Arlington "options" elementary schools - screen use?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS doesn’t use screens at all.

Wow. Sounds amazing!!

It is. No idea why APS doesn’t duplicate the model for mainstream schools. I think it’s more work for the teachers maybe?

+1. Demand for ATS is huge. I wish they at least would have a 2nd school just like it.

Because it would empty all the involved parents from mainstream elementary schools.

Leftover schools would plummet. Same as HBW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ATS doesn’t use screens at all.

ATS definitely uses Dreambox and Lexia on iPads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand people who approach this issue in such a black and white way.

I have a much older kid who had to learn his math facts the "old fashioned" ways. Flashcards, times tables, etc. Just repetition and memorization. It was pretty brutal.

Guess what they have on the terrible ipads. Something called Reflex that makes learning their math facts pretty painless. Such an improvement. It's an example of good use of technology.

Don't ask or look for no screens. Ask how the screens are being used.

Gamification of everything is making them unable to handle life. Sometimes life and work is boring and brutal.

To say nothing of the fact that memorization and drilling are core cognitive processes that, when developed as youths, pay dividends in adult life. People used to memorize entire long blocks of poetry or prose. Avoiding it altogether does kids a disservice. I would love to see data comparing reflex vs rote memorization for math facts. I suspect memorization will almost always win.

Let me just chime in to say Reflex is horrible for remediation tool especially for a child with dyscalculia. I was taught math the traditional way and have dyscalculia but moved pass it thanks to writing out math problems on paper. Reflex goes super fast and should be eliminated. My child with same disability in math is struggling thanks to Ipad overuse. Dreambox and Edmentum are decent to supplement work, but should not be over used.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand people who approach this issue in such a black and white way.

I have a much older kid who had to learn his math facts the "old fashioned" ways. Flashcards, times tables, etc. Just repetition and memorization. It was pretty brutal.

Guess what they have on the terrible ipads. Something called Reflex that makes learning their math facts pretty painless. Such an improvement. It's an example of good use of technology.

Don't ask or look for no screens. Ask how the screens are being used.

Gamification of everything is making them unable to handle life. Sometimes life and work is boring and brutal.

To say nothing of the fact that memorization and drilling are core cognitive processes that, when developed as youths, pay dividends in adult life. People used to memorize entire long blocks of poetry or prose. Avoiding it altogether does kids a disservice. I would love to see data comparing reflex vs rote memorization for math facts. I suspect memorization will almost always win.

Let me just chime in to say Reflex is horrible for remediation tool especially for a child with dyscalculia. I was taught math the traditional way and have dyscalculia but moved pass it thanks to writing out math problems on paper. Reflex goes super fast and should be eliminated. My child with same disability in math is struggling thanks to Ipad overuse. Dreambox and Edmentum are decent to supplement work, but should not be over used.

Reflex is basically math facts flash cards. It was fabulous for both my kids. The fact it's fast means kids can knock out a math fact practice quickly, getting through many facts and automating recall. It wastes far less time than Dreambox, which is laggy and slow and not challenging. I don't think Reflex is meant for remediation. It's for practicing math facts quickly and speeding up recall. It's literally my favorite APS app.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand people who approach this issue in such a black and white way.

I have a much older kid who had to learn his math facts the "old fashioned" ways. Flashcards, times tables, etc. Just repetition and memorization. It was pretty brutal.

Guess what they have on the terrible ipads. Something called Reflex that makes learning their math facts pretty painless. Such an improvement. It's an example of good use of technology.

Don't ask or look for no screens. Ask how the screens are being used.

Gamification of everything is making them unable to handle life. Sometimes life and work is boring and brutal.

To say nothing of the fact that memorization and drilling are core cognitive processes that, when developed as youths, pay dividends in adult life. People used to memorize entire long blocks of poetry or prose. Avoiding it altogether does kids a disservice. I would love to see data comparing reflex vs rote memorization for math facts. I suspect memorization will almost always win.

Let me just chime in to say Reflex is horrible for remediation tool especially for a child with dyscalculia. I was taught math the traditional way and have dyscalculia but moved pass it thanks to writing out math problems on paper. Reflex goes super fast and should be eliminated. My child with same disability in math is struggling thanks to Ipad overuse. Dreambox and Edmentum are decent to supplement work, but should not be over used.

Reflex is basically math facts flash cards. It was fabulous for both my kids. The fact it's fast means kids can knock out a math fact practice quickly, getting through many facts and automating recall. It wastes far less time than Dreambox, which is laggy and slow and not challenging. I don't think Reflex is meant for remediation. It's for practicing math facts quickly and speeding up recall. It's literally my favorite APS app.

APS misuses and overuses these apps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS doesn’t use screens at all.

Wow. Sounds amazing!!

It is. No idea why APS doesn’t duplicate the model for mainstream schools. I think it’s more work for the teachers maybe?

Is this really true? That they don’t use iPads at all in any grade at ATS? I’ve never heard that before, and the ATS website says students are issued iPads. So they just literally never use them?

In ATS iPads are only for homework (something else that other elementary schools do differently: no homework).

Again wrong. ATS students do not use iPads for homework. They do not bring iPads home. They use them in the class room.

Just wanted to provide more clarification. ATS students use their iPads for lexia, dreambox and reflex. The default is not to bring iPads home but some teachers allow parents to request the iPad coming home so that their kids can spend additional time on these apps. For lexia they are only allowed to use it for 20 mins a day I believe. Not sure about dreambox and reflex. I sometimes wonder who these ppl are on dcurbanmom that completely make up stuff. It’s pretty pathetic that someone would pretend to be an ATS parent just to stir up discussion on this site. Are people that lonely and bored?

These are the exact apps every other elementary school uses iPads for. Ours does not send the iPads home. Or if they do, it just goes back and forth and is never used at our home.

[Anonymous]

Parents should have access to “lightspeed” which lets you see exactly what your student did on their iPad and their screen time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents should have access to “lightspeed” which lets you see exactly what your student did on their iPad and their screen time.

how do you find that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS doesn’t use screens at all.

Wow. Sounds amazing!!

It is. No idea why APS doesn’t duplicate the model for mainstream schools. I think it’s more work for the teachers maybe?

Is this really true? That they don’t use iPads at all in any grade at ATS? I’ve never heard that before, and the ATS website says students are issued iPads. So they just literally never use them?

In ATS iPads are only for homework (something else that other elementary schools do differently: no homework).

Again wrong. ATS students do not use iPads for homework. They do not bring iPads home. They use them in the class room.

Just wanted to provide more clarification. ATS students use their iPads for lexia, dreambox and reflex. The default is not to bring iPads home but some teachers allow parents to request the iPad coming home so that their kids can spend additional time on these apps. For lexia they are only allowed to use it for 20 mins a day I believe. Not sure about dreambox and reflex. I sometimes wonder who these ppl are on dcurbanmom that completely make up stuff. It’s pretty pathetic that someone would pretend to be an ATS parent just to stir up discussion on this site. Are people that lonely and bored?

These are the exact apps every other elementary school uses iPads for. Ours does not send the iPads home. Or if they do, it just goes back and forth and is never used at our home.

Yes I never said ATS was special or different from other Arlington schools when it comes to apps. I was responding to the PP claiming that ATS doesn’t use the iPad at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS doesn’t use screens at all.

Umm are ur kids at ATS? ATS students use screens - specifically Lexia and dream box.

Yeah I was like wait is this an ats parent?? I’m not one but I did a tour there last year and they definitely said they use the iPads and couldn’t compare with whether they use them more or less than other APS schools.

Op I am extremely low screen at home and in my dream world there would be very little of it at school but I have felt good about my child’s experience at cardinal (likely similar to discovery and others) - they do use it some for math and phonics but they don’t bring it home (in second now) and the majority of the day is not that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS doesn’t use screens at all.

Wow. Sounds amazing!!

It is. No idea why APS doesn’t duplicate the model for mainstream schools. I think it’s more work for the teachers maybe?

Is this really true? That they don’t use iPads at all in any grade at ATS? I’ve never heard that before, and the ATS website says students are issued iPads. So they just literally never use them?

In ATS iPads are only for homework (something else that other elementary schools do differently: no homework).

Again wrong. ATS students do not use iPads for homework. They do not bring iPads home. They use them in the class room.

Just wanted to provide more clarification. ATS students use their iPads for lexia, dreambox and reflex. The default is not to bring iPads home but some teachers allow parents to request the iPad coming home so that their kids can spend additional time on these apps. For lexia they are only allowed to use it for 20 mins a day I believe. Not sure about dreambox and reflex. I sometimes wonder who these ppl are on dcurbanmom that completely make up stuff. It’s pretty pathetic that someone would pretend to be an ATS parent just to stir up discussion on this site. Are people that lonely and bored?

This sounds very similar to my child’s neighborhood APS school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS doesn’t use screens at all.

Umm are ur kids at ATS? ATS students use screens - specifically Lexia and dream box.

and Reflex. Can confirm. (ATS parent)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS doesn’t use screens at all.

Wow. Sounds amazing!!

It is. No idea why APS doesn’t duplicate the model for mainstream schools. I think it’s more work for the teachers maybe?

Is this really true? That they don’t use iPads at all in any grade at ATS? I’ve never heard that before, and the ATS website says students are issued iPads. So they just literally never use them?

In ATS iPads are only for homework (something else that other elementary schools do differently: no homework).

Again wrong. ATS students do not use iPads for homework. They do not bring iPads home. They use them in the class room.

Just wanted to provide more clarification. ATS students use their iPads for lexia, dreambox and reflex. The default is not to bring iPads home but some teachers allow parents to request the iPad coming home so that their kids can spend additional time on these apps. For lexia they are only allowed to use it for 20 mins a day I believe. Not sure about dreambox and reflex. I sometimes wonder who these ppl are on dcurbanmom that completely make up stuff. It’s pretty pathetic that someone would pretend to be an ATS parent just to stir up discussion on this site. Are people that lonely and bored?

These are the exact apps every other elementary school uses iPads for. Ours does not send the iPads home. Or if they do, it just goes back and forth and is never used at our home.

Yes I never said ATS was special or different from other Arlington schools when it comes to apps. I was responding to the PP claiming that ATS doesn’t use the iPad at all.

They were clearly lying to stir the pot.

[Anonymous]

I don;t know the answer, but lots of people really dislike Discovery, so maybe apply to the option schools just to avoid Discovery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread is people talking out of their asses with their own biases, but what else is new on DCUM.

Would be interesting to see some actual data on the math fact question.

I work in LCPS, but my experience has been that math fact fluency has gone down noticeably since they stopped giving timed math facts quizzes. I guess they decided it was too stressful for kids who didn’t know their math facts? I saw it even with my own children - one who went through before the change and one after. Now instead they get to the upper elementary grades not even knowing basic mult/div facts and sometimes can’t even add/subtract properly! But I’m sure glad we didn’t hurt their feelings with timed quizzes in 2nd grade!