Last year, Apple donated an iPad to all TFA corps members. I spent a weekend downloading all kinds of free or cheap math games, along with some other free games and gizmos.
During lunch the following week, a few students were in my room for homework help. I gave the iPad to one of my students who struggles with his multiplication tables, and told him that he could play one of the multiplication games... but only a multiplication game.
As I worked on two-step equations with another student, I started hearing, "Vroom! Vroom!" from across the room, and I noticed that the kid was holding my iPad at an angle while tipping his head and upper body to the side.
I called, "Get off the racing app and get back on multiplication!"
What did my student have to say? "Oh my gosh, do you have x-ray vision? You saw through the back of the iPad!"
Oh, 7th graders. So mature at times, and yet so childlike at others.
