Tablet learning has already been fully integrated into the daily classroom activity at Notre Dame’s lower division, which includes students in junior-kindergarten through fifth grade.
In two separate sessions, the teachers and staff received a "tabletful" of information from a number of in-house volunteer presenters, including middle-school teacher Kelly Patterson, who provided an overview on the panoply of education apps available from Google; computer-science teacher Katrina Palushaj, who discussed LanSchool, which is software that allows teachers to monitor students' activity and improve learning in a digital classroom; and upper-school math teacher Dan Staniszewski, who presented information on the innovative "flipped-classroom" concept that currently is catching fire across the U.S.
Brandon Jezdimir, vice principal of the middle school and a Tech-Mania organizer, said the day was designed to "help integrate technology thoroughly in the classroom as NDPMA goes 1-to-1" with tablets and computers.
Notre Dame currently is in the process of bringing the school fully into 1-to-1, with a tablet pilot program slated to get underway in the middle and upper divisions during this semester. The school's lower division, which educates students in junior-kindergarten through fifth grade, has been working with iPads in the classroom since last semester.
In fact, with at least a couple of months technology-integration experience already under their belts, lower-division teachers Donna Stuk and Allison Pearsall will be conducting their own session today for fellow teachers on Socrative, a software application focused on giving them the ability to even better engage their students through educational exercises and games using smartphones, laptops and tablets.
The day began with Mass conducted for the entire faculty and staff. School resumed for students January 8.