Apps-the bang for your buck

It has been fun looking for apps for my iPad. I am excited by the ones that I have found. I have been very strategic about what I download, and even more judicious about any that I have actually bought. My goals right now in my class are to integrate the use of the iPad into our normal routines and learning blocks. It is still a novelty and so of course each day there is a gathering around the daily schedule to see who are the lucky few that get their time at the "iPad Work Station". When I introduced the iPad to my students I emphasized that it wasn't a toy. I call it a "work" station, because I want them to understand the difference between a learning mode and an entertainment mode. In kindergarten the lines between play and work are blurred. I want our 'work' to be fun, but I want my kindergartners to understand that the learning process truly is work. At some point every learner reaches the threshold of having to struggle with a concept, and that work ethic that we try to create during the course of our day gives these young learners the mental stamina to power through to understanding.

Right now just about ANYTHING the kids are working on is a pure delight. It is the newness factor that every teacher adores when a new activity is introduced to a class. But the true value of any learning activity is whether the students will stay with the activity long enough to garner the desired learning, and then too, if their time doing the activity was the best use of instructional time.

I am not an advocate of 'busy work'. If the learning is not almost blindingly apparent, it is most likely NOT the best use of our instructional day. Kindergartners will do just about ANYTHING you ask them to do if you present it with enough pizazz.( that is why I love those little kids so much). But just as I try to make sure that every learning station( I call them stations rather than centers) has a strong learning objective, I want also, to be very selective about what I choose to have them do on the iPad.

For this week I didn't want to give them too many choices. Five year olds like to explore. They will push( or touch, or tap) just about anything that is put in front of them. I am sure they will discover how to navigate through these apps better than I can, but for now I want to just get them used to the basic feel of the iPad so that when we 'buckle down' and work towards some more specific learning goals, they will be ready to WORK not PLAY.