Cate School

I had a great visit to the Cate School in Carpinteria, CA the week of April 14th. I've been to Cate a few times but always in summer to visit my good friend Frank Griffin. It was a treat to see the school in action, especially the mathematics department, chaired by Frank. There are eight teachers in the department and I saw each teach a class. Over the course of the week it became evident that the entire department works together in an effort to provide the best experience for Cate students. They've created a curriculum that addresses the needs of individual students while preparing them for advanced courses and AP Exams. They have decided to teach topics from statistics across the curriculum and make great use of technology in the form of iPads, MacBooks, and SmartBoards. Moreover, they are all dedicated to staying abreast of what's happening in mathematics education. They regularly attend conferences and most, if not all, have attended the Anja S. Greer Conference here at Exeter. Frank has taught a course in the conference for many years.

Something that has been troubling mathematics teachers at Exeter regarding iPads is access to the Internet and/or messaging during exams. While at Cate, I learned about a feature that allows an iPad to be "locked" into a single App. Here's how you do it...

Go to Settings, General, and click on Accessibility. Under Learning, turn Guided Access on. Then, Set Passcode. This is the passcode that will be used when Guided Access is enabled. Now, Now, open an App, like Desmos, and and triple-click the Home button. Press Start in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. A brief message Guided Access Enabled will show briefly, then the App is available and one cannot access any other App or quit the current App. To end Guided Access, triple click the Home button and enter the Passcode, then click on End in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.

So, while a bit clunky, a teacher can fairly quickly set each student's iPad to access only a single App, then, at the end of the exam, enter the Passcode and return the iPad to full access. Thanks to Taylor Wyatt for teaching this to me.