Whetting Your APPetite - Vol. 1

One of the reasons I started this blog was to respond to many people asking for my favorite Apps. I will begin posting a series called, "Whetting your APPetite" -- sort of an "App of the Day." Some days I may do more than one... some days may go without an App. Please comment and send in any Apps that I haven't mentioned and you love as well!

E-Clicker - $9.99 (Host); FREE (Student App)

I love any app that makes my students cheer when I say, "It's time for a test." E-Clicker is a great assessment tool for short quizzes or student polls. The way it works is that you create short multiple choice quizzes on the iPad, or at editor.eclicker.com. (Note that due to the interface and method of quiz delivery, it is not suited for longer assessment.) You can include pictures that you draw on the iPad, download from a website or capture with your camera (built-in if you are so lucky to have the iPad2). You can also include an explanation for the correct and/or incorrect answers. Once you have completed the quiz, you save it and can then "beam" it to your students' iPads or other mobile devices. The question immediate appears on your students' screens and they can select their answers. Once everyone is ready, you end the question session and a bar graph of student responses is generated on each screen. Now you have the opportunity to discuss common misconceptions or correct answers. The students love the immediate feedback and are extremely engaged by the novelty of "magically" receiving a question from the teacher and "magically" seeing their peers' responses. As an educator, the instant data this program provides is invaluable when it comes to RTI, differentiated instruction and parent-teacher conferences.

Mental Note - $2.99

Slate routines and activities are common place in many subject areas throughout elementary classrooms. In math, students hold up answers to mental math questions; in reading, students may write short responses and show the teacher. While I have always enjoyed the quick assessment opportunity this routine provided me, I always anguished at losing all of that formative information when students wiped their slates clean. Mental Note turns your iPad or iPod Touch into a dry-erase board -- a dry erase board that automatically saves and timestamps student answers, can include photographs, typing and record students' voices. Welcome to Slate Routines 2.0.

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Recently I had the great honor of being named an Apple Distinguished Educator. Although only a member of this cohort for a few short weeks, I have already received much helpful information and resources. Below are two great web-resources for Awesome Apps:

http://www.apptivities.org/

http://www.adesontheweb.com/ADEs_on_the_Web/ADE_Hottest_Apps_Blog/ADE_Hottest_Apps_Blog.html/

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