Just starting out? Here are some apps that come highly recommended for teacher use.
What to do for first aid emergency. Hopefully, you will never need it but it is a great resource to have available.
Use creative commons search for images and other medial that have been licensed for sharing. A great resource that your students can use to find images for projects that will not violate copyright or intellectual property rights.
WikiNodes isn't just a search engine, it is an app that searches the web for content (think text, pictures, video) on a selected topic. The results are displayed as links and you can refine your search by clicking on your desired content and following the links that geenrates. Amazing research tool and one I wish I had access to in school.
Scan is a QR code reader. I use QR codes for activities such as a Math Photo Hunt (take a picture of a repeating pattern, for example) or a Scavenger Hunt. Students love this type of activity and student engagement during math will increase. Promote inquiry, problem-solving and reasoning skills.
Use this site to create your own Treasure Hunts using QR codes. This site guides you through the process and generates the codes so you can cut, paste, post or share with your class. I use this for assessment, for Photo Hunts, for challenges and for posting information around the school. Or, encourage your students to create their own "secret messages".
I cannot recommend this math fluency program enough. Reflex math is an online program created by Explore Learning and costs $35 dollars a year for your child to use. They won't need to use it for more than a year. The program assesses your child's fluency on basic facts, tests, teaches and monitors their progress. The report section allows you to check their progress and usage and print milestone certificates. Built into the program are games that target your child's specific needs. Students can earn coins to spend in a store for items to personalize their avatar or treehouse. Great results with my students.
Gizmos is an online website (created by Explore Learning) that has an extensive collection of math and science simulations that cover the required curriculum from Grade 3 and up. The simulations can be searched for by curriculum and grade level, academic standard and textbook. They are interactive and engaging and do a great job of providing students with an opportunity to carry out scientific inquiry and test their understanding of concepts. There are supporting lesson materials, student guides, vocabulary and online quizzes educators can use to test student understanding. In addition, Explore Learning provides video tutorials for professional development and support for use in classrooms.
This is an amazing site full of videos, photos, games and other fun stuff created and delivered by National Geographic. Homework help is even offered. I grew up with National Geographic and I have never stopped appreciating the quality of what they offer. This site is geared towards kids of all ages and there is a link to resources for little kids as well. Highly recommended.
Discovery Education is an incredible resource for the classroom. There is an extensive and seemingly endless media library of content on any imaginable topic. There are teacher resources, learning communities, assessment tools, virtual classrooms, account management and more. As a resource for learning it is hard to beat the quality and volume of what is available. The media content can be downloaded and streamed. I have my students choose clips and do voice-overs to show what they have learned - think a travelogue for an extreme environment or another country.
Not sure how to do the math? There's an app for that. Khan Academy has a wide range of videos that explain everything from adding to calculus. Students can watch, rewind and review.
Book Creator is an app that allows students to create books and publish or share either as a PDF file or ePub book. They can also be exported to the iBooks app and look very professional. I use this app to create word problem books, original myths or stories. Audio and other media can be added to create multimedia publications.
Choose an image, create a story and publish the book. Storybird is an art-based storytelling platform that allows young writers of all ages to produce beautiful picture books that they can print or share on their devices.
iThought or iThoughtHD (for the iPad) is a mind mapping tool. Brainstorm ideas for projects, stories and other events. Add details, links and other details then share. Your ideas are organized and ready for you to act on. Their are many options for the maps - bubbles, fishbones and vertical for instance. The app event exports to PowerPoint. Highly recommended.
Paper allows you to take notes, create illustrations and drawings or make sketches. You can use the ink engine to choose colours, texture and density of the inks. It works much like using a pencil and paper - but more visually stunning.
GarageBand is an easy app to use and allows students to record their voices and add music. They can create anything from podcasts to math raps or create the background audio to add to a slideshow of images or movie clip. Great to use for Fine Arts integration into any subject area, for project-based learning or differentiation.
iMovie is a tool for video editing and creation. There are templates available or your child can create their own movies. A good project idea would be to create a 60 second movie of an event or experience. Take 60 photos and set their time frame to one second or edit some video footage into a 60 second chunk.
You can use this app (which is essentially an interactive whiteboard) to draw, annotate, add video, images, audio and create a variety of presentations. Have a Grade 1 student take a photo of their pattern and explain how it grows. have a grade 7 student explain the steps of solving an algebraic equation. I use this app all the time. Student work can be exported in the camera roll and shared.
This is a free app that turns your device into a microph to use than GarageBand and Audacity for recording voices (perhaps a radio play).
SoundCloud is an online site that allows you to search and explore original music and audio clips. There are a wide range of clips - my favourites are the sounds from space submitted by astronaut Chris Hadfield. Have your child download the sounds or audio clips and create backgrounds for movies, slideshows or add to media projects. A wonderful resource.
Use Vine to create short (think seconds), looping videos that can be shared. Camera angles and frame lengths can be adjusted.
This is a wonderful resource for journaling or creating memory books of important events throughout the year. Select photos and add captions and text to create photo stories that look as if they came out of a published magazine.
Flipsnack is a really great site. Upload a PDF or PDF files and turn it a book - the pages turn and you can hear the swoosh while they do. i love this app for publishing - the final product looks incredible. The book can be shared through a link or if you pay the monthly premium, they can be downloaded and embedded.