Chatham Hall - iPad
From The Rector
Late last spring I went cold turkey with an iPad. I tossed my notepads into the drawers of my desk. I filed away my pens and pencils. I requested that every document be sent to me electronically.
People looked at me with a quizzical, challenged expression. What, they seemed to say, is this about? Whatever the answer to this question, I am still holding firm to my decision.
There was something about this device that said to me, This is the time.
And, quite honestly, I think that it is. For those of us educators who have been working in our classrooms with computers since, in my case, they became personal, the iPad seems like the device that we have been waiting for. It is conveniently portable. It has a range of applications. It is compact in design—no longer will I be presented with the wall of screens between me and my students in the electronic classroom. It is versatile. It has books.
I have a couple major questions. Will the iPad allow me to do everything that I need to do in an English class: careful and detailed reading of texts, writing and revision, producing our own grammar book, recording and reviewing speeches, journal writing, vocabulary, research, and so on? Will the iPad help my students better communicate their thoughts, and prepare them to do so in college and their adult lives?
Six of us teachers at Chatham Hall have committed ourselves to answering these kinds of questions in our own disciplines. We spent our summer working on them. We will work on them every day with our students.
So, I invite you to follow our progress. View the brief video introduction to our pilot program and check in regularly with our blog.—we will be honest about the good, the challenging, and the undefined.
Gary Fountain
Rector
