Oh yeah!
Do you see the empty cart and the completed iPad check out list?
In October, we finally got to use the iPads we’ve been
talking about piloting since the beginning of the school year. Most of the delays in our pilot were good
ones -- we went from waiting for a few
iPads to be ordered and delivered, to waiting for our whole class set, and then
for our cart, and then for our covers, but still, we were starting to feel like we’d
been waiting to get started for a very long time.
The
excitement in the room was palpable when our fifth graders found out
the time had come to use the iPads and that only increased my anxiety.
I had hoped that we would be able to afford stout cases, such as the OtterBox Defender,
but they just weren’t in the budget. I
am putting my trust in these students to be very careful using these iPads with
much less robust cases. The
students
were very respectful as we went over the shortened version of the iPad
rules they had agreed to in the iPad Use Agreement signed by each
student and their parents:
This is the short version of the rules
Before the students came and got their iPads, they also
learned about the iPad cart procedure.
The cart is a great improvement over managing the iPads individually,
but it takes some management to get 29 iPads checked out and distributed to the
students. For now, I want a written
record of how often we actually use them.
We may find a better way as the pilot progresses. The students were very careful as they
disconnected the power cords and took their iPads back to their desks:
The students were very cautious
On this first day, our goal was to have the students start
to learn to use the iPad tools that they will be using when they start creating
content. The students started taking
photos with both the document camera and the face camera. (Thanks to Suzy Brooks for the naming convention.) They could take as many photos as they
wanted, but could only keep two photos of their silent reading book and two
photos of their face on their iPad.
Hopefully, the students will learn from the beginning that they need to
keep track of what they are storing on their iPads. As you can see, taking the pictures was lots of fun.
Learning how to use the iPad cameras
Once the students were proficient with iPad photography,
they were able to use GeoMasterUSA (free) to practice their states, which is
very timely since they have their 50 states test this week. They were also able to practice their math
skills using My Math App (free). As you
can see from the photos, every child was fully engaged in practicing their
basic skills with these apps.
Social Studies and Math Apps
None of us were ready to put the iPads up when it was time
to pack up and go home. The students
were asking, “Can we stay after school?”
“Can we do more math tomorrow?” “ Can I play that app again?” I know they
won’t want to keep practicing basic skills forever, even with these apps, but the
honeymoon sure is nice!
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