iPads In Use At St. John’s Area School!



The students and staff at SJAS started the school year with a new learning tool. Through a very generous, anonymous donation, SJAS received ten iPad computers for use in their classrooms.

Planning for the use of these new computer tools began as soon as the school found out about the donation. All of the SJAS staff (teachers and support staff) attended training this summer through Atomic Learning from Little Falls. Teachers then spent time deciding what applications should be added to the iPads that would enhance their curriculum and lesson plans. Math, reading, science, grammar, spelling programs, Google Earth, and many other applications were added to the computers.

The ten iPads travel as a set throughout all of the classrooms from preschool to sixth grade on a weekly schedule. This allows the SJAS teachers to plan their weekly lesson plan knowing exactly when the computers will be in their classroom. Students look forward to iPad day they get to study and learn with the help of the iPads.

In a recent interview, Mary Sabin, the Principal at St. John’s Area School, shared some of the ways that the iPads are used in a typical week. In a preschool classroom they may be used to help teach the alphabet. Fourth graders are working on NFL geography this fall. They can take a virtual tour of NFL stadiums around the country and Mr. Lyman, 4th grade teacher, then builds geography lessons and math problems around what they have learned about the stadium. The iPads had a leaf identification application loaded on them that allows students to take a picture of a leaf with the iPad and it generates a list of possible trees that the leaf might have grown on. Students use the Google Earth application to find countries and cities around the world.

Teachers take a few minutes each week to log how the iPads have been used in their classroom. This log allows parents to see how the iPads are being used in learning as well as allowing teachers to share with each other how they are using them.

Ms. Sabin has a goal of adding 10 more iPads to the school set so there will be one computer per student as the computers travel through classrooms. A grant proposal is being written for submission to a technology grant that is available for Catholic schools in the Diocese of St. Cloud. Any donations from the community that would add to the iPad fund would be greatly appreciated as well.

Hats off to the person who donated the iPads and the staff at St. John’s Area School who have worked hard and planned well for the best use of this new learning opportunity for their students.