Using the iPad to Answer "I'M FINISHED!"

    Do you ever have some students finished with a project and others still working?  I do! The last thing I want to do is get them ahead again on starting the next project.  At first, I was giving these students a chance to use some apps on the iPad.  I let the students use apps like Pottery HD Lite and Faces iMake, but then I noticed students rushing their projects to use the iPad, and were they really getting anything out of using these apps so casually?

     Students were finishing a Pop Art project this week and we didn't have a lot of class time to talk about all the many artists that encompass pop art.  How was I going to get this information to them and still make forward progress?  The iPad answers my dilemma once again!  On my website that I design with Weebly, I linked websites and videos of artists.  Students brought their own earbuds to class that day and were instructed to do Pop Art research!

     This solved many problems!  Students who were behind got caught up.  They have a chance to do the research on their own time if they choose because the material is all available on my website.  These students also didn't rush their projects to use the iPads.  Students using the iPad could share more easily than when they were using an app and were less distracting to the students finishing up their work.  I also felt like they were working on something that was adding to their learning experience, and not just buying time.  Overall, it was a productive day in art today for all my students!

Students found the link and videos on my website .