Favorite App Linky Party

The Techie Teacher, Julie is hosting a Favorite App Linky Party! Since I am obsessed with downloading apps choosing just one seems IMPOSSIBLE! So here it goes...! I am sharing an old favorite that has been my go to app of the year!

Show Me is definitely my favorite free app. I have used it with students in grades first through eighth in every subject so I love the versatility. Show Me turns your iPad into a mini SMART Board and is a great app for creation. It records your screen and any marks you make as well as your voice which is great for explaining how to do something, sharing a story, solving a problem, assessing student's understanding, etc. Saving and sharing is easy which makes this app outstanding in my eyes! With just one click your Show Me is uploaded to the website and you can view it on your iPad or online! Once your Show Me is saved you can share it with a link or easily embed it into your blog or class page! Check out a few of our Show Mes. I selected a few from over 500 in my account.

1st Grade Science

 3rd Grade Social Studies

5th Grade Math

6th Grade Language Arts

Apps Gone Free

To say I am obsessed with downloading apps is an understatement. I am constantly searching the app store, checking other technology blogs and just plain stalking people's iPads. I think I am going to start a monthly Appaholics meeting (linky party) for those of you who have the same problem as me!

Apps Gone Free showcases high quality apps that have turned free making the search that much easier! Not all of the apps are educational but I am always looking for good apps whether it be for inside or out of the classroom. Apps Gone Free features 10 apps every day and there are always a few keepers! You can easily fill your iPad with $100s of dollars worth of apps in a few weeks. This is a great way to try new apps without racking up a bill and the best part is that you can delete it without guilt if it isn't what you are looking for! I hate downloading a paid app and being disappointed with it's features and upset at wasting a perfectly good 0.99 cents or worse yet a more expensive app. Most of the apps are free for a limited time so it is important to check daily or every couple of days. 

AppShopper is another great app for finding free apps BUT it was recently taken out of the app store. My headphone jack wasn't detecting my UP band so I had to have it replaced and I was SO disappointed when I couldn't find AppShopper in the app store or in my purchased apps section. I am hoping that it reappears soon! 

What is your favorite PAID app? (perhaps you got it for free)

iPad App Icons

Cocoppa app allows users to personalize iPad app icons. I have heard mixed reviews but until I have an issue my iPad looks adorable. It was fairly easy to use but took some time getting used to it. Have you used Cocoppa or a similar app to customize your iPad? I bet you can't guess my favorite  color haha ;)!

Stop Motion

iMotion is a FREE iPad app that let's you easily create Stop Motion videos! I downloaded this app awhile ago and shared it with our art teacher. I didn't really explore it BUT she did and has been creating integrated science Stop Motion videos with 4th graders.

I couldn't believe how easy it was to create. You simply open the app and snap, snap, snap, snap, snap as many pictures as you need while adding to a drawing or moving something, etc. and then save you product! Then plug the iPad into iTunes to export the videos or send them over email! Since they are so small you can attach them to a QR Code using QR Code Maker so she will have the finished drawing on display with the QR Code.

Scan the QR Code to watch a Plant Stop Motion video created by two students in Miss Kohler's 4th Grade art class!

Toontastic

Toontastic is an iPad app that has unlimited possibilites with children of all ages! There is a free version if you want to try it out but I highly recommend the paid version which gives you a lot more scenes and characters as well as the ability to draw your own, import images or even capture images with your camera! The paid version is $12.99 which is a little more on the expensive side for an app but it is totally worth it! The app is easy to use and prompts you of exactly what to do! First graders created a famous American cartoon last week and they had no trouble! One other thing that I love about the app is the easy upload to ToonTube! After you set up an email account and create a password when you finish with your cartoon you simply give it a title, name the director and press "Share on ToonTube." Before you know it you will receive an email to approve the cartoon and then it can be viewed online, shared in a link or embedded into a website! 

After much negotiation my husband agreed to help me create this video to introduce the Toontastic Famous American Project to the first graders! He had to have say in the script and didn't like my "girly" words. He had such a ball doing it that he has asked me on several occasions when we are making another movie which kind of cracks me up!

How cute is this 1st Grade Famous American Toontastic? I love their voices and the erratic movement of their person! They really struggled to read their script and make their person move. Don't you just love those peanut voices?!

Check out more all of our cartoons here!

What do you think of the 100 Follower Giveaway icon?! I am not quite there with digital graphic design LOL! I already have 3 lovely ladies willing to donate and I am getting the rafflecopter ready to go! If you would like to contribute something I would love to link you up :)! 

December Here and Gone

I am a little embarrassed that my last post was December 1st. I had good intentions of featuring the "12 Apps of Christmas" but obviously I didn't get myself together for that and I can't come up with another clever blog title so here you have it!

As I've claimed before I cannot live without my iPad. I have tons of new apps that I want to share with you! Teacher's Pick is an awesome teacher tool. I usually only feature FREE apps but recently I've bought some pretty cool apps and feel that this one is worth the $1.99.

Teacher's Pick allows you to randomly pick students just like the "old fashioned" popsicle stick method!

Since I teach 1st - 8th graders (650 students) I added numbers rather than names to use in the lab! Each student has a class number so this works perfectly! 

You can add as many classes as you want as you can see on the left I have Porter Mentees, Porter Staff, Porter Elementary, Porter Middle School and then Lab. By pressing the smile the iPad randomly selects  a student and highlights their name/number in purple. You can mark students as absent so it doesn't pick someone who isn't there. 

One other awesome feature is that it will randomly put students in groups! You set the number of students and give the groups a name and ta-da group work made easy!!! LOVE this feature!  

I haven't done too much with badges but you have the ability to award students badges which I know students really like receiving. 

Since Teacher's Pick is a paid app I wanted to offer a FREE alternative :)!

iLEAP Pick a Student is a good second choice. It doesn't look as pretty (Chalkdust font haha) but it does the trick and it costs nothing :)!

50 Nifty United States

Happy Election Day!!! I hope you all got out and voted today! 

We stood in line for almost 2 hours to cast our ballot.

As our home is anxiously awaiting election results I saw this comic and couldn't help but crack up! It has been tense watching the results begin to pour and I love the humor and needed a break from the seriousness of this election :)! Besides watching the news we are also stalking 270towin and Election Results (both supposedly bipartisan)! Anyways, I thought this would be a perfect time to blog about learning the 50 states in school. Below are a few of my favorite YouTube videos. 

A first grader at our school sang this at our school talent show last year and I was so impressed!

Did you learn this song when you were growing up? 

5th graders in VA learn the states and capitals and I thought this song was a good hook.

So I have told you how much I heart Chrome and Google Apps but haven't really elaborated on any so I thought tonight I could show you Simple States which is a great app for learning and quizzing the states. It isn't super colorful and it doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles but it is definitely worth checking out...

I have tons of apps on the iPad to help students learn the states. Here are just a few!

Stack the States- I adore this app and my kids LOVE it too!

iLearn United States- very interactive the kids get really into this app.

US Map Games- You cannot do much without upgrading so this app isn't the best but you can play the puzzle level 1 for free.

This website has TONS of awesome links and all different levels of learning. Here is another fun US Map Quiz.

There are tons of interactive games, apps and websites! I have only highlighted a few. 

There are literally millions! 

What do YOU use in your classroom?

Favorite Apps

Happy weekend friends!!! I am going to share my TOP 10 Apps for iThings in no particular order:)!

10. QRafter- Great app for scanning QR Codes! Easy to use and always reliable. You can even change appearance of the QR Codes! Guess what color mine scan?! PINK!!!

9. Class Dojo- This is a great "teacher tool" and all of the teachers who are using it at my school <3 it! Students respond well to the positive reinforcement and it is an amazing data collection tool for both positive and negative behavior! Having it on the iPad makes it easy to use!

8. Scribble Press- If you've been following my blog you know that I love this app! It is a free book making app! It is super user friendly and intuitive. There are tons of templates or you can make your own book from scratch. The books can be downloaded to iBooks and uploaded to the internet! I love all of the markers, you can import your own pictures for the book or add any clipart that is saved to your camera roll. 

7. Puppet Pals- Director's Pass- Puppet Pals is free but it has limited access to characters! Director's Pass which is $2.99 allows you to download several character sets and even use your own photos which you are then able to puppetize! You can also add custom backdrops! Move the puppets around and record voice! This app is awesome for story retelling or creating your own story! I can't wait to do my first project with this app :)! This app is deserving of a tutorial which may be a video blog soon!

6. Show Me, Screen Chomp and Educreations- I put these three apps together because they are all very similar. Basically they all turn your iPad into a recordable whiteboard where you can explain anything :)! Create animated lessons, label diagrams, add to photos, etc. All three are easy to use and have a little something different to offer! 

5. Spell Board- This app is not free but it is worth every penny! You can custom enter the word lists, record your voice saying the words and students complete activities and quizzes. You can download pre-made quizzes with dolch sight words too.

4. Space Math- This free app is great for practicing math fact fluency. It has easy, medium and hard for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and three different activities (flash cards, math sliders and math defense). The kids love it and the aliens are adorable :)! You can add a student profile and their picture so their progress is always saved. 

3. Linoit- I LOVE sticky notes and this is an awesome collaboration tool! You can post stickies, videos, pictures, links, etc. Set up a lesson, use this for brainstorming, check for understanding by having kids create a multi-media board on a book they read, etc.

2. Google Drive- I am obsessed with Chrome and all of the Google Apps out there for computers and iThings! I absolutely LOVE Google Drive. Makes uploading pictures, videos and other documents super easy. I have been using Google Drive with 4th and 8th graders this year and I am in love!

1. Google Earth- Literally hold the world in the palm of your hand with Google Earth! Amazing app for any landmark or geography lesson. Navigate around the world with a swipe of your finger, how cool is this?

What I love best about most of these apps is that they are not content specific and allow a lot of freedom for creativity! You can stretch them across most content areas and they are great for higher level thinking skills.

What is YOUR favorite app?

Technology Tip Tuesday

Hey blogging friends! I have been learning so much about the ins and outs of blogging in the past few weeks! While I was stalking reading blogs I stumbled across my first Blog Hop! I'm still not actually sure what the difference between a Linky Party and a Blog Hop is but here we go...I missed out on Monday Must-Haves but will be posting today for Tuesday Technology Tip!

So my Tech Tip is actually an application recommendation. I am using the app Reflection and Screen Capture Tool-Lite to create my 2nd video blog! 

The app is called ShowMe and it is a free download for the iPad or iPods. I won't spend much time writing about it as you can see it in action below! I think it is an amazing app and has some huge potential. How do you think it could be used?  

Thanks for stopping by! I would love your feedback or ideas for how you are going to use this app!

Scribble Press

Hey guys! This is my first video blog so please be patient with me and excuse my hair! I got so excited to actually do the video blog that I didn't even pay attention to how I looked! Then I had so much trouble figuring out how to get audio that at this point I was just DONE :)!  

I used an app called Reflection which I downloaded on my MacBook Air and it allows me to mirror the iPad 2 screen onto the Mac (a-w-e-s-o-m-e). What an awesome way to review apps and show you what I am up to on the iPad! Then I used a fee screen recorder to pick up the audio. Since I used the free version of the screen recorder it only allowed for a 3 minute video. I figured 3 minutes would be plenty of time but apparently I talk too much so I didn't get as far as I had hoped going through the features of Scribble Press but it is very user friendly! My first graders picked it up after modeling it once so I am sure you will be able to play around with it. The app is free and can be downloaded at from iTunes here! You can also check out the site here!

Basically it is a book creating app. You type your text and then either illustrate your book OR import pictures! You an import clipart or actual photos. My students fell in love with this app and loved all the different maker colors and stamps that you could use! Once you finish your book you can add your own picture to the back and a small bio or about the book. The book can then be sent to iBooks and uploaded to the internet! It takes about 24 hours to process each book to make sure they are appropriate and then you can access them ONLINE! Parents LOVED checking out our books at home and students also read them at the computer center! What a great way to promote writing, reading and a core curriculum area (math, science or social studies)! Check out these Scribble Press books made by 1st graders.

I am in LOVE with this app and I know you will be too as soon as you check it out! I cannot wait to use it in the computer lab!