Tool 10

This tool is a no brainer. Lucky for me, my grade level was a PTL grant recipient in 09-10. It was a difficult year learning so much in such a short period of time, while trying to run regular classroom business, but it was well worth it. Using the itouches in class along with the Macs, was such a great addition. I am glad that I had the EXPERIENCE of finding good ways to use them. I believe each teacher will need to explore the best way for their classroom. I used them whole group, one on one in small group, paired work, and small group. It is great motivation for the students. Guidelines must be clear and enforced early on. Kids are so tech savvy. They really know the ins and outs. My 11 year old is great at finding fun apps, but there are countless educational apps. I really liked downloading podcasts. It is really easy to create your own and sync them. The imovies we did in tool 7 will sync for easy sharing. I had a chance to play on the ipad this summer, it is just a big cool itouch. The screen is soooo nice though, it gets a little tough using the tiny screen of an itouch, but the portability is priceless!