Suzanne's Ed Tech Reflections

The 2015-2016 school year is up and running and our iAchieve Flip Learning with 1:1 iPads project and teachers are ready to move ahead also. One of the things we do at the beginning of the school year is to hold parent meetings for each of our 1:1 iPad classrooms where parents are informed about flip learning and sign an agreement. This has become an essential component before students take their iPads home. It also helps to develop a stronger home to school connection as well as making parents part of the learning. While we have heard many other schools report rather high incidences of damage and loss, ours has been quite minimal. We attribute much of that to these parent meetings. Not only do the parents sign the agreement, but students do too - and we encourage students to attend the meeting with their parents. Each teacher customizes the presentation to meet the needs of their school, classroom, and students. They cover the project requirements for taking the iPads

We recently added a new early learning preschool program in the district, so I have been on the lookout for some new early learning apps. Not just for preschool but also for our Kindergarten and First Grade iPad classrooms too. Last Spring I heard about Tiggly apps ( https://www.tiggly.com/ ). Tiggly is a series of apps developed for kiddos aged 2 up to about 8: Tiggly Shapes, Tiggly Math, and Tiggly Words. Each series contains 3 different apps. Along with the apps, they have physical manipulatives that interact with the iPad's screen (available for Android and Kindle Fire also). The manipulatives are large enough for little hands to easily manage. These manipulatives have little silicone touch points so they won't damage the screen. Manipulatives don't require WiFi, Bluetooth, or batteries to use. The apps can also be used without the manipulatives - just your finger! Users can also set other languages for kids to learn as they play: English, Spanish, Fre