WMS: Summer Math Reminder: Remember Khan Academy

What!? We're in summer break and we're getting ANOTHER school email!? For reals!? 

Yup, for reals. :) 

I just wanted to send this out before I dismantle my mailing lists and remind families that Summer is a GREAT opportunity to practice. And your child can use the Khan Academy (it's FREE) to keep calculation skills and some concepts fresh in their minds!

Khan Academy is not very good about teaching conceptual underpinnings and it won't do much to help with topics that your child is having a hard time with understanding. But for concepts that your child already has understood and for continuing practice in calculations, it's a tremendous resources. It has mini lectures (videos) and it has MANY online practice sets to work on!

This Spring, Khan Academy made some changes that make it easier to use. Your child can still use their wildcatapps.org username firstname.lastinitial.14@wildcatapps.org; ex: sally.b.14@wildcatapps.org). But if your child doesn't remember that sign-in, they can now create a Khan Academy username WITHOUT needing wildcatapps.org, facebook, or gmail! And next year, when the school year starts up, they will be able to link the accounts.

Some 6th grade skills students may want to practice over the summer include:

• Arithmetic with fractions and mixed numbers (+,-,x, and ÷).
• Arithmetic with decimals (+,-,x, and ÷).
• Ratios.
• Percents.
• Circle calculations (pi, area, circumference).

Not to mention things from earlier grades! The Khan Academy will give your child a nice mix of things to practice. It usually does a good job and is pretty darn motivating with points and badges earned.

You can also sign up for an account and have your child ad you as a coach! Then you can see what topics your child is struggling with and how much time they are spending practicing. This is SO much better than worksheets or workbooks because the program tailors itself to your child's practice needs. 

I sincerely wish you all a WONDERFUL summer and a relaxing break before starting 7th grade next year! It a privilege teaching your children this year. I look forward to seeing them around WMS next year when they're even bigger kids! :) 

Yours truly,

Brian MacNevin

PS: If your child wants to have their wildcatapps username and password, please email me (they may want to start with all of their achievements in place rather than starting over). I can provide you the username, but the password I will have to reset to a generic one that they can use to log in. I will be leaving later this week out of town and my internet access will be spotty after Wednesday.