Last Thursday, members of our tech team and two collaborating teachers took a field trip to Elsie Roy Elementary School in the Yaletown area of Vancouver. This was a much anticipated visit after Elsie Roy's recent media coverage.
Principal, Rosa Fazio, took us on a tour of several primary classrooms, where iPod Touches and iPads have been integrated seamlessly into the classroom. The school has been implementing iPods for about a year and iPads since late November. We saw Kindergarten students using iPods to play literacy games and listen to digital stories, an ESL student and her tutor working together on an iPad, and a small group of students using iPads in a learning assistance classroom. The trend we noticed over and over was the use of iPods and iPads as a centre activity.
While Rosa suggested that iPads could be well-used in upper intermediate classrooms, Grade 5/6 teacher, Kelly, admitted the teachers at his school tend to use them in the primary grades because most apps are geared toward early literacy and mathematics. His own students prefer laptops, which are better suited to document creation.
One thing Rosa said that really resonated with me was her response when asked whether schools should wait for the iPad2 before making a purchase. "I never wait," she said. "You'll always be ahead if you don't wait." I agree, Rosa, but it's always nice to hear it from someone else.
Thank you to Rosa and the teachers at Elsie Roy for being so willing to share their work with us. We learned a lot from you about the direction we'd like to take our iPad Project in, and we hope you'll learn from us in the coming months!
Principal, Rosa Fazio, took us on a tour of several primary classrooms, where iPod Touches and iPads have been integrated seamlessly into the classroom. The school has been implementing iPods for about a year and iPads since late November. We saw Kindergarten students using iPods to play literacy games and listen to digital stories, an ESL student and her tutor working together on an iPad, and a small group of students using iPads in a learning assistance classroom. The trend we noticed over and over was the use of iPods and iPads as a centre activity.
While Rosa suggested that iPads could be well-used in upper intermediate classrooms, Grade 5/6 teacher, Kelly, admitted the teachers at his school tend to use them in the primary grades because most apps are geared toward early literacy and mathematics. His own students prefer laptops, which are better suited to document creation.
One thing Rosa said that really resonated with me was her response when asked whether schools should wait for the iPad2 before making a purchase. "I never wait," she said. "You'll always be ahead if you don't wait." I agree, Rosa, but it's always nice to hear it from someone else.
Thank you to Rosa and the teachers at Elsie Roy for being so willing to share their work with us. We learned a lot from you about the direction we'd like to take our iPad Project in, and we hope you'll learn from us in the coming months!
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