For students and teachers in the tiny Alaska Native community of Port Graham, this school year promises to be very different.
That’s because each of the school’s 36 students will now have an iPad to use during class. It’s part of a program to improve the curriculum and help students become better connected with their own native culture.
Nancy Kleine is the principal of the school in Port Graham and Nanwalek. She’s passionate about bringing technology to the classroom. Last year, she headed up an effort to bring iPads to 80 students at Nanwalek School.
Kleine says that the iPads can help improve instruction and train kids how to be technologically savvy.
“We’re all kind of running toward the same goal of deepening instruction and really allowing these kids in remote villages to have some of the same opportunities with technology that other kids have enjoyed for a lot of years”
Funding for the iPads was provided through a combination of grants from Chugach Alaska and Port Graham Corporations, as well as rollover funding the school had saved from last year. The total cost of the iPads was about $17,500.
Kleine explains that in this isolated village, technology allows kids to be more engaged with the outside world. But she also points out that it offers ways to share and preserve native culture.
“Kids can take videos of some of the traditional plants that they’ve learned about and preserve some of that knowledge. Some of the language, some of the old photos that are in books. It’s just wide open,” she says.
During the school’s iPad presentation ceremony on September 21, Port Graham resident Ephimia Dumont led the kids in a Sug’stun song about orcas, set to a familiar tune.
On a small stage decorated with streamers and balloons, Principal Kleine read the names of each student and passed out the iPads individually like diplomas. The students shook hands with their teachers and representatives from the Chugach Alaska and Port Graham Corporations.
“To help celebrate we have kazoos. Can we hear the kazoos? And we have pom poms! Can we see the pom poms?” Kleine says.
Devin Michel-Way teaches kindergarten through fourth grade at Port Graham School. In the classroom next door, her husband Colby Way, teaches fifth through 12th grade.
Michel-Way describes how she’s incorporating technology into her curriculum. Improving reading fluency is an important goal for her.
“The students do a lot of reading comprehension and reading fluency, where they’ll read directly to the iPad, record themselves. They’ll be able to hear where they’re making mistakes, they’ll be able to fix it and get better,” Michel-Way says.
Technology is also a great way to keep kids engaged, she explains.
“Since we’re fighting with screens all the time as teachers now, this is a way for them to learn that screens are not just for playing games, not just for watching YouTube, not just for Facebook. They’re for educational purposes and they can be used for betterment,” she says.
But using iPads in the classroom takes a lot of logistical planning. Michel-Way passes out a “contract” to each student, detailing what they can and cannot do with their iPads.
“Should you bring the iPad into the bathroom? How about the gym?” she asks.
The classroom is abuzz with excitement as the students set up their iPads. It’s not long before they’re tapping away at the screens, exploring and learning how to use them.