Posted
by Dave Barber, Manistee News Advocate reporter
April 17, 2012
Lillian Mauntler was reading the News Advocate one day last week in her second-grade classroom. She sat, quietly, and turned page after page — on her iPad computer.
“I like the iPad because it is more fun,” said the young niece of teacher Ben Mauntler. “It is more fun because we don’t get lost. We get to scroll down. The iPad doesn’t rip.”
Classmate Abaigeal Gale also enjoys reading the News Advocate on her iPad computer. “When you read the newspaper on your iPad, you can go on lots of articles,” Abailgeal said. “The newspaper is something that you find out what is going on, like if there is a tornado coming.”
Mauntler has about two dozen youngsters in his second-grade class and every day they use their iPads to carry out assignments, including reading their local newspaper — the News Advocate — as part of their regular Newspapers in Education program.
“Every one of them enjoys reading the newspaper online,” Mauntler said. “They like selecting their favorite stories, and more. We’ll get to talking about one of the stories and that discussion will lead to another, and that’s good as far as education goes.
“It’s incredible how many of the kids have really picked up how to use their iPads, and they work with things such as their hometown newspaper.”
With the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic being in many newspapers recently — including the News Advocate — Mauntler said his students can keep up with current events online.
“We read about the Titanic (in the News Advocate last week,” he said “That’s in the news right now. (Some students) wanted to know if anyone is still alive (from the Titanic), and we just went to Google to find out. One thing leads to another, one discussion leads to another.
“A lot of times (the news) is about them. There was an article in the News Advocate about our school recently and we went back and looked at that. They had fun with that.”