iLEARN Using iPods

Imagine being a five year old entering a big building for the first time feeling extremely overwhelmed. You have no concept of letters, sounds, numbers and you feel like you don't belong. That is the way many of my students start school and it is my job to make learning fun and engaging for them. Practicing these skills sometimes becomes redundant and boring for the students. Using something like an iPod Touch device would open up so many possibilities with some of my neediest children. Each day my students work in individualized literacy and math stations around the room. At these stations they practice various reading and math skills. I would like to add iPods to several of these stations to make the student’s learning more engaging. For example, the word work station could have QR codes where the students scan the code using a QR Reader application on the iPod and the word and a sentence would be read to them. The listening station could be a place to watch an animated story after scanning a QR code that takes the student directly to a Safe Share link that I have created for them. At the ABC station the students would scan a QR code and it would take them to alphabet flash cards and interactive alphabet learning games. At the math station, the students could use the QR Reader to scan QR codes that read numbers and help them practice their counting skills. Or the students could open up the rainbow writing application and practice the number formation and use it to write equations. The possibilities are endless. We live in an age of technology. Please help my students have the opportunity to use this technology to make them feel more successful at school.