Notes about Ipads

I am taking an ipad course and the first assignment is how do you use ipads in your classroom and in your school.  I thought it would be nice to share this information with you as well.

I love having ipads in my classroom.  I have two school ipads and two personal ipads that I have synced with the school account.  For the most part I use the ipads for enrichment type activities because I do not have enough for everyone.   I set up the apps or qr lessons for the students and they just use the ipads to complete the directions I give them.

I prefer teaching in small groups so generally I have a group of five to six children sharing the four ipads.  My students have been pretty good about sharing however generally one student tends to do most of the work.  I manage my own ipads and have had to learn how to trouble shoot the best I can.  I don’t have much of a storage place for them.  I use some magazine containers between my computers and the end of the day I lock them in my teacher locker.

I read the blog post by Jayne Clare, 17 Pros and Cons of Using Ipads in the Classroom.  I agreed with a lot of what the author was saying.  Ipads are great for elementary classrooms because they have a good battery life, there are so many apps out there, it is super user friendly for young children, it is lightweight and easy for them to carry and best of all it is fast.  I also like the students can plug in their headphones and not disturb the rest of the class.  

An issue my school needs to think about is accountability.  Not all homerooms have ipads, I think several of the elementary teachers had them on a wish list one year.  So the middle school teachers are constantly borrowing them, needless to say, the ipads are coming back scratched and the protective covers are starting to stretch off.   Who is responsible for them? 

I would also like to see my school offer more training for the teachers and some type of lessons of internet safety for the students.