to go with their math woes since I am much more qualified with words than with numbers. This is a great resource so that if my students ask me about any math concepts, I can point them in another direction instead of letting my face go red with their persistent staring in expectation of me saying something intelligent.

2.) I can actually learn certain math concepts I may need to make an analogy in my class. Or, in some crazy turn of events, if I have to sub for a math class, I can brush up on my number skills so I have more to bring to the students than apologies or nice poems about math.
 
3.) Finally, and most applicable in my opinion, I don't have to use khanacademy to know that I have the potential to do something similar. The concept of having mini-lessons available online would be great for students who need a refresher on certain topics we've covered in class. I might, for instance, make videos like those on kahanacademy after school that week, going over the major themes we've covered. These videos can then be available as a study guide for students.

The possibilities are pretty open with this idea, and so more ideas helpful to my classroom could soon follow.