2.18.2013

Parent iPad Highlight Night


Stars Cluster: iPad Presentation

With a good six months into the 8th grade iPad initiative, Blake MS held an iPad Pilot Highlights night for parents to showcase student learning with the 1:1 integration of the iPads, to announce our next year's plans of expanding the pilot, and to allow time for Q & A.

Principal Nat Vaughn began by framing the evening with a video that explains the importance of technology integration as we try to prepare students for the 21st century.



This led us to the big question of the night, "What do we want for our students?", as he explained the following goals, guiding principles and evaluative measures of the iPad initiative. 


However, most of the night provided time for the Stars Cluster's teachers and students to highlight the variety of the apps that support instruction and learning. The selected apps demonstrated the students' ability to create digital projects to convey their knowledge, collaborate synchronously with other students on the same document and share their projects and written work via online notebooks or screencasting movies. In addition, teachers have also found ways to increase engagement, interaction and assessment of students' learning during the lesson through the use of presentation apps, such as NearPod and Socrative. Kristen Kirby, the 8th Grade Learning Specialist spoke to the overall improvements in her students' executive functioning and organizational skills as evidenced in their homework and material management along with increased accessibility to the curriculum as significant advantages in using the iPad. At the end of the showcase, Jason Heim, the Star Cluster's Science teacher summed up their experience as, "We've only scratched the surface of what is really possible with the iPad!".


Due to the early success of the iPad initiative, Medfield Public Schools has decided to expand the iPad pilot to include all 8th graders next year.  To learn more information about the decision and the rollout of the additional iPads, please stay tuned to Nat Vaughn's blog and this site.


A big thank you to all Star Cluster teachers: Cynthia McClelland, Brenda Perachi, Jason Heim, Kristen Kirby and Seth Hellerstein and their wonderful students for sharing and presenting at the iPad Highlight night. And not to forget, we are lucky to have a tremendous administrative and technology support staff that also works behind the scenes to make this possible. Thank You!


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