Have you tried Artsonia Classroom yet? I have been using it with my third through fifth graders and I love it!
With the coming implementation of Common Core State Standards, I have been integrating more and more writing into my curriculum. Projects, Pre-project work, and assessment can all include writing in some form. Artsonia Classroom makes it easy to not only add writing into the assessment process, but teach about Artist Statements and assess if the kids actually understood what I was trying to teach them. As an added benefit, students can upload their own artwork AND their artist statement will be published with their artwork for all to see their writing! The process requires a lot of steps, but is very easy to use. My students have had very little questions, after watching me go through it on the SmartBoard. I have created a how-to for both the computer and the iPad and posted them here for all of your classrooms as well. I'll post a few screen shots here, so you can see what it's like. On my actual documents, I added arrows to show the students which buttons I am referring to.
Uploading using an iPad Please note, I access Artsonia Classroom through the free QR Reader app.
Uploading using a computer: Please note, if the artwork is not already published, you or the artist will need to take a digital photo of the work and have access to it.
I have three laptops and one computer in my classrooms, which I carry from school to school for this purpose. I also have a class set of iPads at each school and try to borrow 3-5 for my third through fifth grade students when they are available. I also have two binders at each school that have printouts of both of the how-to guides above and all the QR codes, sorted by grade level. I have in/out boxes in my classroom and when a student finishes their artwork they are instructed to put it in their grade level IN box and take a rubric from the OUT box. The rubric asks questions about the project and is designed to help the students form complete sentences to then type in as their Artist Statement. For example, my fifth graders just learned about the Principle of Art, Emphasis by creating Zentangles with emphasis and then using the Color Effects App to show emphasis in a landscape image. Their rubric asked 1. What is Emphasis, 2. How did you used Emphasis in your project? (Here's their gallery) The best part? Their writing gets sent to me to review before being posted. I have to approve their editing of their artwork AND their writing before it is posted. This allows me to read what they wrote, grade it, approve it, and add their grade to my grade book all with a few mouse clicks! Simplicity at it's best-while integrating writing AND technology! This seriously makes me feel like an awesome teacher.
