Here and Now will offer tutorials and assistance to the teachers assimilating the program in their classroom instruction, as well as teacher learning groups
Here and Now was founded two years ago in order to translate the content and tools of the international Khan Academy project into Hebrew. The Khan Academy project offers video-based tutorials as well as practice-based assignments to allow for more personalized learning. With a seed grant from the Trump Foundation, the advanced mathematics elements in the program were introduced to the Israeli education system. The Amit school network joined a pilot program, in which the content was tested in 13 schools, allowing teachers to implement various innovative techniques such as the flipped classroom.
The pilot test has revealed many inconsistencies between the Israeli and American curricula, leading the project to partner with local providers of video-based tutoring content, to add their material to the database and to arrange and edit it to be aligned with the way 5-unit mathematics is taught in Israel. The program has gained interest among students and teachers across the country, and as a result, the organization has managed to attract more funding and partnerships. For example, the new National program on the teaching of cyber computing is using the Here and Now platform as its main independent learning vehicle and they won a tender by the Council for Higher Education to develop the new learning platform for Israeli students nationwide.
The organization has turned again to the foundation to seek additional funding for its operation. As a result and in discussion with the foundation’s staff, the organization is now proposing to design a program for 9th and 10thgrade students who are candidates for the advanced five unit track in upper secondary school. The program will utilize the Here and Now content and tools in order to support their learning in a way that will better prepare them for the advanced track and support their initial studies. The program will be implemented in 25 schools over a period of two years, and will offer tutorials and assistance to the teachers assimilating the program in their classroom instruction, as well as teacher learning groups.
Special emphasis will be placed on helping the teachers to use the data which is routinely collected in the system to monitor the learning progress and challenges of each student in class. Teachers will be encouraged to analyze the data and to customize their teaching to the pace and way of thinking of different students, and to provide each student with adequate feedback. Over the course of the program, video clips and exercises covering the entire mathematics curriculum for 9th grade top mathematics classes and 5-unit 10thgrade classes will be created and added to the database. The program aims to work with 150 teachers from 25 schools, reaching approximately 4,500 students.
* The text above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors / Grant 135