The 10 year-olds in Rekha Pardeshi’s 4th grade classroom are wild about Pokemon, pillow pets, and… math. Rekha teaches at Stratford School, a private school in the bay area. Rekha’s students have been using Khan Academy this year to supplement their math curriculum, but the intention to provide additional math practice has resulted in 4th graders who have soared past their traditional curriculum.
The data from Rekha’s classroom speaks for itself:
- Combined, Rekha’s class has earned over 10 million energy points among just 13 students
- Half of Rekha’s class has earned the Magellan badge by completing 100+ exercises
- 4 students have earned the Copernicus badge by completing 200+ exercises
- Together, the class has completed over 2000 exercises and watched over 300 videos
- All students have completed the arithmetic challenge, 10 have completed the pre-algebra challenge, 6 have completed the trigonometry challenge, 3 have completed the algebra challenge
- 3 students have earned over 1,000,000 energy points, and one has even completed the Calculus challenge badge
How were Rekha’s students able to accomplish this? What was different about Rekha’s classroom?
Need to see it to believe it? Shreyansh, below, is one of Rekha’s students. In this video he explains how to factor a polynomial, and at the end he mentions what he’s learning in his traditional math class and what he has been able to do with Khan Academy.
These students understand an impressive amount of math, but what’s even more inspiring is the joy and enthusiasm they bring to their work. When asked to show how they feel about Khan Academy, Rekha’s classroom wrote their own song—lyrics and everything—to show their devotion.
Thanks for the song, Stratford students! And keep up the great work!
