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Art teacher Jamie Baker’s third- to fifth-grade students are using iPods and Macintosh laptops to create projects, complete activities and deepen their learning.
It’s part of Baker’s “mini studios” approach to her classroom, and it will only be enhanced next year.
That’s when the Tupelo Public School District will provide Apple laptops to all sixth- to 12th grade students and computer carts of 80 laptops each to its kindergarten to fifth-grade schools.
“Computers are what our students know,” Baker said. “They are growing up in a completely digital world, and we created it for them. Our job is to figure out what is important for them to learn and how to teach that in the environment they’re in.”
Baker was ahead of the curve. She applied for and received a grant from the Association for Excellence in Education that allowed her to purchase two iPod Touches, in addition to other equipment, for her classroom. Her goal was to create a bank of podcasts of her lessons that students could watch at any time on the iPod to get additional instruction.
“They could have me teach them a specific skill without me even speaking to them,” Baker said. “With the two iPods, I could basically be in three places at once.”
She quickly discovered other uses for the iPod Touch. It has applications with video lessons, games that allow students to create art and encyclopedias about great artists.
Then as the district began exploring its new computer initiative, Baker was given access to Apple laptops at various times as part of the program’s trial. Before the end of the semester, she’ll receive her own laptop, as will all of the district’s teachers.
Her students have used those computers to create digital projects. They’re currently making digital stories: drawing illustrations, taking photographs of their art and importing them to the computer, creating background music, narrating their stories and publishing them in iTunes.
“It gives them a different standard for doing their work,” Baker said. “Their reason for doing well is for themselves, not for their teachers.”
The concept ties in with Baker’s mini studios classroom that was created last year thanks to another grant from AEE. After hearing a brief lesson from Baker, students have the freedom to work in a variety of studios – drawing, weaving, standing painting, sitting painting, clay or print making, art appreciation research, etc. – spread throughout the classroom. The iPods and the computer projects are two new stations.
“I feel like I’m getting to reach every single child in a way that best meets their needs,” Baker said. “I’m trying to figure out what art is going to mean in the life of each child.”
Baker said that one of the exciting results of using the technology has been seeing students become teachers while trying to help each other learn the new programs.
The use of the new Apple laptops at Rankin has extended beyond Baker’s classroom.
Third-grade teachers Kim Jenkins and Marla Gray have used the laptops to have their students create podcasts with their vocabulary words.
Each student was assigned a word. He or she then drew a picture or took a photograph to represent that word and then narrated the word’s definition, its synonyms and antonyms and an example sentence.
The students’ creations were turned into a podcast that the kids can watch in their classroom throughout the week to review their new words.
“You feel intimidated at first, but it was not as hard as I thought it would be,” Gray said of creating the podcast. “To see the children excited and learning from it is great.”
Rankin Principal Brenda Johnson said the use of the computers and iPods optimizes learning and makes it more fun for the students.
“They are engaged, they are excited, and it is relevant to them,” Johnson said. “It gives them that interactive tool that allows them to have ownership of their own learning.”
Contact Chris Kieffer at (662) 678-1590 or at chris.kieffer@djournal.com.
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