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iTooch for iPad Learning

11 Mar

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image_1There are lots of great apps for literacy and math practice and iTooch by eduPad is a platform that gives students lots of choices!

The free starter version has skill based questions for Language Arts, Math, and Science.  This free content is perfect for students ages 8-11 and the upgrade has even more. Your students will love the simple interface, lesson details (with vocabulary!) and scratchpad to work out their answers.

Check out my bundle of Common Core aligned iPad lesson plans for teaching math in your classroom!

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Presidents vs. Aliens

6 Mar

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Stack the States is one of my favorite iPad geography games and Presidents vs. Aliens is a fun app that teaches facts and trivia about the presidents of the United States. It’s interactive and informative and a great way to use transition times between subject areas, as a behavior management incentive, or to kick off a unit on United States History.

Check out my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan using this app in the classroom!

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Tellagami for Story Telling

27 Feb

There are so many great screencasting apps that I use in my classroom.  Tellagami is a fantastic free iPad app takes it to another level by allowing users to create their own avatars and place themselves anywhere they’d like (I’m “standing” in my classroom now.)  If you’re flipping your classroom, leaving a message for students to play when you’re pulled out for a meeting, or just looking to start off a lesson in a new way, you have to try Tellagami.

Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plan using this app in the classroom!

Use this app with my Common Core aligned lesson plan for the iPad camera!

Watch my post!

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Dropbox: Fill it up!

20 Feb

photo (7)I love using Dropbox  in my classroom, in fact I can’t live without it.  Dropbox is fantastic if you’re looking to conserve resources or save time making photocopies.
Here are just a few things that are in my students’ Dropboxes right now:

  • Vocabulary reference charts
  • Reader’s Theater scripts
  • Reading passages
  • Project Rubrics
  • Activity sheets that can be completed in other apps
  • PowerPoint/Keynote presentations

Check out my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan bundle with activity sheets that can be completed in other apps on your iPad!

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People HD for Biographies

18 Feb

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Biographies are a great way to get students excited about Social Studies.  People HD provides information on different historical figures, a timeline of their life and famous quotes.  The list could be more diverse, but I think it presents a great opportunity to have students research and create their own entry.

Here’s a Common Core aligned lesson planthat is perfect for biographies!

Check out this Common Core aligned lesson plan for another biography activity!

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Score Rubrics on Your iPad

11 Feb

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If you use rubrics to grade student work you have to try ForAllRubrics! Once you set up your class list, this website allows users to import rubrics they’ve already made, or easily create new ones.  Open the site on your iPad and with a few taps you’ll have projects graded in no time.  It’s easy to access previous grades, print out data, and it’s free for teachers!

Here’s a Common Core aligned guide to creating Screencasts in your classroom (it has a rubric too!)

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WatchUp to Customize Current Events

8 Feb

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There are lots of great ways to explore current events and I’ve shared some great free apps for accessing multimedia informational text.  One of my favorite news apps that I use at home and school is Watchup.  This free app allows you to create your own news program by choosing short clips from different news sources (EuroNews, AP, PBS, etc.).

I love customizing any tool to fit the need of my students and Watchup is a fantastic free app that allows you to do just that!

Use this app with my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan on current events!

 

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Synonym Practice on iPads

6 Feb

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There are lots of great apps for teaching literacy to your students and here’s another to try out in your classroom. In Find Synonym the user unscrambles letters to spell out a synonym for the word presented.  It includes definitions for each word and you can even unlock the antonym level if you answer enough questions.

 

Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plan using this app in the classroom!

Here’s a Common Core aligned lesson plan for teaching literacy using iPads in your classroom!

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Documentaries for the iPad

4 Feb

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If you’re looking for a good resource for documentaries, SnagFilms is a fantastic app.  Completely free, with no requirement to sign up, SnagFilms offers a great variety of award winning documentaries.  Whether you’re looking to extend a lesson, kick off a unit or just learn more about a topic before teaching, you’ll want to check out this fantastic free app!

Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plan using this app in the classroom!

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Pic Collage to Make iPad Posters

30 Jan

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You might have used a app like this to create a scrapbook page of family pictures but it can be easily used in the classroom.  Pic Collage is a free app that allows users to take multiple images and place them on a blank canvas or within borders and add text and captions.  Students in my class use pictures that they’ve taken themselves or gathered from Google Image search.  They can save their “posters” to their Camera Roll and email their work.  These make great bulletin board items!

Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plan for using this app in your classroom!

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iPad MadLibs

30 Jan

Screen shot 2013-01-27 at 3.55.20 PMForget about the way you completed Mad Libs as a child – there’s an app for that!  The official Mad Libs app offers 21 free stories that can be used to reinforce literacy skills.  Have students identify parts of speech and create their own fill in the blank story.

Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plan using this app in the classroom!

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SnapGuide for How-Tos

28 Jan

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I love learning new things and SnapGuide is a fantastic free app that you must explore! Pinterest is a great place for gathering new ideas, and SnapGuide takes this concept to a whole new level.  SnapGuide is full of how-to guides that show step-by-step instructions on how to complete a variety of tasks.  You and your students can even create your own how-to guides using this free service!

Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plan for using this app!

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Illustrate a Story

28 Jan

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There are so many great apps to have students practice storytelling and here’s another I love.  Pirate Scribble by Kidoodle is more than just a coloring book.  Students create pictures that correspond to a story that is told in sequence.  It’s a great way to reinforce literacy skills while allowing students the opportunity to be creative.

Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plan using another storytelling app I love!

Here’s another Common Core aligned lesson planusing another storytelling app I love!

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Wordmover for Poem Creation

25 Jan

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This free app acts like the magnetic words you might have on your refrigerator. Created by the National Council of Teachers of English, Wordmover allows students to manipulate words on their screen. Choose from the list they’ve provided and add your own words to create phrases, sentences or poems. I think this app would be perfect for a poetry station or a challenge activity for fast finishers.

Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plan using this app!

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Working Together: iPad Apps that Facilitate Student Collaboration

19 Jan

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If you weren’t one of the 300+ attendees of my live webinar, you can still check out my presentation:

View on SlideShare

Download the Presentation

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iPad Document Camera

11 Jan

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So many teachers in one iPad classrooms love using Educreations as a SMARTBoard simulator. Another fantastic presentation tool is Stage: Interactive Whiteboard and Document Camera.

This app works as a document camera and allows you to switch from a whiteboard, picture background, and camera while leaving text on the screen. It also has a laser pointer feature that allows the user to point out details on the screen without leaving a mark on the image.

20130111-082401.jpgI’ve heard of teachers creating a document camera using an iPad in place of an ELMO projector, and there are products that do just this for you. I’ve used Stage Interactive in whole class instruction and small groups but I can definitely see the benefits of having an iPad on a stand when using this app.

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Ready to Research: Recording Citations

9 Jan

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The iPad is a fantastic tool for completing research, publishing, and sharing your work. There are two free apps from PERRLA that make it easy to record citations whether you’re using MLA or APA style references.  This app is perfect for elementary students completing a biography project or high schoolers writing a term paper.

Check out my Common Core aligned iPad lesson plan using this app in the classroom!

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Replace Your Dry Erase Board with a Portable WhiteBoard

7 Jan

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My students spend a lot of time working in differentiated groups. That means that I’m constantly circulating to make sure that everyone is on task.  Sometimes I need to quickly review a skill for a group. Instead of carrying a small dry erase board (and turning my fingers different colors from messy Expo markers) I take my iPad from group to group and draw on the screen.

Using a whiteboard app like Educreations, I can work through a math problem or draw the arc of a story.  In a small group using Educreations I’ll take snapshots of student work to annotate, just like I would grab a fantastic example and place it in under my Elmo projector for the whole class to see. This is a great tool for a one iPad classroom!

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iPad Project: Resume Builder

4 Jan

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My students aren’t quite ready to write their own resumes but there is still a place for this app in my classroom.

A great way to replace or extend a biography project is to create a resume of the person you are studying.  Have students use the Pocket Mobile Resume app to demonstrate their knowledge of a historical figure’s personal information, experience and education, while choosing contemporaries to act as references and identify the skills and strengths of this person.  Try it out in your classroom!

Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plan using this app in the classroom!

Here’s another Common Core aligned lesson plan using this app in the classroom!

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Understoodit: Formative Assessment Tool

2 Jan
UPDATE 5/13: Understoodit is closing but here’s another similar option – PollEverywhere

photo-4If you are looking for a new formative assessment tool check out Understoodit.  Whether your students are on iPads or have access to the web from desktops, Understoodit is a fantastic free assessment tool that is perfect for collecting data when presenting new information to students.  As you speak, students press one of two buttons on a website unique to your class: “Confused” or “Understood” You’ll receive real-time data on how well your class understands your presentation.

At first I was hesitant to try Understooit with my fifth graders, since it seemed so perfect for university professors and high school teachers, but it worked great with my group.  I don’t normally teach by lecture so I had students first try it out while watching a BrainPop video.  This way it was easy for me to know when to pause and initiate a discussion when they were confused.  I’m gathering formative data and can alter my instruction by the minute!

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