Sorry to hear about your district's level of control. I guess I am lucky in that they let me do pretty much what I want with technology. However, I pay for it myself. I show them what can be done, but I think that with the use of iPads in the classroom expanding and all of our admins in my district having them too the tide is starting to turn and they will probably be investing in the direction of iPads. We'll see...but my PTA wants to but them for my site teachers so there is that.
So, to address my earlier post: iPad2 connected wirelessly to Apple TV2 that is connected to a converter (HDView,
Amazon for about $90) via an HDMI cable then a VGA cable from the converter to a projector. The HDView was recommended by another teacher on another forum and so I tried it. It works extremely well. Please stick with this one since i have read that many of the converters out there (even other HDCP compliant ones) do not scale the iPad image correctly and part of your screen may come up missing.
With this system, I can mirror from my iPad through the projector and will be able to be anywhere in the classroom and teach a math lesson, show a video, use the camera to show them something, or let a student use it on their desk to demonstrate to the class their understanding of a concept.
I hope this helps and let me know if I left out something.