Oh what a first semester!

Now that  the first semester of our new school, new, principal and new 1:1 ipad initiative is complete, I finally have a moment to catch up. Ad it is a snow day away from school! Literally snowed in!

First semester went by with not too may glitches. As of this week our student are allowed to take the ipad home! Only about 1/3 of my students' families agreed to attempt this, but I think as next year approaches, we will get much more family involvement.

Since I have not posted in a while, I will try to update my new App suggestion. Boy did we find a bunch of awesome apps and programs!

Stay posted. Tomorrow is a snow day too!

Time flies when you open a new school!

I cannot believe midterms are already due! We have had a busy first few weeks getting our new school opened and getting our one to one ipad initiative rolling!

I found a great app to help teachers with grading multiple choice tests. Do not let the directions scare you. Follow the tutorial and create a bubble sheet. Scan the correct answers. Now all you have to do is take a photo of the students bubble sheet. The app grades the test and saves the score!

And we are off!

It has been a busy few weeks getting my new classroom ready. It is a decked out in superheroes and patiently awaiting our class iPads. A fellow teacher made a great mini iMovie with every staff member in the building so that the kids could put faces with
names. Technology is loading all our approved apps and putting on color coded cases for each team:)

An App a day...

July 31, 2012
iTooch Math .......$5.99   Lite version FREE

iTooch Math

This app was great to use for math practice and quizzes for the students. I teach 6th grade, but I found that the 5th grade app matched our current curriculum ( may differ with Common Core). There is a practice mode and quiz mode. I would allow the kids to practice until they thought they were ready for test. Once they score popped up, I had them take a screen shot and email it to me. Some days I would tell the kids what to work on, other days, I allowed them to pick what they would like to work on.

An App A Day on a teacher's Pay!

A+ Signature lite...Free/ Full version ......$1.99

A+ Signature

I had this on my teacher iPad. I used it to take pictures on my iPad and edit them. My grade level teachers and I chose individual pictures of our students and added sayings (Testing Rock Star, Star Tester) and decorative "stickers" (music notes, stars). We then hung the pictures on their lockers to help get our kids motivated for testing. This was a very easy app to use. The difference between the lite and full version is the amount of items you can add to the picture. I wanted writing and "Stickers", so I purchased the full version.

An App a Day on a teacher's Pay!

Stick Pick...$2.99

Stick Pick

Yes, I have the "old school" can with a craft stick for each kid.

 I found this app half way through the year and the kids loved it. It is very similar to the "random generator" on my smart board, but I can have it in my hands at all times with my iPad. You can create multiple classes and even assign the types of question stems you would like that student to get. (I usually ask my whole class question and then maybe add a follow up for that student with the stems). I love the way it even has sound effects, like the sticks are rattling around in the can......oh yeah and sticks do not "mysteriously" disappear because someone does not want to answer any questions. :)

An App A day on A teacher's Pay!

July 7, 2012......FREE

BugMe!

I know there are some other apps out there just like this, but this is FREE! I did not have this on my class iPads, but I use it daily and could see it being used a lot by kids in class. It is like typing on the note pad, but it helps you create a "sticky" note right on your home page of your iPad.

Once the note is created, Bug Me will tell you to open it in Safari. Once you do that, you just add to your home page. (In tool bar of Safari, touch arrow coming out of square button, and then click on "add to home screen).  You then have a sticky note to create to do lists, notes, or any type of reminder. Just hold down and delete when you are finished!