A Maple Ridge elementary school has been given a special designation for using Apple technology in their classrooms.
Yennadon Elementary is officially an Apple Distinguished school because of their use of iPads in the Grade 6/7 classrooms.
They applied for the distinction in June, 2022 and received approval for their application in September.
Every student in each of the six Grade 6/7 classes – about 84 students – has an iPad to use, courtesy of the school district.
By getting the Apple status it allows teachers access to different workshops and seminars that Apple puts on, explained Shawna Loutet, Grade 6/7 teacher at the school. Workshops like coding and others that teach both students and teachers how to use programs like Keynote for creating presentations, Pages to type up documents, and others used for collaboration, better.
“The kids are able to work together, share information together. You can have two or three kids at one time working on the same project and then they can all be adding to it at the same time,” she described.
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“And that kind of stuff is really beneficial to the kids,” noted Loutet. “Kids who are struggling – readers or writers – the technology allows them to be able to have something read to them or they can use test to speech. Kids who want to extend their learning that are really interested in technology, or they’re interested in coding or they’re interested in presentations, it really allows them to explore that because they have the iPad right in their hands.”
Yennadon Elementary is one of only 19 schools across the country that have this designation.
Each designation is good for three years and so they will need to reapply in 2025.
This technology not only helps them now, but it is also technology the students are going to use in high school, post secondary, and in their future careers, said Loutet.
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