Excitement in education and student productivity, the ability to get a result that you want from students, go together and cannot be separated. -Major Owens
“Mrs. Meeuwse, this iPad has it all! I can write and read and do math on it!” After 5 days of using iPads in the classroom, my kindergarten students are excited. Did you notice that the child’s exclamation did not include the word play? That surprised me a bit. They are so “play” oriented. So far, no one as asked if they can “play” with their iPads. They have asked if they can “work on them” or “get on them”. Perhaps they are mirroring my own language in using them. I am careful to use instructive language and modeling as we implement them slowly into our curriculum. We have used them only in small group activities during guided reading at this point. My assistant and I both are showing them how to use key apps that we use frequently.
As we enter the second full week of school, I have completed my initial assessments and I have a better sense of what these small guided reading groups need to work on. Since we use the Reading Workshop model, I have placed the children in small, flexible groups to work on specific skills. One group is ready to read Level A books. We have the LAZ level A readers on the iPads and this will give the children an opportunity to have just right books in their hands. My students who need extra help in learning letters and sounds will have hands on time in centers with various manipulatives but they will also be working on a few specific apps to reinforce these skills. One of these is the Starfall app. Having a carefully mapped out plan creates comfort for you as the teacher, but also for the students as they know exactly what your expectations are.
The best part of having 1:1 iPads is all 25 of my students have access to apps that meet their individual needs. As we continue to work slowly and methodically through class routines and procedures both with and without the iPads, I’m reminded of Debbie Miller’s quote in Reading with Meaning: “We must be deliberate in September.” Being explicit and deliberate about the smallest of details is important. As our children become more confident in their abilities and activities in the classroom, their engagement soars, their inquiry shines and their excitement is unmeasurable. We need to slow down to speed up!
I’d love for you to leave a comment, subscribe to my blog, and/or share this post with a friend.
iTeach with iPads 
Hi Kristi! I teach at Blue Ridge Elementary in Oconee County. We visited your iPad classroom last Spring. Your school was so helpful in giving us ideas about our own 1:1 initiative. I loved your idea for a blog, and have started my own, focusing on iPad integration in the upper elementary grades. Check it out if you get a chance!
Oneononewithipads.blogspot.com
Barb
It looks great! Thanks for sharing your blog link. I will pass it along to our upper elementary teachers. Good luck with your school year!
We are following along with our iPad at home and always appreciate your posts. Please continue to share the names of the apps you are using. We appreciate you!
Thanks Melissa! Glad you are following along!
I teach kindergarten in California, and have iPads, although not quite one to one. I would love to see a list of all of the apps you are using. I am also using Starfall. I added I Love Books after reading your post awhile back. “What apps are you using” is the number one question my parents ask. I am also curious, at the beginning of the year, did you reduce the number of apps the children could access? Or do they work with a full screen of choices?
Kim,
It is too time consuming for me to reduce the number of apps since I have to share a MacBook for syncing. If I didn’t have to share, I would go in and uncheck some of the ones we use later in the year and then re-sync when I’m ready to add them. I have all 110 apps on there but they are in subject folders. The good thing is that my students quickly abandon an app they don’t understand right away. I show them a new app on the Smart Board every day for a while using the VGA cable and connecting cable to my iPad. The ones I show them are the ones they use mostly. A few will venture out during the few free minutes they have daily to some of the apps I haven’t gone over.
Go to my contact page and send me your email and I will email you a list of the most used apps I have. It’s not the complete list because some I hardly use at all but don’t want to get rid of them just yet. They were free when I downloaded them and aren’t free now. Thanks for stopping by!