Past projects 2
It's All About the Math, 'Bout the Math
Funded Jul 28, 2015This was my second DonorsChoose project. My first project I asked for 5 iPad mini's with cases and the second I requested 5 more because students were really engaged in new learning as well as using them for extra practice of skills taught in class. Five iPad's were certainly better than zero, but it took so long for student's to get another turn with the iPad's that some were getting discouraged.
I didn't keep this project a secret like I had the first one. I told my students I was working on adding 5 more iPad's to the classroom. When the iPad's came the students already knew I had to get them set up, but they also knew we didn't have to spend time learning the new technology since we were already using them in our classroom. They were very excited to have more iPad's and more apps added to them.
Our classroom has access to Chromebooks, but they are limited in what they can be used for and they are also difficult for several of the students to use. The iPad's seem so natural for student's to use. Now that we have ten tablets, the student's do not have to wait so long for another opportunity to use them. They are not bored because there are so many great apps out there for math and many align with common core standards.
In between these two projects I found a great tool to use with the iPad's. It is called an Osmo and has games for letters, words, tangram's, and drawing. Students use real objects to copy or solve what is on the iPad. Two of the photos show students using the Osmo tangram game. This game begins with basic shapes that are easy to copy and then moves to really difficult ones. It is a great tool for exercising spatial and visual problem solving skills.
My students are really enjoying using the iPad's and they are a great tool to reinforce skills in reading, math, science, and technology.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Norris
Science, Technology, and Math Oh My!
Funded Apr 19, 2015I told my students I was working on a project to get some new materials for our classroom and that they would be very excited if we got them. For days they tried really hard to get me to tell them what I was trying to get for our class. The day the resources came I had them sit around the rug while I opened the boxes. When I opened the first iPad mini the whole class went crazy. One student was yelling, "It's a tablet, it's a tablet." When I opened the next three iPad's another student said, "This is blowing my mind!" I didn't think they would care about the cases, but they were excited about those as well. Since they are first graders, they were a bit disappointed that we couldn't use them right away because I had to get them set up, but luckily it was the end of the day so there wasn't time to use them anyway.
I got the iPad's ready quickly, but needed to teach students how to care for them before letting them use them. Although I teach in a school where a majority of my students have no access to technology, I found I didn't have to teach them much about how to use the iPad's. Student's are very savvy on how to choose apps, swiping, and maneuvering around a tablet. I found out that many of them play apps on their parent's smart phones. This is one of the reasons I wanted tablets instead of laptops or other devices.
I set them up with several math and science apps as well as some coding and creativity apps. The students are enjoying all of the apps. One of my students was playing a math game where he had to quickly choose partners for a given number while the numbers were falling from the top at a quick pace. This is a student who normally needs to take his time, but he was really fast at this and made a lot of progress. He was the top scorer in the class. It was a real boost for him. I found I have quite a creative group of students beyond what I would have known without the tablets. The tablets really open up a world of opportunities for learning new things and practicing skills taught in class.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Norris
This classroom project was brought to life by South King County STEM Network and 3 other donors.