Starting Strong

One of the biggest questions that I have had, and one that I have spent time thinking about with my students is how do you use tech in the classroom without losing them to the screen :). The best answer I have so far is setting clear expectations and using my teacher toolbox of classroom management strategies.

For starts pick one tech tool, whether it be laptops, chromebooks, iPads or whatever else your school might have. Don’t try to introduce it all at once!! Let you students get good at not just using it but also at hearing you while they use it. In my classroom we have a class set of iPads and even though there are other tech tools available to us it is the one I start with.

We begin not with how to use an app but rather how do we get our iPads, how do we care for them (plug them in, carry them, etc.) and a skill that I teach my student is flipping them upside down when I am talking. With first graders this may seem unnecessary but it helps everyone have a more successful year if they know what I expect. I take time to just teach these skills so once we actually start to use them we can get right into the fun parts 🙂

Then and only then do we learn how to turn the iPads on and starting getting into them! I start with one app, Seesaw, and we really learn how to use it and create on it! Then we move on from there. I am a firm believer in move slow to move fast!