Apple Invasion at Palmetto

There has been a mini Apple invasion at school. We now have 18 iPods that are getting regular circulation. There are two teachers with iPods in their classroom, one teacher with 6 and another with 12. We are using the library iPods in a variety of classrooms and subjects. One of the special education classes has used them for math lessons including coins, telling time, multiplication, addition and subtraction. We used Coins Free, Coin Math, TellTime Lite, Pop Math Lite, Math Drills Lite and Times Table Free. I used them for a 7th grade library lesson on Poetry. I introduced poetry with examples first then the students used the Verses app to create their own poem. Verses is a magnetic poetry app. I heard lots of "This is cool" and "I love this!". It is hard to get this response from teens when it comes to poetry. In 6th grade social studies the students used the app Greek Gods Lite to research mythology and create posters. In science class students used flashcards to study for a test, the Kindle app for reading during SSR and the camera feature for taking photos of biotic and abiotic environments around our school. Several teachers have also used them to record tests for students that need oral testing.

Next week one of the 7th grade English teachers will be using the new app 3:15 that features teasers, short stories and a video ending for works by Patrick Carman. We are currently developing a lesson around the app. I will post an update after the lesson.

Another exciting addition to our tech collection is 10 iPads. Six of the iPads will be housed in a resource classroom for math lessons and reading on the Kindle app. I'm hoping the other four will remain in the library for lessons and teacher check out. Purchasing iPads for all of the district administrators is currently in discussions. I volunteered to train them if the purchase is made. Apple training was quoted at $2,000 so I'm hoping that I will get this opportunity. I saw this as another way to advocate for librarians in our district.

Our chorus teacher just received a Mac. She is very excited because she wants to use Garage Band with her students performances.

A non-Apple purchase is a set of Dell Latitude netbooks for teachers to check out. This is our first netbook cart and I've been working on them the last few days. They should be ready to use tomorrow and I already have lots of teachers waiting in line to use them.

It is great to see all of this technology coming to our school and being integrated into our student learning. I am also excited that I've played a role in making requests, orders and preparation for the use of the new technology.