One iPad

This past year, I taught with one iPad. I dream of a classroom set of iPads, but the reality is that I have one iPad. My iPad. Bought for me by my husband as a present. And I have put this thing through the paces. It has walked the hallways of CCA as often as I have.

Here's what I've learned this year with a single iPad: use the technology you have instead of whining about what you don't have. Does this mean I don't press on, encouraging and hoping and educating and dreaming of future possibilities? No. BUT it does mean that I use what I have, when I have it, attempting for maximum potential return.

With one iPad:

- I take daily attendance
- Create presentations
- Write handwritten comments on student essays
- Look up student passwords for forgetful students
- Enjoy relational time with my homeroom crafting goofy videos
- Impress students with my Temple Run high score
- Use side-by-side Shakespeare to help students make sense of the bard
- Read, read, read - anything and anytime and anywhere I can
- Watch reruns of HGTV (guilty pleasure)
- Control my Smart Board
- Record class behavior (classdojo.com)
- Email a student right when they ask for something
- Brush up on my art skills with Draw Something
- Follow tech blogs

My final exam has a section for comments about the class. Some of my favorites were those from students who mentioned that sometimes they weren't sure if they were in a literature class or a computer class. Bravo. Technology should be so integrated into the classroom that it's not a shiny new thing that excites students - it's a tool that unlocks potential.