Some favorite apps!
- Notability - word processing, highlighting, pictures, audio recording, stickies, saves in folders and sections, works with DropBox and Google Drive; teacher can send documents back graded and with sound files attached for commenting - just a great great tool
- ScratchWork - great for notes in Math classes! Has all those math symbols available in the keyboards!
- DropBox - the best sharing tool out there - works on any device, share with anyone, doesn't care about your file's format!
- GoogleDrive - connect everything Google with every device you use and anyone you want! I especially love Google Forms for gathering info.
- Kindle Reader - I love to read. And Kindle has some great free offers often enough to make this a truly useful app!
- Prezi - make truly great looking presentations.
- Pages and Keynote - my favorite 'i' apps - exchanges files back and forth with my laptop, so what I create on one, works on the other!
- iMovie - wow! iMovie for the iPad is so quick and easy. Try creating trailers instead of full videos, and you will love finding out how storyboarding works here!
- QRReader, i-nigma or Qrafter - create and read QR codes for anything/everything. Use to create webquests, give information, or just to get kids to the website you want them on without creating shortcuts or having them type in long URLs! (P.S. - to make QR Codes super easy, try QRStuff.com. More fun yet - try QRVoice.net to create a geeky voice QR Code!)
- Book Creator - absolutely the best for publishing interactive books with the iPad. How about creating a graphic novel using Comic Life or Comic Touch to lay it out first? Wow!
- ThingLink - create wonderful reports by linking text, hyperlinks, video, other pictures and sound file to a photo! Also online.
some Favorite Elementary kids' apps
- StoryRobe and MyStory - create and write your own stories.
- WeeMee - make a little guy or gal Avatar
- ScreenChomp - The best interactive whiteboard for kids. They record their voice while creating their whiteboard response - great for math, great for lots of things!
- Trading Cards - from Thinkfinity! That ought to say it all.... Use for reports!
- Sock Puppets - Create your interactive story characters or a report!
- Shadow Puppet EDU - Create and record wonderful stories and projects, include photos, drawings and your voice, and it will be played out as a movie file.
- Toontastic - free animated cartoon creator.
- StoryLines for Schools - Like the old game of telephone, this involves writing and drawing to complete a story.
- Math Champ - my number one math competition game for grades 4 and up to 9 likely - teacher app and separate student app are all free. Teacher has hundreds of questions to choose from to set up the competition, and the competition can connect either WiFi or Bluetooth! Kids beg to play!
- OhNoFractions - practice for the common core.
- Coop Factions - you may think it's a bit silly, but the kids will practice fractions for the fun of this one.
- Mad Math Lite - great way to have kids practice the facts they need to practice. The many settings in this app allow the teacher to give seperate assignments to multiple kids sharing the same device, and it keeps records for you.
- 5 Dice - this one can be played in teams, and if you only have one device in the classroom, you can project the app for a classroom full of players. Set the difficulty level and you're in for a great math competition.
- 4 Dice - like 5 dice, but for fractions!
- Hungry Fish - good math practice for little ones.
- Spelling Test - best all around spelling practice. Students can create their own reviews to practice with.
- Stack the States - kids love this social studies game and it reinforces some critical facts kids need to know.
- Stack the Countries - guarantee that this is harder than the States! But critical facts are here.
- iTalk - an iPhone/iPodTouch app that works on the iPad (most of them do!) and it is a great little recording device. Get those sixty-second reads done and save them for future reference. The files are small, you can put a lot of recordings on one device.
- Google Earth - my favorite tool for lots of ways to look at and learn about the earth!
- Star Walk - use this phenomenal astronomy tool outside at night and learn about the universe.
- Little Solver Figural Analogies - appropriate for several grade levels, works on logic and problem solving skills through analogies.
- Little Solver Preschool Logic - this also uses analogies, but at lower grade levels; I'd try with PK up to second grade.
some favorite Secondary apps
- Tools4Students and Tools4Students2 - A plethera of graphic organizers. Students use, share, keep these on their iPads, and can pull them back from their files to edit or use to study with at any time. I love this set of tools!
- ShowMe or Educreations or Explain Everything - all of these interactive whiteboard tools let you teach students, or lets them demonstrate understanding of concepts. Pick one and learn it! You will not regret using this with students and it will become habit forming! Huge libraries of lessons on the web that connect to these as well! Designing flipped lessons? Make it easy with ShowMe or Explain Everything or Educreations!
- 30hands - Tool for student creations. Easy way to teach storyboarding as well!
- Easel Algebra I Pro - Workbook with ShowMe recordings that show how to solve the problems. What a great review tool.
- Comic Life - the app version of the great software application. So much fun and so easy to use to create.
- Plotagon - animated cartoon video creator.
- Book Creator - Students or teachers can create great publications including stories, reports, novels, easily. Thought about a graphic novel provect? Use Story Me and then put in Book Creator and add other items - like a voice over recording, to bring your story to life! Looking to create a portfolio? This tool applies here, too!
- Creative Book Builder - Create an interactive book. Large number of tools included.
- Edmodo, Showbie and Schoology - manage your classes, post assignments, turn in papers - all around great and easy to use.
Coding and games - Put your thinking caps on with these apps
- Cargo-bot - teaches logic and coding! Also, use: Lightbot, GamePress, Tynker, Blockly, Tickle, Scratch Jr., Kodable and Hopscotch
- uConnect - connect the lines, following the rules!
- Box Roll 3D - gets progressively harder
- Move it! - get the red box out of the puzzle
- Soduku School - teaches all levels of learners how to solve progressively more difficult puzzles
- 4 Pics 1 Word - addictive problem solving
- Hooked on Words - connecting letters to create words as the tiles shift
- WordCrasher - find words in the falling tiles, has time limits!
- Word Abacus - find words on the abacus - you can move them but only so far.
- DiceMatchHD - kids love finding the way to score the most points while matching di
- Word?HD - like 4 Pics 1 Word for younger kids
- Rail Maze Pro HD - solve the problems so the trains can pass through
- Flow Free - connecting the colored dots looks easy but gets progressively harder