In 2013, Ms Suther approached BEST with a grant request for six iPads for her first grade classroom, to be used in small workgroups.
In her grant application she wrote:
“The iPads will be used to provide engaging activities in support of concepts being taught in class. The iPads will enable the teachers to direct students to specific, targeted skills for extra practice or extensions. Small groups and individuals will be working at their specific levels of learning. Learning to use the iPads effectively is a goal for the teachers, and training will be needed as they implement this small group approach. In addition to learning how to use the technology, children will also have a wider variety of opportunities to explore and learn through the many apps available.”
The BEST board approved her grant request and Ms. Suther received her iPads in the spring of 2014. We followed up with her this year to see how things are going and she writes:
“I love having the iPads in my room! In addition to having the technology available to do “listen to reading” and “working with words” from the Daily Five, I also use them for math centers. I hope to do small group teaching with the iPads this year. I feel like there is a lot more that I can do as I become more skilled as well.
I used them last year to research our organism projects and it was awesome. The children could do their research right in the classroom. In prior years we had to book extra Computer lab time to do our research and fit it into a 45 minute block whether the student was ready or not. The flexibility of being able to have the technology in the classroom as individual students need it was a bonus I hadn’t anticipated.”
This was a model that had been started in the multi-age classrooms the year before, with 10 iPads (also donated by BEST). Because of the success of the program in Ms. Suther’s class, Ms. Golesworthy’s class, and Ms. Salisbury’s class the Harry Lee Cole school is in the process of acquiring an iPad cart for each grade, which means that soon all classrooms at Cole will have access to iPads.
This is exactly the kind of work the BEST loves to do: a teacher sees a proven teaching method or tool that she would like to bring to our district so she writes a grant to BEST. The grant is funded, and the model is so successful that it’s replicated throughout the school.
We could not make these things happen without your support! Thank you!