a visit to see the ipads@Homma

This morning I visited Homma to see some of the ways the ipads were being used and to talk to the teachers involved in the project. Ms Wilson and I shared some app ideas for the library and then I visited Mme Morissette’s grade 3EFI class. I asked the students what they liked about the ipads – of course they thought they were cool and fun and awesome! One student commented that the ipad made math easy. When I asked her how the math was easier on the ipad (because really, the actual math is the same whether in a text, on a worksheet, on an ipad, etc), she said it was because she didn’t have to do the writing part. This made me think that for many of our students, many of the math apps on the ipad will help them to focus on the actual math and not the often tedious and laborious task of writing the math down on paper.

I went down to the kindergarten classroom to talk to Mrs. Regan. She told me that she has been finding all sorts of great apps for her K classes and that so far she has been using them at a centre, with 5 or so ipads at a table with a specific app chosen for the students to work on. The five year olds are of course, very comfortable with the technology!

I went back to the library to hear Ms Wilson finish reading the picture book, Freedom on the Menu, to a grades 6/7 class. The students then worked in partners or triads with the ipads to explore images from the Library of Congress related to racial discrimination in the American south. Many of the images connected directly to the picture book.

The students were asked to investigate the photos and many soon realized they could use the touchscreen to zoom-in and read the signs more closely and many students also found that there were written explanations accompanying each photo.

 

This was a great lesson focusing on curriculum content and the use of primary sources/photos while students explored using the ipads.

Can’t wait to visit again!

Janice Novakowski