Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Organizing iPads

The thirty iPads in my classroom are neatly stored overnight within a Bretford storage cart. When the school day starts, it's important for me to maintain order without sacrificing time. Here's my strategy:

  • I have tables in my classroom - seven tables for seven groups. Each student has an assigned seat and an assigned iPad. They share this iPad with whoever has their seat the next period. First thing in the morning, I transfer iPads from the charging station to small crates that live on the tables. Each crate contains four iPads (in folio cases), a cleaning cloth, and four styluses (styli?). Ideally, I'd like the crates to have a handle for easy transportation, but I couldn't find any that suited my needs (and my budget).
  • To keep everything straight in my mind, I created a document with a table. The left hand column lists the iPads, the header row lists the five periods I teach. At any time, I can glance at the document and know who has permission to use any iPad. I know if there is a problem with an iPad, who used it last. 
  • I also plan on putting stickers on the iPad cases to identify authorized users without having to pull up my document. Moo stickers are perfect for this application - 90 individual stickers for $9.99. I will let each student photograph themself, add the class period and their name to the bottom of the photo, send out to Moo and stick on to the case. I anticipate these will wear out over time, but it will be nice to have a simple way for any teacher or administrator to instantly check if there is an issue.



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