Friday, November 18, 2011

Alli's App Smackdown of the Week - VOL 2

This week, I got to work with my awesome teammate, Sarah Daugherty, on a professional learning session called Appy Hour - Language Arts.

The teachers there did an awesome job participating in a Wallwisher, posting their favorite apps to use in Language Arts activities. Check out their favorites by following the link below!


Some of my favs on the list?

Dragon Dictation - great for fluency!
Magnetic ABC's - word work, anyone?
FlipCards - Practice vocabulary...great for ELL students!


What is YOUR favorite Language Arts app?

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Alli's App Smackdown of the Week


The title of this post is taken from something AWESOME we did at edCamp Plano called the App Smackdown. Everyone took turns going to the microphone and taking 2-3 minutes to say what cool apps and sites they were LOVING at the moment!

So in honor of that...here are 5 apps I am LOVING right now!

1. Songify - Simple recorder that turns your spoken words to sound! Cool for poetry or for having students explain science processes like the water cycle or math problems! Share via a classroom Twitter account and your parents will be impressed!

2. Breakfast Maker - This app lets you decide what you want for breakfast and helps you cook it! Why is this educational, you ask? Well, what a great prewriting activity for a how-to writing or a different way to teach sequencing! If you like this one, you'll also find others like Thanksgiving Dinner Maker, Snowman Maker, Pizza Maker, etc.


3. StoryKit - Create your own stories and illustrations or change some old favorites!



4. Idea Sketch - A great mind mapping App! Organize pre-writing, brainstorm ideas, work on word and vocabulary associations all from your iTouch.


5. Google Earth - Just like the desktop version of Google Earth, you can "fly" to any location, view pictures and videos and learn more about Geography! Great for charting explorers' paths, finding the birthplace of a famous person, learning about local and national landmarks and more!


What apps are YOU loving right now? Tell me in the comments!

Please comment if you read this post so I am held accountable for writing more!