AUBURN — Three Auburn kindergarten teachers gave iPads a grade of “A” Wednesday night for helping 5-year-olds learn letters and numbers.

“Students are really engaged; they’re engaging students in a different way,” Washburn Elementary School teacher Jessica Prue said. As she spoke, Fairview Elementary teacher Kelly McCarthy and Sherwood Heights Elementary teacher Laurie Gerard nodded in agreement.

After using the tablet computer in kindergarten classrooms for seven weeks, the teachers gave the Auburn School Committee an update Wednesday.

They said the use of iPads is balanced. Students are still using crayons, markers and books. They’re still learning how to hold pencils or crayons, and how to write.

But the iPad is giving teachers all kinds of ways to teach and make lessons more meaningful.

Gerard showed a video she made of a boy reading a book he made about fall. The boy turned pages as he read, “I see a squirrel. I see pumpkins. I see an apple tree.”

He missed a few words. Gerard said the boy watched the video she made of him reading. “He said, ‘I sound funny,’” Gerard said. She had him read the book again, again shooting a video.

The second time his reading improved. His voice carried more confidence. By watching himself read, “he was able to see what he’s learned,” Gerard said, calling that “powerful.”

McCarthy said she uses iPads to take pictures of students’ work, which allows her to capture and check in on how they’re progressing, essentially creating electronic portfolios of their work.

Prue said when her students went to the Auburn Land Lab for a lesson about living versus non-living things, and they took pictures with their iPads. The class turned the pictures into a book.

The book had pictures of mushrooms, a tree, grass and a turtle that teacher Jim Chandler was holding. Students were excited about the book they made, Prue said.

Teachers said they’re using iPad applications to teach subtraction, addition, matching objects, memory games, letter sounds and word games.

They said none of the parents have requested their students not use iPads. “Everybody’s positive,” McCarthy said.

From September through November, only half of Auburn kindergartners are using iPads. In early December, all kindergarten students will have them.

The staggered approach will allow test data to be examined, to compare how classes with and without the iPads did, Superintendent Katy Grondin said.

Auburn’s iPad national conference will be held Nov. 16-18 at the Hilton Garden Inn, said Mike Muir, Auburn School Department Director of Multiple Pathways.

The conference, “Leveraging Learning: The iPad in Primary Grades Institute” has a limit of 100 participants, and 100 are signed up, Muir said. Those attending will come from Massachusetts, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Illinois, Utah, California and the country of Chile.

During one afternoon, a panel of national experts will work with Auburn teachers  using iPads in classrooms, Muir said.

In other School Committee business:

* Early childhood team leader Linda Leiva gave an update about a new program, “School Comes To You.” In that program, made possible by grant money from Barbara Bush and the Maine Family Literacy Initiative, 12 families are receiving help in their homes.

* In response to committee member Susan Gaylord’s concern about speeding cars in front of Auburn Middle School when students are crossing the street, coming and going to school, Superintendent Grondin said Court Street is a state road. A traffic light cannot be installed unless it gets state approval. Auburn police are directing traffic before and after school to protect students from speeding motorists.

bwashuk@sunjournal.com