iPads

Day 1 8/14/12 Wow, what an exhausting day. It felt very strange to have the kids walk in after having their iPads for almost a week and have them put them in the basket and not touch them. It was almost as if we were pretending that they haven't existed for the past week. I'm sure they were dying to share with us. I take that back, I know they were because they tried to show me stuff and I just put them off. I think because of that guilt I tried to incorporate using iPads into going over the expectations. I had a hard time putting them up on the board -because I was trying to use the new reflections software. Even though I rushed to get it on there and of course, couldn't get it to work. It would have been ten times easier to just do it from my laptop, but I really wanted to use the new software. Mistake number one. Mistake number two -I told them that they could show each other pictures that they have taken while they wait. Then they were supposed to come up table by table to take a picture of the expectations. That part was good, the rest was terrible. Even though I asked them to review the expectations, they continued to show each other pictures. It was exactly the opposite of the message that I wanted to get across which is that ipads are a tool for learning and when I ask you to use them for learning that needs to happen. Totally my fault. At least we have this as a reference point. I also learned that I still hate talking to them when they are at their tables. I thought it would be easier with the iPads, but no. Still hate it, still feel like they aren't paying attention. After that colossal waste of time we only got through two expectations. I went old school on them the next session and had them come to the rug with a clipboard, pencil and a xerox of the expectations. I'm just going to have to let that be ok. I know better, it's like math manipulatives, you can't give it to kids and just expect them to get right to work. You need to give them some play time. If I needed to give them rules before they played then I should have just given them rules. I think the big problem was that we just wanted to pretend that they haven't had them for a week. I do not think that it was a good idea to give them out ahead of time. I like that they did roll-out with their parents, but I wish that we waited. I would have liked to do regular getting to know you and classroom rule stuff without feeling guilty about not using the iPads. I worry that they have already gotten into bad habits at home. If we want to establish the idea that these are tools for school then we should have built that before they got them. I'm sounding really negative. The good news is that they are so excited. They all know how to do a lot so a lot of those entry level skills are already there. That is a relief. They are also very open to using it to learn, not just play, which I love. They are so excited to share what they've discovered. I think tomorrow I will just give them time to share what they've discovered with their classmates. And, I'm going to relax because it is all going to be ok.