BELIEVE you can do it. Find it within yourself!

When children come to me in 3rd grade - it is a whirlwind of new information.  The kids are taken from the first floor and placed on the second floor in classrooms.  Just walking up the stairs can be intimidating.  Making sure they have everything and watching the steps closely so that they don't trip.

We have been working on getting INTO reading.  Really trying to relate to characters and find the LOVE for the books - no matter what genre.  After reading a story called Walls Within Walls we turned our attention to nonfiction.  I passed out the Time For Kids magazine that we get weekly.  I gave them a little time to read it.  THEN - I was able to hand every child in my room an iPad for the first time this year.  (The last 5 my cart needed just came in.)

We have been using iPads daily in my room - but this was the first day that I said, "This one is YOURS.  Treat it kindly."  We talked about the expectations.  We took pictures of ourselves and set it on the home screens to that we could easily see who's iPad it was if we picked it up.

Then we dove in head first.  We looked at www.timeforkids.com and were able to see articles about things going on in the world.  Some of the articles related to the magazine we read and had more information.  There were videos online that brought the articles to life.  The kids wanted to read more and more on the iPad.

I believe the iPad is just a tool.  So is the magazine.  BUT - when my kids went to a safe made for kids site to learn about important news events they became hooked.  Several even asked when they could go to the site again today.  One said that it felt like the WHOLE WORLD was in his hands - all he had to do was power it up and find what he wanted.  He said, "Ms. Clark - THIS is better organized than my DESK!"

Yesterday I took my kids on a journey and they didn't even leave their seats.  They went from kids who sighed when we passed out nonfiction reading to kids who dove into articles and could not get enough information.  They could choose which articles they read.  They were proud when they could tell about things that happened to a buddy who read a different article.  They have always had this love - it is inside of all of them.  The love for knowledge.  The hunger for things new.  But - Sometimes they have to learn it for themselves.  We, as educators need to take ALL of the tools in our buckets and find what unlocks their excitement and passion for learning.