iPrompts Proposal

By Ashley Woods

The Setting
There are five classrooms at the Rose K. Goedert Center
for Early Childhood Education:
The Ducky Room 2-year-olds
The Penguin Room Older 2-year-olds and young 3year-olds
The Tiger Room 3-year-olds
The Otter Room Young 4-year-olds
The Bunny Room Older 4-year-olds and 5-year-olds
Each classroom has a head teacher and an assistant
teacher.

Current Technology
Each classroom has:
A laptop
An iPad
An AppleTV
A flat screen TV
We do all of our lesson plans, assessments,
communication with parents, and
documentation for the children online at
www.TeachingStrategies.com

The Need
Each classroom uses picture schedule
cards. The teacher sets up these cards in
the morning to set the schedule and then
flips over each card as that portion of
the day is completed.

The Need
Some teachers forget to flip over the
cards or simply dont have the time after
each portion of the day is done. This
creates a backlog of cards to be flipped
at one time. This can be confusing for
some children as they may see a picture
of a portion of the day completed day
and not realize its already been
completed.

Why a schedule is important

Routines also help children develop
self-control because they know they
have to wait until a certain time to do
a particular activity. A regular schedule
fosters responsibility and
independence because children will be
able to perform more activities on
their own if they have done the same
activities many times before in the
same environment.
-Lisa Medoff

The Product
iPrompts is an iPad app that creates and
maintains a schedule throughout a
school day. A schedule is created each
morning and then checked off by
clicking on the picture when that task is
completed. It also comes with a handy
timer to help keep your time in check.

Benefits
Create visual prompts "on-the-go," adapting
quickly as situations change
No need to spend hours creating image
cards by printing, cutting and laminating
No bulky or stigmatizing binders or strips of
images
Store thousands of images in your pocket
Add your own pictures to the hundreds of
stock images included within iPrompts
Electronically backlit images are bright and
visible any time of day or night
Paperless and environmentally friendly

Costs
iPrompts is available for
purchase through iTunes for
$49.99.
A grant would be written
through the IT department to
cover the cost of this app.

NAEYC Standards Met

2.A.07 The curriculum
guides development of a daily
schedule that is predictable
yet flexible and responsive to
individual needs of the
children
3.D.09 Teaching staff help
children follow a predictable
but flexible daily routine

ITSE Standards Met

1c. Promote student reflection using
collaborative tools to reveal and clarify
students conceptual understanding and
thinking, planning, and creative process.
2b. Develop technology-enriched
learning environments that enable all
students to pursue their individual
curiosities and become active
participants in setting their own
educational goals, managing their own
learning, and assessing their own
progress.

Implementation
Head teachers and assistant
teachers would have a training
conducted by me during their
lunch breaks. This training should
only last an hour. During this
training, the teachers will watch a
short video (found at: https://
vimeo.com/62183795). I would
then follow up with each teaching
team to help them as needed.

Assessment
I will meet with each teaching
team about 3 weeks after
implementing the iPrompts app
to discuss how things are going
and to troubleshoot any issues
that may arise.

Feedback so far
After introducing iPrompts and
surveying the head teachers,
they all are on board with the app
and are eager to try it out. One
teacher is not as technologically
savvy and is a bit more hesitant,
but she is still willing to try.
Now we wait for the grant!

Issues that may arise

Lack of money until a grant is
available
Trouble with the Wi-Fi
Solution: make sure we have
the most up-to-date Wi-Fi
available

Trouble with the iPads

Solution: troubleshooting with
Apple

References:
HandHold Adaptive. iPrompts. Retrieved from
http://www.handholdadaptive.com/iPro mpts.html
International Society for Technology in Education
(2008). ITSE standards: Teachers. Retrieved from
https://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20- 14_ISTE_StandardsT_PDF.pdf
Medoff, L. (2013, August 6). Routines: Why they
matter and how to get started. Retrieved from
http://www.education.com/magazine/ar
ticle/importance-routines-preschool-children/
NAEYC Accreditation (2015). NAEYC early childhood
program standards and accreditation criteria &
guidance for assessment. Retrieved from
http://www.naeyc.org/files/academy/file/AllCriter
iaDocument.pdf