Kickoff. Or "Why am I Here?"

I was motivated to enroll in SummerCamp 2.0 because it is a class where I can make the assignments fit what I do in the classroom.  As an art specialist, I have many experiences of attending staff development activities that do not really fit what I do.  The price and schedule of this class is a motivating factor as well.

I need ways to easily communicate with a large number of students and families.  I hope to also find some methods of surveying students to gauge how well they are progressing toward standards.  One more thing is that it would be cool to find an activity that would motivate students to engage in art making and art learning that would not require an excessive amount of time on my part.

I am fairly comfortable with technology in general, but I never have time to learn new things.  I get frustrated when things that work fine change and then I don't know how to do something that I used to know how to do.  I also tend to have hardware problems often.  My kids laugh at me about this, but that's ok.

I have a smartboard in my classroom.  I bring my personal iPad to school to assist in looking things up for students and taking photos of art to post on artsonia.com.  I think artsonia.com is a 2.0 site.  Students can write artists statements and anyone can leave comments for the artist.  Parents need to approve comments before they are posted publicly.  Here is a link:

http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=96064