APE and tech (APS)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of all the things I care about, elementary school iPad usage is the least of my concerns. If APE talked to their teachers and principals, they would find that even in upper elem, they aren’t even used that much. It’s mostly used for differentiation, so that teachers can put the class on Lexia or Dreambox so that they can do small group work. Anything more will cost money for more teachers to supervise, and we all know what’s going on with the budget. And yes, many standardized tests are administered electronically. You will have to go to Richmond for that.

So tired of APE taking all the oxygen out of the room, so we can’t talk about more salient issues affecting APS. ArlNow is now their mouthpiece.

APS pays teachers less than relative to other districts, we have mainstreamed kids with challenges, and ramped up testing. There will be times when the teacher needs to focus on on a small group, often times this will consume a large portion of the day, so what would the kids do before iPads? They would watch a movie. Or worksheets. This may or may not be better, but the real problem is the classes are too large now, and there’s too much differentiation effort to allow them to actually teach the class as one

You think a kindergarten teacher will put most of their class on an iPad so they can focus on a small group for a large portion of the day??? I don't think so. That's not how kindergarten kids work. Their attention spans don't last long at all.

They’re called digital pacifiers for a reason.

+1 and when you try to take them away from some kids they have a major meltdown

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of all the things I care about, elementary school iPad usage is the least of my concerns. If APE talked to their teachers and principals, they would find that even in upper elem, they aren’t even used that much. It’s mostly used for differentiation, so that teachers can put the class on Lexia or Dreambox so that they can do small group work. Anything more will cost money for more teachers to supervise, and we all know what’s going on with the budget. And yes, many standardized tests are administered electronically. You will have to go to Richmond for that.

So tired of APE taking all the oxygen out of the room, so we can’t talk about more salient issues affecting APS. ArlNow is now their mouthpiece.

APS pays teachers less than relative to other districts, we have mainstreamed kids with challenges, and ramped up testing. There will be times when the teacher needs to focus on on a small group, often times this will consume a large portion of the day, so what would the kids do before iPads? They would watch a movie. Or worksheets. This may or may not be better, but the real problem is the classes are too large now, and there’s too much differentiation effort to allow them to actually teach the class as one

You think a kindergarten teacher will put most of their class on an iPad so they can focus on a small group for a large portion of the day??? I don't think so. That's not how kindergarten kids work. Their attention spans don't last long at all.

They’re called digital pacifiers for a reason.

Yeah, except no small group of kindergarteners can focus for a large part of the day. That's just not how a kindergarten class functions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of all the things I care about, elementary school iPad usage is the least of my concerns. If APE talked to their teachers and principals, they would find that even in upper elem, they aren’t even used that much. It’s mostly used for differentiation, so that teachers can put the class on Lexia or Dreambox so that they can do small group work. Anything more will cost money for more teachers to supervise, and we all know what’s going on with the budget. And yes, many standardized tests are administered electronically. You will have to go to Richmond for that.

So tired of APE taking all the oxygen out of the room, so we can’t talk about more salient issues affecting APS. ArlNow is now their mouthpiece.

APS pays teachers less than relative to other districts, we have mainstreamed kids with challenges, and ramped up testing. There will be times when the teacher needs to focus on on a small group, often times this will consume a large portion of the day, so what would the kids do before iPads? They would watch a movie. Or worksheets. This may or may not be better, but the real problem is the classes are too large now, and there’s too much differentiation effort to allow them to actually teach the class as one

You think a kindergarten teacher will put most of their class on an iPad so they can focus on a small group for a large portion of the day??? I don't think so. That's not how kindergarten kids work. Their attention spans don't last long at all.

They’re called digital pacifiers for a reason.

Yeah, except no small group of kindergarteners can focus for a large part of the day. That's just not how a kindergarten class functions.

Of course not. And yet we made it work without iPads for decades. Let's do that and fix the problems that teachers are forced to use iPads to paper over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s significant that APE and AEA are in agreement with this. I support it as well as APS staff/parent

I don't take educational "recommendations" from a lobbying group that twists the "science" to fit its agenda. No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s significant that APE and AEA are in agreement with this. I support it as well as APS staff/parent

I don't take educational "recommendations" from a lobbying group that twists the "science" to fit its agenda. No thanks.

+1

I don’t trust stealth Republicans no matter what they might say to embed themselves in the community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s significant that APE and AEA are in agreement with this. I support it as well as APS staff/parent

I don't take educational "recommendations" from a lobbying group that twists the "science" to fit its agenda. No thanks.

+1

I don’t trust stealth Republicans no matter what they might say to embed themselves in the community.

So is the head of the teachers' union a "stealth republican" then? Truly, there is no limit to APE's insidious, corrupting influence!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s significant that APE and AEA are in agreement with this. I support it as well as APS staff/parent

I don't take educational "recommendations" from a lobbying group that twists the "science" to fit its agenda. No thanks.

+1

I don’t trust stealth Republicans no matter what they might say to embed themselves in the community.

So is the head of the teachers' union a "stealth republican" then? Truly, there is no limit to APE's insidious, corrupting influence!

There's pretty wide consensus on this across the political spectrum and including teachers. Those objecting are doing so because they don't like APE. It's not rational.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone please clarify who the APE candidate is.

Kathleen: cozy with them
Chen: sounds like them
Zuraya: agrees with them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of all the things I care about, elementary school iPad usage is the least of my concerns. If APE talked to their teachers and principals, they would find that even in upper elem, they aren’t even used that much. It’s mostly used for differentiation, so that teachers can put the class on Lexia or Dreambox so that they can do small group work. Anything more will cost money for more teachers to supervise, and we all know what’s going on with the budget. And yes, many standardized tests are administered electronically. You will have to go to Richmond for that.

So tired of APE taking all the oxygen out of the room, so we can’t talk about more salient issues affecting APS. ArlNow is now their mouthpiece.

The head of AEA agrees with them! Everything on your list can be done with a class set and not 1-1. And no SOLs until grade 3.

+1 I’m fine with iPads in 3rd grade (the vast majority of kids know how to use them before then) I don’t think people realize how much other stuff is done on smartboards or monitors hooked up to laptops in APS elementary schools. All kids are looking at screens for a substantial amount of time each day.

Please. The issue is not that they are looking at a smartboard or monitor. It's the specific battle with the ipad. The discipline issues, the attention fragmentation from gamification, the cost of the devices, the amount of effort spent on making sure they're brought to school and charged up. All of it.

It’s both.

Is there really that much difference between looking at a smartboard and looking at a chalkboard?

[Anonymous]

While it is heartening to hear that current elementary school classrooms do not rely on tech, the damage is done for those of us with HSers who were given iPads in 2nd grade. Our kids were the guinea pigs that have shown how damaging this technology can be. And then the year-long COVID closure added to it. I don't always agree with APE, but I do agree on those 2 issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The iPads in APS are the only way my 1st and 4th grade gifted children are being challenged with differentiated work. If the iPads go, we need an actual gifted program or kids need to be grouped with academic peers. They also need real grades. What’s the point in working hard if the best mark you can get is “meets”.

Hmm. Learning, perhaps?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The iPads in APS are the only way my 1st and 4th grade gifted children are being challenged with differentiated work. If the iPads go, we need an actual gifted program or kids need to be grouped with academic peers. They also need real grades. What’s the point in working hard if the best mark you can get is “meets”.

Your kid isn’t getting any differentiation on the iPad. Any instructional program that they can progress in is capped at grade level. So they can get to the end faster, but then they’re just stuck in a holding pattern. I see this as an indictment of both the iPads and our sham of a gifted program.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s significant that APE and AEA are in agreement with this. I support it as well as APS staff/parent

I don't take educational "recommendations" from a lobbying group that twists the "science" to fit its agenda. No thanks.

+1

I don’t trust stealth Republicans no matter what they might say to embed themselves in the community.

Yeah, so when a stealth Republican finally comes out and says the 2020 election was not stolen and masking during COVID was the right thing to do, definitely pushback and refuse to agree with them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The iPads in APS are the only way my 1st and 4th grade gifted children are being challenged with differentiated work. If the iPads go, we need an actual gifted program or kids need to be grouped with academic peers. They also need real grades. What’s the point in working hard if the best mark you can get is “meets”.

Hmm. Learning, perhaps?

The problem is that many kids can "meet" 99% of grade level standards before the year even starts. So the report card doesn't reflect learning OR effort. At least with grades you could see that kids were putting in effort to earn the grade by completing assignments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of all the things I care about, elementary school iPad usage is the least of my concerns. If APE talked to their teachers and principals, they would find that even in upper elem, they aren’t even used that much. It’s mostly used for differentiation, so that teachers can put the class on Lexia or Dreambox so that they can do small group work. Anything more will cost money for more teachers to supervise, and we all know what’s going on with the budget. And yes, many standardized tests are administered electronically. You will have to go to Richmond for that.

So tired of APE taking all the oxygen out of the room, so we can’t talk about more salient issues affecting APS. ArlNow is now their mouthpiece.

APS pays teachers less than relative to other districts, we have mainstreamed kids with challenges, and ramped up testing. There will be times when the teacher needs to focus on on a small group, often times this will consume a large portion of the day, so what would the kids do before iPads? They would watch a movie. Or worksheets. This may or may not be better, but the real problem is the classes are too large now, and there’s too much differentiation effort to allow them to actually teach the class as one

You think a kindergarten teacher will put most of their class on an iPad so they can focus on a small group for a large portion of the day??? I don't think so. That's not how kindergarten kids work. Their attention spans don't last long at all.

They’re called digital pacifiers for a reason.

+1 and when you try to take them away from some kids they have a major meltdown

Like the meltdown APE is having over tech, lol