Working Memory

Do you have a student with poor working memory?

Do you remember the games we used to play as a young child?

I use the ipad with students who have poor working memory and difficulty sustaining attention. For 10 minutes every day they play the various memory apps available. They think it’s a “brain break” so 2 missions accomplished: memory and a reward. These apps also engage them in following directions, visual motor/”hand-eye” coordination, and specific instruction based on their needs.

Interactive Technologies in Art

Interactive technologies has been put to good use in the elementary art class. Mrs. Hardin who works with many special needs children has made technology an integral part of learning in the art classroom. In an effort to reach out to student, Mrs. Hardin has used her interactive white board and iPad devices regularly. Every class period starts with a fun interactive game on the interactive whiteboard. Students take turn mixing colors, finding different shapes, or playing memory games. This helps to engage students and is also used as a reward for the end of class to motivate them to work for a certain period of time. Students in class that have severe autism use the iPads to create drawings with a simple touch. This eliminates children not wanting to touch the art materials or putting art materials in their mouths. It still gives them a creative outlet while they are still learning how to use art materials appropriately.

Ground Rules Using Corkulous

During the first week of school the class used Corkulous to create their class ground rules. They used a post-it sticky for every ground rule they thought would be beneficial for the class.

Thank you to Mr. Donovan for a great idea!!!!!

ipads...not just for use with one student

ipads can be used in groups too!!!

Look how happy these boys look...they sat together, playing a variety of games, attending to each other for the entire time that ipad was in use!!!

They then talked about it for days!

Jamestown iPad Integration Project

Jamestown Elementary School started their journey to integrate iPads in the elementary classroom in May of 2010. We started with a focus on bringing math to life in the classroom with apps that help students practice math operations. We soon found new ways of integrating research, note taking, graphic organizing and presentation in the classroom across the curriculum. We are now integrating a variety of resources in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 5 into Science, Language Arts, Social Studies, Math learning and teaching. We will be sharing our implementation strategies and the apps we use on this blog.