iPad Surprise!

About Me:

My name is Jenn Manning and I am a 4th grade teacher at Two Springs Elementary in Bellevue, Nebraska.  This is my 7th year of teaching.  I have taught 4th grade for six years and I taught 2nd grade for one.  I earned my Bachelor's Degree for Elementary and Special Education from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 2007.  My Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction was completed through Wayne State College in 2011.  My entire teaching career has been at Two Springs. 

For six out of the seven years that I have been teaching, Sharae Geldes has taught along side of me.  Last year she was one of the six people chosen by our district to be a part of the iPad Academy.  She went through training and was then give the amazing opportunity to have an iPad for each student in her classroom.  Collaborating and teaching with Sharae as she took on this new learning adventure intrigued me.  Her students were making connections, learning, and sharing with each other as well as other students and people from all over the world!  What an amazing gift and opportunity she has given to her students!

iPads in the Classroom

Seeing how much iPads have impacted her teaching and the learning taking place in her classroom, inspired me to sign up for the Apple Foundations Training offered in the Summer of 2013.  After taking the course I became very excited about all of the possibilities iPads could open up for my students.  I applied in November of 2013 and received an email about three weeks later congratulating me on being accepted into the iPad Academy!

As ecstatic as I was, I had to keep it a secret because I had to find a creative way to share this amazing news with my students!  They have had the privilege of working on the iPads in Sharae's room because we rotate for Social Studies and Science.  Frequently I would hear comments such as, "Why can't we have the iPads?" "I wish we had a set of iPads like Mrs. Geldes."  Knowing how badly they wanted the iPads, I knew my iPad reveal had to be unbelievably amazing and over the top!

The Reveal

I started thinking of ways that I could share this news with my students.  It took me a couple of days and then it hit me!  A few weeks back, I had showed my students iMovie and some different movie trailers that they could possibly use for their Book Talks.  They were blown away as to how cool the trailers were.  So I decided that this was the perfect way to tell them that we were getting a set of iPads.  The best part was that they were actually a part of the iMovie Trailer and they didn't even know it (I told them it was for a class I was taking).

I shared the iMovie Trailer with them one afternoon and recorded their reaction!  It was priceless. They laughed and clapped at the end.  One student said, "So are we getting the iPads?" and before I could say yes another student said, "No, I don't think that we are." As I looked around I noticed that they were just happy that they got to watch an iMovie Trailer and it wasn't clicking that WE were getting a set of iPads.  I finally had to ask them if they read the parts of the Movie Trailer.  Then19 light bulbs lit up and my classroom erupted into a room full of high pitched screaming, jumping, and many THANK YOUS!

I am ready for this next adventure in my teaching career.  I have amazing colleagues to collaborate with and learn from as my classroom transforms into an entirely different way of learning, sharing, thinking, and collaborating!  Stay tuned and look for more posts as miPad Classroom evolves!


iPad Reveal