Poetry is one of the arts that many students struggle with. I always found that providing an initial successful learning experience was the best way to instil both confidence and foster engagement with my students.

Here are a bunch of apps that would allow a student to get their teeth into writing some poetry and for those that struggle, an opportunity to see just what they are capable of.

Photo credit: JJPacres

Never be stuck trying to explain to students how to make a poster, create 'spoken' research or learn vocabulary words on the iPad. These 3 workflow posters show how to use 5 different apps step by step via a visual and written guide.

Students love to share how they do things. This is especially true when they are working on iPads.

I have started to collect and document some of these workflows to share with other classes and other schools, all from my conversations with Yr 4, 5 and 6 kids.

What interests me is how reflection of both the process and the product is so important for them; if they are not satisfied with the product they will modify or enhance it further.

These posters can be used as a simple visual prompt for students - they get to see a quick process and how each step works, giving them scope to adapt it if they don't like their final piece of work.

I love word clouds. It is the best way to deconstruct a piece of text with students.

It lets you start that conversation about language, text types, literacy and the power of the written word. It is also a great way to do a text analysis.

Marco Torres talks about using them to compare two political speeches to analyse the types of words each of the candidates use but this idea would work just as easily with characters in a book, types of poems or even a series of artists you are studying.

There has been a great discussion forum within our school system about iPads, Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) and sharing student's work. It started with a question from a teacher just wanting to connect their iPad to the IWB. What then followed was an in-depth discussion about classroom practice and workflows.

We have all spent time and energy creating resources for our IWB, but is it time we move to new technology? We can in fact connect our iPads to an IWB via the VGA Adaptor, but would you choose to if you had other options?

One of the things that really excites me about the iPad is the ability of the students to show their learning. I am not talking about the end product here, I am talking about the act of learning that can be shown by students recording their processes. It is often about the student putting the information they have learnt into a context. It is this contextualisation that helps the students create meaning.

Here are 10 apps that give students the opportunity to showcase, share and then reflect on their learning. Enjoy, some of these double up as my favourite apps too.

I have yet to find the perfect digital portfolio app that I think I would use exclusively in a visual arts class. Some apps can be used as graphic portfolios or as beautiful sketchbooks, others are great at sharing. Not all of the apps available are great at all of these things. I have spent a heap of time trying to find one and would be more than happy for someone to send me the name of ones they are using successfully. Having said that, the following are apps that I would consider using as eportfolios:

Evernote: FREE 
Evernote is an easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use. Stay organized, save your ideas and improve productivity. Evernote lets you take notes, capture photos, create to-do lists, record voice reminders--and makes these notes completely searchable, whether you are at home, at work, or on the go.