When kindergarten teacher Petie Schuessler introduced iPads to her students at Washington Episcopal School in Bethesda, she didn’t need to waste much class time teaching them how they worked. That’s because 11 of her 13 students already use the devices at home.
“We knew it was going to be successful. They’re so at ease with using technology,” she said. “They know exactly what to do.”
The private school, serving kids in preschool through eighth grade, purchased 10 iPads that the two kindergarten classes are using in a pilot project.
The devices are part of the school’s growing technology inventory, which includes interactive white boards, lap tops and iMacs used in middle school classes.
“We have been ramping up our technology for all grades,” said Jason Platt, the school’s technology coordinator.
The school became interested in trying out iPads with younger students after a student brought one in last year and a teacher attended a workshop on the iPad’s potential uses in the classroom, Schuessler said.
Each kindergarten class shares five iPads and students use them when they are working independently on such skills as writing, reading and phonics. Scheussler says she and Vanessa Hershberger, the other kindergarten teacher, have found a number of inexpensive apps that can be used to teach lessons.
Students use apps to learn new words and practice spelling them, record themselves reading, work on math skills – and even to finger paint without using messy paints. “We keep finding all these things we want to do with them,” Schuessler said.
Another plus, according to the teachers, is that students can learn at their own pace. “If they finish an assignment, they can go on,” Schuessler said.
One morning last week, two kids sank into beanbag chairs, put on head phones and began listening to stories as they read along on the iPads.
At a nearby table, 6-year-old Lucy Carnegie used her forefinger to practice writing words on the small rectangular screen.
Lucy said she was “really excited” to be able to use an iPad at school because she had one at home. Using it at school “feels like having fun,” she said.
“It doesn’t seem like learning, but they’re learning,” noted Head of School Kirk Duncan as he watched the students working independently.
With iPads, no longer do students have to fill out worksheets and hand them in to be corrected, he said. Students can use apps that will immediately let them know how they are doing. The devices “involve students in the actual process of self-education,” he said.
Six-year-old Alana Woods says she’s happy to put down her pencil and practice writing on an iPad. “Sometimes my hand hurts with a pencil when I hold it really hard,” she said.
The teachers are quick to point out that the iPads don’t replace hands-on learning, like the use of plastic cubes to practice math skills or real finger paints and shaving cream – so important for the development of motor skills. “Other than paper, we’re not replacing what we normally use,” Schuessler said.
“It’s a tool, part of what we’re doing,” Hershberger added. “There’s going to be a part where we work together and a part where we work independently.”
The devices have even transformed the dreaded “time-out” for a child who’s misbehaving because some painting apps have proven therapeutic, according to Schuessler. “If a child is having a bad moment and they need time by themselves, they can just calm down and then rejoin the group,” she said.
There are no worries about the devices being misused or dropped, teachers say. That’s because everyone knows the main rule about using an iPad: “It stays on the floor,” Schuessler said.
Teachers and students aren’t the only fans of using the iPads for learning; parents have been asking what apps the kids are using because “they want to use the same apps at home,” she said.
