Sidwell/Beauvoir/Potomac/Langley - technology in LS

[Anonymous]

If you have a young child in one of these schools, can you tell me how technology (iPad/chromebook) is used and how prevalent it is? I am not a Luddite, but I would prefer no more than 1 hour of screen use a day in the school, especially for younger grades. If I wanted more, I would send to public for free!

Also, does your school teach good handwriting and cursive? Please name your school as I am trying to figure out which one(s) to apply to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have a young child in one of these schools, can you tell me how technology (iPad/chromebook) is used and how prevalent it is? I am not a Luddite, but I would prefer no more than 1 hour of screen use a day in the school, especially for younger grades. If I wanted more, I would send to public for free!

Also, does your school teach good handwriting and cursive? Please name your school as I am trying to figure out which one(s) to apply to.

The catholic schools should fit what you are looking for

[Anonymous]

Cursive is dead, seriously. Schools teach it for a couple weeks in third grade and then kids never use it again. By the time you get to serious work in middle and high school, it's all on computers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cursive is dead, seriously. Schools teach it for a couple weeks in third grade and then kids never use it again. By the time you get to serious work in middle and high school, it's all on computers.

WRONG!! There is significant evidence that when schools stopped teaching cursive in grade school, kids brains failed to make some very key connections and damaged their ability to learn in later years. Privates, the best ones at least, all started teaching cursive again in the past decade. Both my kids had it. The standard is Cursive without Tears or something like that (it’s been a few years for my kids).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cursive is dead, seriously. Schools teach it for a couple weeks in third grade and then kids never use it again. By the time you get to serious work in middle and high school, it's all on computers.

WRONG!! There is significant evidence that when schools stopped teaching cursive in grade school, kids brains failed to make some very key connections and damaged their ability to learn in later years. Privates, the best ones at least, all started teaching cursive again in the past decade. Both my kids had it. The standard is Cursive without Tears or something like that (it’s been a few years for my kids).

Here you go -there are many more examples but start here:

Learning to write in cursive is shown to improve brain development in the areas of thinking, language and working memory. Cursive handwriting stimulates brain synapses and synchronicity between the left and right hemispheres, something absent from printing and
- https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/04/30/should-schools-require-children-to-learn-cursive/the-benefits-of-cursive-go-beyond-writing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cursive is dead, seriously. Schools teach it for a couple weeks in third grade and then kids never use it again. By the time you get to serious work in middle and high school, it's all on computers.

WRONG!! There is significant evidence that when schools stopped teaching cursive in grade school, kids brains failed to make some very key connections and damaged their ability to learn in later years. Privates, the best ones at least, all started teaching cursive again in the past decade. Both my kids had it. The standard is Cursive without Tears or something like that (it’s been a few years for my kids).

This is true, but unfortunately, the PP is right. Private schools teach cursive in the 3rd grade and then, aside from a scribble signature, most kids never or rarely use it again.

This has been going on for quite some time, unfortunately. Most 25- 30 year olds that I know still write in block print handwriting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cursive is dead, seriously. Schools teach it for a couple weeks in third grade and then kids never use it again. By the time you get to serious work in middle and high school, it's all on computers.

WRONG!! There is significant evidence that when schools stopped teaching cursive in grade school, kids brains failed to make some very key connections and damaged their ability to learn in later years. Privates, the best ones at least, all started teaching cursive again in the past decade. Both my kids had it. The standard is Cursive without Tears or something like that (it’s been a few years for my kids).

Here you go -there are many more examples but start here:

Learning to write in cursive is shown to improve brain development in the areas of thinking, language and working memory. Cursive handwriting stimulates brain synapses and synchronicity between the left and right hemispheres, something absent from printing and
- https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/04/30/should-schools-require-children-to-learn-cursive/the-benefits-of-cursive-go-beyond-writing

Also:

Research shows that learning to write in cursive offers brain benefits to kids that they don't get from printing letters or keyboarding. An article from Psychology Today states that learning to write in cursive is an important tool for cognitive development. Specifically, cursive writing trains the brain to learn functional specialization, which is the capacity for optimal efficiency. When a child learns to read and write in cursive through consistent practice and repetition, he or she must effectively integrate fine motor skills with visual and tactile processing abilities. This multi-sensory experience supports cognitive function and development.
- https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704631504575531932754922518

Further, brain imaging studies reveal that multiple areas of brain become co-activated during learning of cursive writing of pseudo-letters, as opposed to typing or just visual practice. There is spill-over benefit for thinking skills used in reading and writing. Colleges began to see the effects on kids who weren’t taught cursive in the 1990s and studies were launched. Turns out learning cursive is extremely important to higher brain functionality.

Oh and the most widely used instruction method is “Handwriting without Tears”. Most good privates use it.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks everyone but I’m really interested in what each of these schools is doing specifically

[Anonymous]

Two kids in lower school at Potomac. Both spent significant amount of time on cursive in lower and middle. My kids loved it!

Technology is a specials ‘class’ - meeting 1-2 times a week teaching coding,
Robotics and good habits etc

Using tech is woven in to interdisciplinary areas (ie produce a news report for history class, record an interview with an ‘elder’ as part of community service learning, research a country using a specific website, use Google earth to understand longitude/latitude

Most of their academic work (language arts, math etc) is in pencil and paper.

[Anonymous]

Some of the English teachers at my kids "Big3" have their kids submit handwritten essays.

So, yes, still used by some. Personally, I think that is great.

[Anonymous]

I wish this post would have gotten more responses...I'm also very curious about the amount of screen time used in lower schools in Sidwell, Beauvoir, Sheridan, GDS, etc.

[Anonymous]

If your school teaches coding and robotics, when do they start introducing these topics?