How do I get started using Khan Academy as a teacher?

Welcome to Khan Academy! This guide contains essential information on how to get started using Khan Academy in your teaching practice.

Step 1: Identify your goals in using Khan Academy 

There are lots of ways to use Khan Academy as a teacher! Below are 3 tracks for you to choose from to help get you started. 

• Track 1: Do I see myself using Khan Academy material to aid in my instruction?
• Track 2: Do I want to use Khanmigo to help prepare lesson plans + refresh my knowledge on subjects I am teaching?
• Track 3: Do I want my students to do work on Khan Academy itself so I can track their progress and scores?
  
  • Did you know we've seen that with just 30+ minutes of usage per week, students were 2.5x more likely to meet their grade-level standards?
  • Ideas on crafting a classroom routine using Khan Academy

Track 1: Using Khan Academy material to aid in my instruction
Khan Academy offers a variety of material in 50+ languages for you to do so! We have articles, videos, exercises, quizzes, unit tests, and more that you can present to the whole class during instructional time.

Find material on https://www.khanacademy.org/ by clicking the "Explore" link in the top, lefthand corner, or searching for a topic in the search bar. 

Check out this site for Khan Academy content based on US state standards and this section of our help center for educational standards outside of the US. You then can bookmark Khan Academy material in your web browser or make a list so you can have it handy to use with your students.

Track 2: Using Khanmigo as my teaching assistant to help prepare lesson plans, refresh my knowledge on subjects I am teaching, and more

Did you know we have lots of Khanmigo activities designed just for teachers? Use Khanmigo to help with lesson planning, rubrics, exit tickets, and more! Sign up for Khanmigo here to save time preparing to teach, and learn more about all the features here. 

Track 3: Get your students working on Khan Academy

We are so excited you want to get your students started using Khan Academy!

Before even getting your student's accounts set up, we recommend you develop a classroom routine based on:

1. When you + your students have access to technology (consider during instructional time, and outside of it) 

2. How much time you have for Khan Academy during instructional time. Some ideas are:

• "Khan Day”: On a specific day during the week, students work on Khan Academy for a part of the period.
• Homework, bell-ringer or exit ticket: Daily or a few times a week, students will be assigned a video, article, or exercise, on Khan Academy to review the concepts they learned in class.
• Khan Academy Station or Center: Incorporating Khan Academy into your existing centers routine or as a warm up
• Incorporate LearnStorm in your routine as a way to celebrate progress, and maybe have a friendly competition between classes ;) 

3. What goals are your students working towards?

• Are they studying for the Digital SAT? Filling in skills gaps? Learning how to be excited and motivated to complete classwork? Understanding these goals will help you craft your plan. 

Next: setting up your account, your classes, and your students' accounts

You're almost there! Khan Academy's Teacher Tools are just around the corner. But first, you and your students need to get logged in. Check out these resources to do so: 

• How can I create my teacher account?
• How do I add additional classes to my Khan Academy teacher account?
• How do I add new students to a class in my Teacher Dashboard?
  • • Invite students via email. You will need a list of student emails.
    • Add students without email accounts. You’ll create Khan Academy accounts for them.
    • Have students add themselves by class code. Each class has a unique class code. Students can enter the class code at https://www.khanacademy.org/join to join your class.
    • Link to your Google Classroom account and import the class. You will need your username and password for Google.

 Next: Create Assignments and Course Mastery Goals 

• Course Mastery Goals are year-long goals for proficiency in a course, promoting steady progress and deep understanding. Unit Mastery Goals are smaller and aimed at the mastery of one unit within a course.
• Assignments can be used in a variety of ways, with some examples being:
  • Assigning the Course Challenge to gauge students' understanding of an entire course, reinforcing particular skills, or practicing tricky skills for upcoming state assessments. 
• Check out this help center section to get you started: Making assignments and mastery goals for your students

Next: Support student motivation and growth mindset: 

• Learning new things can be hard and vulnerable! We have this Growth mindset course to help you and your students be kind with themselves when being challenged.  
• We also offer the LearnStorm tracker to gamify learning for your students. Learn more about it here! 

Next: Track student progress through reporting

Khan Academy offers a variety of reporting options for you to track student progress, with options based on assignment scores and Mastery progress. Check them out here! 

Finally: Embrace flexibility through adapting your routine to your students' needs, and turn to the below resources if you need help! 

• Khan for Educators Course 
• Teachers and Coaches Section of the Khan Academy Help Center 
• Reach out to our support team through this link if you need to talk to a human! We are here and happy to help.