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Saturday, December 08, 2012 By Catherine P.
Advertising
Language classes
roll out new cart
loaded with iPads
By CATHERINE P.
Watertown Splash staff reporter
An exciting new addition to the foreign language classrooms has arrived!
Holly Cachimuel, Aviel Valenzuela, and Angela Kuzemczak, the foreign language teachers at Watertown Middle School, were thrilled this week to unveil the newest teaching tools for their students: the iPad 3.
The teachers felt that their students weren’t getting enough time to practice their languages at home, so they made the request in October for a classroom’s worth (and a wheeled storage cart) for the three teachers to share. Students got their first access to them on Dec. 4.
Students were buzzing with excitement upon using the iPad for the first time, and teachers were so happy to see their enthusiasm. They know it means that students will have a greater interest and desire to learn their foreign language
On the iPads are language-based apps for Italian and Spanish, such as food learning and vocabulary.
The iPads will rotate among the classes. Students will be assigned to an iPad and will share it with students in other classes. Students will be in charge of their own iPads, which means making sure they are always plugged in and that nothing on the iPad is changed. For example, no student is allowed to change the iPad background or download apps or music.
Lots of students love the iPads, such as Dilara, a seventh-grader.
“They are very educational and very helpful,’’ she said. “They are also fun to play on.”
Students are not the only ones who are excited about the iPads. Ms. Kuzemczak is “very much excited” for the students to use them.
All the teachers hope the students will get more practice with their languages on their new iPads.
--Dec. 7, 2012--
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