VIDALIA — Tori Lemoine is hoping she learned enough about her new iPad Monday to keep her Vidalia Lower Elementary second-grade students engaged and excited about learning this school year.

Lemoine was one of 190 Concordia Parish School District employees who participated Monday in a series of technology training sessions dubbed “Tech Day.”

Teachers and administrators gathered in classrooms at Vidalia High School and heard presentations from a variety of technology and education specialists.

The hour-and-a-half sessions included topics such as planning SMART Board activities and learning how an iPad can make a difference in the classroom.

Lemoine, who is a first-year teacher, said she’s looking forward to using her new tablet device as a fun way to teach her students.

“The kids love learning with the iPads so much,” Lemoine said. “I’m just learning as much as I can before my first day.”

In one of the iPad sessions, Lemoine learned about helpful applications, or apps, she can use in the classroom and how to find those apps easily on the Internet.

Education consultant Monica Sprinkle led a session and shared information on an app that turned the Apple tablet into an extension of the classroom’s SMART Board, which is an interactive whiteboard.

“This way, you can give them the iPad and they can interact with the lesson from their desk,” Sprinkle said. “If a kid doesn’t want to get up and go to the board, you just walk up and hand them the iPad.”

It’s those kinds of interactive programs that third-grade Ferriday Upper Elementary teacher Jamie Taunton is excited to begin using for the first time.

Taunton, who has been teaching for seven years, said this will be her first year with an iPad in the classroom, which makes her a bit nervous.

“I’m just worried I’ll miss some great app that everyone else is using,” Taunton said. “These sessions were great because they shared so many useful apps and walked us through how to use them in the classroom.”

Superintendent Paul Nelson said providing training for the new technology teachers will have access to in their classrooms was vital before the upcoming school year, which begins on Friday.

“We’ve been talking about doing this for months because if we’re going to give these teachers all this technology, we need to make sure they know how to use it and can benefit from everything it can offer them,” Nelson said. “We’re in the teaching and learning business, so every day we need to be learning something new and teaching something new.

“We wanted to offer a wide variety of sessions, because some of the teachers already know how to use the technology and others don’t.”

Vidalia Lower Elementary School first-grade teacher Amanda Wilson used her iPad last year for a variety of lesson plans, but also as a reward for those students who finished assignments early.

“Those that would finish their required learning first would get to use the iPad for a certain amount of time,” Wilson said. “It’s great because there are learning-based games on there, so the kids think they’re just playing a game, but they’re really learning.”