Sweet Integrations: apps

Showing posts with label apps. Show all posts

Using Digital Comics to Motivate Reluctant Readers and Writers With Sample

Using comics or graphic novels in your teaching is a fun way to keep your students motivated. Reluctant readers and writers tend to get excited over using comics because comic writing is less intensive. Students can be imaginative in their writing and creative in their choice of characters and props. Using comics can even increase a student's vocabulary. Jennifer Haines wrote an excellent article about Teaching With Comics. In this post, I've provided ideas for Using Digital Comics to Motivate Reluctant Readers and Writers.

Using digital comics infused into your reading or writing curriculum is a great way to motivate your reluctant learners. The different online apps & websites listed here are great resources for your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, & 6th grade classroom or home school students. It's a great way to bring technology into students' day. Science, social studies, & various ELA topics can all be covered depending on which technology component you use. {second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth graders, upper elementary}

Using Technology to Promote Summer Reading

As teachers we want to ensure that our students continue learning through the summer. Did you know students lose at least two to three months in reading and most students lose two months of math skills in the summer? It's important for us to make sure that all of our children are stimulated. For those who have access to technology, I have a some ideas in using technology to promote summer reading.

Many teachers and parents are using technology to promote summer learning, and now you can too! There are great websites, apps, programs, & more for elementary students here. As a teacher, you can promote these to students AND their families. Great for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th grade. Ideas for a book club, online reading, book reviews, book creation, apps, and website. Perfect for the parent seeking technology integration into the summer routine. (second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth graders}

Four Tips in Developing Project Based Learning Reflection

During a Project Based Learning unit, it's important to know how students feel about the project and their own learning. Through reflection, students will have an opportunity to express their feelings and opinions, share their learning experiences, and evaluate the project. That's why today I'm sharing four tips for developing project based learning reflection.

Four Tips for Developing Project Based Learning Reflection - Help your upper elementary and middle school students learn how to reflect during their next PBL project. You'll get great ideas you can implement immediately, as well as a book suggestion to learn more about the process. And there are also great technology tips, tools, apps, websites, and more. {second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth grader approved!}

5 Ideas for Digital Book Reviews

I've joined friends from the Reading Crew to share our ideas and resources to help your students BLOOM in reading. Be sure to enter our raffle and visit each blog for FREE resources. We have $625 in prizes!

When you assign book reviews to your students, would you like alternatives for home projects or written reviews? I have 5 Ideas for Digital Book Reviews that may help you next time you assign book reports to your students. At the bottom of the post, you can download your FREE templates.

image title for 5 Ideas for Digital Book Reviews

Tools 4 Students - Graphic Organizer App for Reading

Are there times when you want to use graphic organizers for reading in your classroom and don't have time to create them? Tools4Students is a great iPad app that contains 25 different templates for reading skills. You can choose from Cause/Effect to Story Elements to Fact/Opinion. All 25 colorful graphic organizers are excellent for digital learning.

Are there times when you want to use graphic organizers with your students and don't have time to create them? Tools4Students is a great tool that contains 25 different templates for reading. You can choose from Cause/Effect to Story Elements to Fact/Opinion. And, all 25 colorful graphic organizers are excellent for elementary and middle school students.

Integrate Technology and Reading With the App ChatterPix Kids

Integrating technology and reading is so easy with the ChatterPix Kids app. I love to use this tool with my non-readers in the primary grades. It allows them to give a much more detailed response than they are able to write by hand, which helps me know how much they understand about what they just read. In this tutorial, I am going to show you the basics of what the ChatterPix Kids app looks like and provide 9 ideas for you to try with your students.

Thank you to Brittany Washburn for our guest post.

ChatterPix Kids is a great app for integrating technology and reading. In this tutorial I am going to show you the basics of what the ChatterPix Kids app looks like and provide 9 ideas for you to try with your students.

Engaging Presentations With Shadow Puppet - Plus Freebie

If you're looking for an engaging tool for student presentations, I highly recommend Shadow Puppet. The educational version works so well for any grade level. This app would be perfect for any type of subject area because students can include images on the subject, text and sound. Students can create videos to explain an idea, presentation of research, send a personal message or greeting, or tell a story.

Shadow Puppet App for Education, Apps for video, perfect for student presentations, you can download a free storyboard and checklist

Ideas for Teaching Digital Citizenship With EdPuzzle

Classrooms all over the world are sharing the many innovative ways technology can be used in learning, which is why today's post is all about teaching digital citizenship.

"Digital Learning Day was started as a way to actively spread innovative practices and ensure that all youth have access to high-quality digital learning opportunities no matter where they live."

I'm sharing ideas with 5 other technology lovers from the Tech With Us Community. We are teaming up to share our tips in teaching Digital Citizenship which can be infused into your curriculum throughout the year.

Celebrate Digital Learning Day (or any day where you want to incorporate technology) by using EdPuzzle in the classroom. This post will show you how to find and customize great videos to use with your primary, upper elementary, and middle school students. You'll be teaching digital citizenship in no time! Click through to see example videos and get started today! {Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th grade classroom or homeschool, computers, lesson plan, unit study}

Apps for Setting Project Based Learning Goals

If you're like me, every year my goal or New Year's Resolution is to lose weight and spend less money. Even though these are great goals for me to achieve, I need an organized, systematic way to achieve my goals. And, setting goals helps me with short term and long term motivation. After I decide on my achievable goals, I need to decide what tasks I need to complete in order to achieve these goals.

In setting goals for our students, especially during a project based learning, there are important elements we need to remember. Read more to learn these elements and about a great app I use to help students in setting project based learning goals.

For setting project based learning goals, I recommend several including Mindmeister, Popplet, Idea Sketch, and Simple Mind. This blog post highlights using Simple Mind for Mindmapping. I've included a sample as students learn how to use the app.

Random "Apps" of Kindness: Teaching Character Development

Teaching your students different ways of showing acts of kindness is important in teaching character development. Today, with the emphasis on anti-bullying, there are many ways for students to do good deeds to show empathy, appreciation, and display a caring attitude toward others.

Teaching character development does not have to be difficult with these random "apps" of kindness. See which of the six would work best for your students to share some random acts of kindness in the classroom. It's a great way to integrate technology into your classroom, homeschool, or your character education lessons. Click through for all the details and to see how you could make these work with your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, or 9th grade classroom or homeschool students.

Try a different way of teaching the activity Turkey in Disguise. Students can use the app PicCollage to disguise the turkey.

After reading the favorite read-aloud Thanksgiving book Turkey in Trouble by Wendi Silvano, students can complete the fun Turkey in Disguise activity. Turkey in Trouble sets up the activity with the turkey trying to disguise himself as another animal so he won't be eaten for Thanksgiving. I've seen classes produce the cutest art projects using a turkey template. But, this activity is a little different. Students will use the app Pic Collage to create their own Turkey in Disguise.

Are you looking for ways to go paperless in your classroom? Try this great app that can be used for your assignments, review, and assessment. I like Classkick because teachers can create the lessons, students work during real time and they can receive instant feedback as they work. Students can even request help from the teacher or from other students while working on the assignment. Classkick is an excellent resource for students who are too shy to ask for help.

Blending Technology and Project Based Learning

When implementing project based learning, I can't imagine a project without the use of technology. Whether you are using mobile devices, laptops, or desktops, there are so many applications and websites that can be resources and tools for the project based units. That's why today's post is all about blending technology and project based learning.

I've shared 5 apps that will help you in teaching STEM in the upper elementary classroom

With so many classrooms having iPads, teachers are always looking for great apps to use with their teaching. I've found some apps that are recommended for teaching STEM. Some of these apps are for building and some are for beginning programming. If you are a Texas teacher, TCEA has these on their list for teaching STEM.

It's Be Appy Monday. This past weekend was absolutely beautiful in Austin. My husband and I went to the Ladybird Wildflower Center to see all of the wildflowers in bloom. It was soooo crowded that we turned around and came home. I'll try again this week. So, stay tuned for pictures of some beautiful Texas wildflowers.

Today, I'm going to share a free product I have that contains many apps for you to use with your students when you're studying the inquiry process. I've gathered together apps for brainstorming, creating graphic organizers, recording and writing notes, ways to collaborate and share ideas, research resources and presentation tools. And, it's free just for you. Just click on the images below to grab your free product.

An InLinkz Link-up

Creating Storybooks With Bookabi

Writing can be such a struggle for young learners. I try to come up with motivating topics for my students and I applications that are fun and easy to use on the iPad. I came across an app called Bookabi. The Texas Computer Association lists recommended apps to use in the classroom by grade level, by subject area and most of them are free. Bookabi is a free app. The storybooks can be created in 2D and 3D. I also like the fact that the images aren't restricted to the app. Images can be saved to the camera roll and imported from there.

How Can I Use Bookabi?

Bookabi can be used for personal narratives, writing fables or legends and for writing informational text. The uses are unlimited. I can imagine students writing about their experiences by adding their personal photos, backgrounds and even speech bubbles. After researching a topic, students can use Bookabi to transform their information into a story.

Bookabi Demo from Tamajii Inc on Vimeo.

What are some of the features?

The tools are so easy to use, your students can quickly figure out how to use the app.

On each page you can:

- Create an illustrated title page and individual pages to the story

- On each page you can add audio, backgrounds, text with different fonts, characters, objects and stickers

- My World - add your face to to the body of different characters

Try using Bookabi with ideas from this March Writing Prompt product that you can find in my store. Just click on the image below.

Use ClassKick for Review and Immediate Feedback

I was recently researching apps for test preparation, when I came across a new app called ClassKick. ClassKick was just released this past fall by a team of engineers and teachers. It is thought to dramatically increase student learning by receiving immediate feedback from their teacher and collaboration with classmates.

1. Students get a Kick out of ClassKick

Students complete teacher-created assignments on a tablet workspace. Teachers can create their own worksheet, embed web content and add video or audio.

2. Teachers

Teachers can see the whole class working at once on his/her device and see how each individual student is performing. The students can work at their own pace.

3. Students

If a student needs help, he/she can ask for help privately on their device. The teacher can reteach a concept on the device so the whole class can see. Or, a student can receive tutoring from another student in class. Students can even use this free app at home!

4. How Does it work?

After the teacher creates an account, there are several step-by step tutorial videos to watch before actually creating assignments. Teachers can then add their students to their roster. Screenshots can be added from your google drive, the web or images from your camera roll. Images can be cropped and rearranged to fit on the page. Text, audio and video can be added to the workspace and links to websites. Next, give students are given the class code so they can complete the assignment and so their instructor can view their work.

I can imagine so many uses for this new app. Teachers can use ClassKick for social studies, math skills, reading comprehension, and review for tests. I love how students can get immediate feedback and work closely with their classmates.

Watch this video to get an idea of how ClassKick works.