Carolyn Gudmunseth teaches grades 4 and 5 at Tansor Elementary in the Cowichan School District. This is her fourth year in the district. This year her goal was to gain more knowledge on using assistive technology in her classroom with her diverse learners. She applied to SET-BC to receive iPads to support this goal. She was supported by a SET-BC Educator and her District to take on this project.
Throughout the year, Carolyn has used many Apps. They used the iPads for all of their routine activities (Spelling City, Prodigy Math, Study Ladder) as well as researching the meaning of vocabulary for their novel study “Amal Unbound.”
Students were given choice as to how they wanted to show their learning. They used the iOS accessibility features as needed. The following are some of the Apps the class used this year:
PagesPopplet Lite: Language Arts and ScienceChatterpix: Language Arts and ScienceAdobe Spark: Language ArtsKahoot: Science and Language ArtsELLMerge Cube: ScienceBook Creator: Language Arts
Any students who felt they would be more successful using the iPad to show their learning were given this option. This was particularly helpful for several students who struggled with written output. They would use voice-to-text to get their ideas on paper and a drastic improvement was seen in both the quality of their work and their enthusiasm to write.
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/pages
The teacher used Kahoots as formative assessment for the Body Systems unit as well as a wrap up activity for our Novel Study “Amal Unbound.” It was a big hit!
https://kahoot.com
Students were introduced to the Merge Cube by starting the unit on the body systems. Mr. Body App used to use in conjunction with a Merge Cube to show the different systems. It was a great hook activity.
https://mergeedu.com/cube
The Book Creator App was used to create ebooks on a novel study “Amal Unbound.” In this project they chose a quote from the novel and painted a picture in their mind. They then drew a picture to go with that quote and finally stated a connection they made over the passage. The teacher was later going to use this App to make ebooks on historical events in Chinese Canadian History but it did not happen due to the pandemic.
Student Project – Amal Unbound
https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/book-creator-one/id661166101
Many students have benefitted from the use of iPads and in particular a child with ASD was able to use Chatterkids, Raz Kids and Epic during the Covid-19 pandemic. All of the students are currently working with Khan Academy and IXL Math in addition to the above apps.
We want to thank Carolyn and her class for allowing us to be part of their learning.
Carolyn Gudmunseth teaches grades 4 and 5 at Tansor Elementary in the Cowichan School District. This is her fourth year in the district. This year her goal was to gain more knowledge on using assistive technology in her classroom with her diverse learners. She applied to SET-BC to receive iPads to support this goal. She was supported by a SET-BC Educator and her District to take on this project.
