http://www.themonitor.com/articles/mcallen-59053-touching-down.html


read the comments. i found them entertaining. i don't even live in the McAllen and this bugs me to no end. during the summer these same clowns were terminating teachers employment and cutting hours and days from bus drivers and custodial workers. somehow they find $20 million to throw at toys??!!?? i understand some of this money comes from a grant but they couldn't find a way to keep some teachers but they find a way to buy toys? toys that as of yet are unproven in terms of a teaching tool. wait till these things start showing up at la pulga jailbroken....or in mexico...

strawberryshortcake

I am not so sure I remember the wholesale release of teachers in McAllen that you are describing. Maybe you are closer to the situation than I am but I have two or three relatives in the system and don't recall them describing teachers being released. I do recall that some folks were not replaced. I know that a couple of the middle schools lost an assistant principals but they were positions that were not refilled when someone left.

I was a little incredulous about the amount of money being spent on something that I was dubious about but I have begun to think that maybe they may not be such a bad idea. I know that one of the ideas is that they will replace the textbooks which will be a pretty big financial savings. It will allow them to update textbooks yearly as opposed to waiting to buy new books after 10 years. My grandson was provided with one this week and he already brought it over to show me his "stuff". He certainly was excited about doing his homework on the Ipad as opposed to doing it longhand.

The implementation of this type of program is often the "fly in the ointment". I was wondering how they were going to deal with stealing, losing, and breakage. Apparently that is dealt with by requiring the students to provide $40 for an insurance policy for the gadget. This hasn't been a problem so far.

I guess we'll see.

ValleyRat:

Good and interesting points. My wife and I are against this as we think it should be up to the parents to decide when a child gets a tool of this magnitude. We do not think it is a good idea that kids are being provided something that can basically go unmonitored for periods of time. We know our 6 year old is not ready for something like this and we think it is not right to foster this added responsibility onto a parents, keeping up with and looking out for an electronic gadget, when pen and paper will do just fine for a spell.

If these were to stay in the classroom or something like that it would be one thing, but they are not.

I wonder if you can just opt out of the thing?

I bet you can. They are asking for $40 as insurance before they hand them out...just don't pony up the money.

As to what protection the kids have outside the schoolhouse...I think I read that they system is set up so that the same protection is built into the system for home use. I have no clue how one might do that. They have a website that you might check out.

http://mws.mcallenisd.net/cidc/newsletter/archives/current/the_server.shtml

See FAQs answers the question about if you can opt out.

http://mcallenisd.schoolfusion.us/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/121422/File/AndreaH/TLC3_FAQ.pdf?sessionid=7d6ed1e54730675a6ac4264f920cc778



[This message has been edited by oldvalleyrat (edited 3/2/2012 11:03a).]

[This message has been edited by oldvalleyrat (edited 3/2/2012 11:04a).]

RGV AG

One other observation. I have a grandaughter at Milam and I pick her up fairly often. I asked her teacher and she says that virtually all the 5th graders have smartphones which give them access to the internet! They take them all up at the beginning of the day and give them back at the end of the day to keep the kids from playing with them in class.

I guess it is a brave new world we live in.

[This message has been edited by oldvalleyrat (edited 3/2/2012 10:06a).]

Quote from a friend

"At Travis Jr. High, trying to get iPad for 8th grader. Confirmed, there is no curriculum involving their use, no plan for integrating them into classroom learning, and teachers have not created & submitted lesson plans incorporating their use."

And apparently the $40.00 "insurance" is NOT for replacement purposes. It does not cover Lost or Stolen items.

[This message has been edited by GurmTsu (edited 3/8/2012 12:49p).]

"Confirmed..."

Well that settles it...

Like 1 in 5 kids have them right now. This is just the first phase of rolling them out.

quote:

---

"At Travis Jr. High, trying to get iPad for 8th grader. Confirmed, there is no curriculum involving their use, no plan for integrating them into classroom learning, and teachers have not created & submitted lesson plans incorporating their use."

---

This doesn't square with what the district is saying. Read the districts technology newsletter at:

http://mws.mcallenisd.net/cidc/newsletter/archives/current/the_server.shtml

I wouldn't use Travis as an example for the district because it has been rated as one of the few unacceptable schools in the valley for a while!

But he said "Confirmed."

Interesting!

Ft. Bend students oppose iPad program

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=8595172&rss=rss-ktrk-article-8595172