Interviewing a 5th Grader.


Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak to a Grade 5 student, Belle, who attends a local Primary School. I asked if she would like to participate in a short interview about the types of technology she uses in her classroom. Her eagerness to participate, was greatly appreciated.

The ‘interview’ went like this: 
Do you use technology in your classroom?
A: Yes, I am in an iPad class.

What does that mean Belle?
A: We get to use ipads in the class.

Do you use them in all your lessons?
A: No, we only use them for 2 hours per day. That is our school rule.

What types of things do you use your iPads for?
A: We can go on Mathletics if we are finished our work. We also use them in Science.

How do you use them in Science?
A: We look up power points our teacher sends us. We can look at photos.

Do you have special apps for your teacher to send you things and what type of other things does she send you?
A: Yes, she sends them using Key note. We get assignments, maps and pictures to look at. We also got a poem to read in English and some homework.

Can you tell me about other programs you use?
A: We use Spelling City, Accelerator Reader, English Stars, Doodle Buddy in Maths and Book Creator. We also go on the Learning Place for Japanese.

Screenshot 2017-08-24 12.48.28

How does English Stars work?
A: Our teacher airdrops books for us to look at and read and she can see what work we are doing.We can also take photos using the camera on our iPads and send photos to the teacher. We are not allowed to send photos to each other.

A:That is one of our rules. We aren’t allowed to do that. If we want to do that, we need to have permission.

What would happen if you did send photos to other students?
A: The teacher would know, the iPad makes a noise. A boy and a girl did it and they lost their iPads for 1 week.

How did they do their work, without iPads for the week?
A: They had to use paper like before.

Belle, you have given me a lot of information, we are almost finished.

I want to ask you, do you like having technology in your classroom and why or why not?
A: Yes. School would be BORING and the teacher would have to hand out booklets.

Lastly Belle, what is your favourite thing you like to do on the iPad?      14d396e96ee8127f97d0cc498bdb43f1--i-love-math-math-class
A: I like Mathletics, because I’m really good at Maths and Book creator, you can make your own books and draw with your finger.

Thank you Belle, for telling me about how you use your iPad at school. happy_smiley_face_round_stickers-rbdcd90a58b8e40a9b895e7c2fd1e65ef_v9waf_8byvr_324

A little insight into a Grade 5 students point of view on technology in her classroom.

8 thoughts on “Interviewing a 5th Grader.

  1. That is a wonderful read! My Ben loves his mathletics too. Thanks Barb, it’s interesting to read how different schools are using technology in their classrooms and setting boundaries to respect the device and the trust they have been given to use them!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hello Kylie, thank you for your note. What grade is Ben in now? I am wondering what other technology he uses and some of the guidelines there are at his school. Would you like to share?
      B 🙂


  2. Loved the interview. Kids are amazing and they know so much about technology. Your school system seems to be doing an excellent job of offering lots of tech experiences to students. Thanks for your blog!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hello Georgeane, thank you for reading my blog. Technology is definitely a part of the classroom here in Australia and is encouraged as a way to transform learning, not just to replace traditional methods. I am curious to know what type of technology you use in your classroom? Does your school encourage technology? If you would like to send me a note on email I would love to include your information and experiences on my blog.
      Enjoy the first week back at school 🙂


  3. How insightful? Thanks Barb. Isn’t it interesting the difference in ICT use amongst schools? Last week I was working on my assignment whilst waiting for my daughter at her dance school. There were numerous students of all year levels there. However because my assignment is planned for year 5, I asked one of the year 5 students about blogging. She looked at me like I was from another planet! She had no idea and when I questioned her about ICT use, told me that other than word processing, “that’s it really” . On the contrary to this, my daughter is in year 1 and has already used ‘Paint’ in a literacy ‘re-tell’ activity. I am so grateful we are learning so much in this course about transforming student learning.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Hi there McK, thank you for your comments. You are right about the differences in ICT amongst schools. I don’t think it is always about the availability of ICT either. How creative of you little one, would love to see some of her work. I too am grateful, for the learning in this course. I love that we have learnt something new and useful.
    Barb 🙂


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