How I became a 1:1 iPad classroom?

This question was recently tweeted to me and unfortunately with twitter's 140 character limit, it makes it hard to answer the question fully. So, tonight I just wanted to explain how this happened for me.

A year and a half ago, my school began the Race for Education. For those of you who have read some of my other blog posts, you have heard me mention this before. I apologize if the information seems repetitive. Well, to encourage teachers to participate, we were told that 100% of the money we raise could go towards our classroom. That year, I made it a mission to bring in some new technology in the classroom. I raised around $800 my first year and purchased an iPad using that money and put the rest of the money towards buying a new table for classroom to replace a broken computer desk. So, this is originally how the iPad entered the classroom.

This past school, I started the first half of the year with just one iPad. And honestly, it was amazing seeing what just one iPad could do in the classroom. The PTOwas seeing some of the things that were going on in my classroom and decided that with our two big fundraisers, an annual auction and the Race for Education, they could afford to fund a class set of iPads. I was asked if I would be willing to take on this mission and like most teachers reading this blog, I said yes. So, half way through the school year I became a 1:1 iPad classroom. Along with purchasing a class set of iPads for my Fourth Grade class, every teacher was given an iPad to use in their classroom as well.

This upcoming school year, my school has purchased another class set of iPads for the Fifth Grade. We hope to continue purchasing another class set every school year, but again we are only able to afford to do this because of our fundraising.