A special kind of learning with the iPod Touch
Mary Farmer, now in her late forties, started teaching children with “challenging behaviours” some eight years ago. She is passionate about her work and the youngsters she teaches.
“I was teaching in a mainstream school and had a very challenging class. I was asked to teach them again two years on and when I asked for some insight into how to handle them it was suggested that I visit The Cedars Primary School, a special school in Hounslow Borough.
“It caters for children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and the moment I walked through the door I fell in love with the school. It was what I thought every school should be. It was truly child focused and full of the children I love to teach, those with challenging behaviours. In other schools these children may be seen as a pain in the neck but here the staff know what to expect and target the curriculum accordingly,” says Mary.
Growing up in America Mary had little confidence and walked away from university on the day of her finals because of “fear of failure”. She married an Englishman in New York, flew to England, had two children and became a full time housewife and mother.
“I had always wanted to teach but it was not until just after I separated from my husband and had two children aged 11 and seven that I went to the Kingston University School of Education and emerged with a BA honours degree. It felt phenomenal. I had previously had little self-confidence and that’s what makes me the teacher I am today. When I tell the children ‘I know how it feels’ they know I mean it. “
Sometimes Mary has come home with bruises but she brushes this aside. “Generally speaking the children haven’t done it on purpose. They are just thrashing out,” she explains. “Yes they do have anger issues and can be slow to learn but the question is are they slow because they learned little because they were climbing on the roof in their previous school, or did they climb on the roof because there was something wrong.”
Mary smiles when talking of her class of nine at The Cedars, under her care and that of her teaching assistants. It’s clear that the children in this special school are, indeed, special to her, which is why she went to an open day a year ago entitled Hand Held Learning, now retitled Learning Without Frontiers.
“I had heard about people using new technologies teaching children in mainstream education on Twitter and I started following certain people’s experiences on Twitter, people like the inspirational Dawn Hallybone, a truly fantastic teacher. Then last Easter a company called RM put out a tweet looking for London teachers interested in trying the iPod Touch.”
Mary thought it was a six week trial but her class still has them and there is no doubt in her mind that they have revolutionised their learning experience and their self confidence.
“A ten year old who can barely read can practise their phonic skills sitting next to another ten year old mastering anagrams and finding word definitions. You try doing phonics with a boy in class and he’s embarrassed, with the iPod Touch nobody knows he’s practising his phonics,” says Mary.
The iPod Touch sits on the child’s desk to be used whenever he chooses. “A great advantage is that it’s portable, accessible and very, very cool,” says Mary. “They write a story and write so much more than when they faced a blank sheet of paper which spelt failure from the start. Then they email it to me, we make improvements and they edit it on the iPod Touch.”
And now they don’t just write for Mary. She puts their stories on her blog and they get responses from teachers around the world, asking questions like whether the alien in the story loved eating pizza. “They are writing for a real audience, not just for me,” says Mary.
In maths the children might be using the iPod Touch to do one to one counting at five-year-old level, or using apps to revise their multiplication tables like a typical ten year old. All of this happens, says Mary “alongside good, old fashioned teaching.”
“This type of technology is not the answer to everything,” she says. “But it can make a big difference. And life is moving on. Today kids need to be not just computer literate but computer savvy. We can’t ignore these advances. People used to say ‘It will ruin the children’s brains’ back in 1901 when they were talking about the wireless!
“You wouldn’t want to use this type of technology all the time but it’s a tool not a gimmick and to see the children in my class write poems, make them into PowerPoint presentations and tape themselves reading it, when they hated reading aloud before, has been a revelation,” says Mary.
“These are children who had little confidence and now their work is not just used at assembly but is being seen around the world, including by the person who wrote the app.”
Spin offs include Andrea Carr from the Rising Star publisher providing eBooks for the class iPod Touches. Now if they have a limited reading age they are not restricted to Biff and Chip as ten-year-olds but can read space adventures geared to their level.
Mary talks of one boy with severe dyslexia increasing his reading score from nil to five years and seven months. “As it starts at five that’s at least a seven months improvement but more importantly he has gained hugely in confidence. He’s my hero,” says Mary.
She talks longingly of getting her hands on some iPads. “I’d love that because with the iPod Touch the size can sometimes be limiting. With iPads the world would be our oyster,” she declares. It’s impossible not to see all this as pearls of wisdom.
Mary is shortlisted for the Learning Without Frontiers award for innovators in the inclusion category. You can vote for her by January 4th by texting FARMER to (+44) 07950080667.
You can also follow her blog on www.ebd35.wordpress.com.
Patricia McLoughlin
Posted Tue, 12/28/2010 - 14:03 by Tricia