The iPads are coming to Marion Street School

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“Some of the Apps will be student-specific and some will be for the general population,” Traversa said. If only a few students have difficulty mastering something like cursive, they can work with an App that helps them improve their cursive while the rest of their class works on something else.

“It’s a great experience for the students because the middle schools and high school have iPads,” Traversa said, “but no one on the elementary level does yet.” The teachers said that their students have been eagerly awaiting the iPads’ arrival since Oct. 1.

Director of Communication and Technology Paul Lynch said he wasn’t focusing on adding any iPads at the elementary level at this time, but added it won’t be a problem to add the 30 new devices to the district’s server. “It’s great that these kids have this opportunity,” he said.

In the years to come, Lynch said, more and more iPads will be coming into the district’s elementary schools and he’s interested to see how they are used this year at Marion Street. He added that kids are so already so familiar with the technology, which is why using them makes sense.

“I feel like they’re at a point where their parents are buying them iPads at home,” Schorr said. “We can really teach them how to use it at home and make it really worth their parents’ money.”

When the iPads arrive, the teachers will show their students the proper way to carry, charge and care for their new learning tools. The three teachers have roughly $10,000 remaining on the grant, which will be used for purchasing the Apps.

“The amount of information that we can basically have in their laps is really nice,” Osborne said.

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