Hi, my name is Bradley, and my resource teacher started using
iPads in our class two years ago. At first we were all just excited
to play the games like Angry Birds and to take funny pictures of
each other. After awhile though, I started to enjoy other things
that we can do on an iPad.
I am a very fast reader, and when I read I can do voices and
move my voice up and down just like when people are actually
talking. I don't know why this is so easy for me, it just is. I love to
read aloud in class, and my friends often pick me to read which
makes me feel really special. The words just fly off my tongue,
but in some ways I'm really not such a great reader. You see,
when I'm finished reading, I don't understand what I've just read.
It is very frustrating, as you can imagine. One of my problems is
that I just don't get a good picture of what the words mean. I'm
told I have a weak vocabulary and I guess that's true. I've heard
many of the words that I read, but the meanings just don't stick.
That's where the iPads come in very handy. When I come to a
word that I don't know, I can quickly look it up in google images
and get a picture to go with the word. My teacher also found a
great "kid friendly" dictionary online and we all put the site on our
desktops for quick look-ups. So I get a picture in google images,
and with that in my mind, it helps me to make sense of the words
in the definition from the dictionary. It has really helped me to
understand what I read, and after all that's what reading is all
about.
Understanding what I read might always be hard for me, but
having an iPad to use every day makes a huge difference. We use
them in many other fun and helpful ways too. We are so lucky to
have them in our school, and I hope we get to keep them until I
graduate.