iPads for Eighth Grade at Knollwood

The eighth grade at Fair Haven’s is set to keep up with advanced technological times. Teachers and students are getting equipped with iPads in the coming school year.

With the equipment and associated, undisclosed costs funded by the Fair Haven Education Foundation, staff is on board with the technology enhancement; and both teachers and school officials feel that integrating the iPads’ use with curriculum will be nothing but advantageous, Fair Haven Schools Superintendent Kathleen Cronin said at Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting.

“We watched a Webinar from California where the program proved very successful,” Cronin said. “They monitored kids using the iPads and found that they were very motivated by what was offered to them through the use and learned very effectively as a result.”

Cronin added that despite wrangling with insurance and “pages and pages” of agreement forms between students, administration and insurance carriers, students and teachers seemed undaunted and excited about the program.

She said that in the California model program, there was only one reported loss of an iPad “in an entire year. Believe it or not, a dog ate it.”

Cronin pointed to the enthusiasm of one eighth grade Spanish teacher, Caitlyn Rumph, who wrote a two-page report on how she plans to use the iPads for innovative teaching.

“Reading this, you just want to be in her class,” Cronin said as she held up the report.

The equipment will be provided to students who do not have their own. Those who have their own will use their own pads. There are lengthy agreements to be signed by parents, students and administrators concerning assignment, liability and use parameters.

Cronin said that when Board Secretary/Administrator Valery Petrone was setting up the insurance, the agent told her “Wow. I want to go back to school in Fair Haven.”

iPads cost roughly $500 each and there are about 100 students in the eighth grade class.