Reply to iPad use at Dorothy Hamm Middle School -- does it get better?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My child is in the 6th grade at DHMS. After helping her study for two tests this weekend, and realizing the only materials are in game-like apps, I looked at her APS iPad usage, and she's on it during almost all of the day. I thought maybe they were using it just to upload materials to Canvas, or while the teacher was working with small groups, but this looks like it's all on the iPad, unless she's in PE or at lunch. Math looks almost entirely on the iPad, she has a few pieces of paper in her binder but not much. For the two tests she had, the studying seemed unhelpful in that it was one question a screen at a time, and then the question disappeared and you could never go back to the answer to actually learn the material. They were cute games, but not helpful. Is this the nature of the beast in middle school in 2023? Or will it get better as the year goes on? I don't even need text books, but there has to be some kind of lecture, take some notes or complete a study guide, review the materials handed out, something other than what is on Canvas, right? Her grades are ultimately fine right now, because a lot seems to be content they had in the 4th and 5th grades, but I imagine at some point there has to be more, please tell me this happens? Please? [/quote]

I have a 9th grader who just finished Swanson, and a younger sibling who is in 7th grade at Swanson now. This has been our experience the entire way through Swanson. The online testing really bothers me, because the kids can't see what questions they got wrong and neither can the parents. My daughter says that even with the new "retake" policy, they can't see the test questions that they got wrong-- the teacher assigns them some extra problems, and then they have to retake the entire test.

You are also correct that many of the tests are given in a way that the kids can't go back and change their answers. My 7th grader has test anxiety and this was a big issue for us last year-- she would get nervous and draw a blank, but then remember the answer a few questions later but couldn't go back. After a few panic attacks, I talked to the teachers, and a few were willing to change the test app setting to allow the kids to go back through the questions to check their answers. One teacher didn't even realize that the app was set up this way.[/quote]

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