Teach Me

Perhaps the best educational tool yet I am going to go out on a limb right now. This is perhaps the best learning tool I have come across for any child 2 to 10 years old. It is simple, easy to navigate, pretty, motivational and most of all educational. Teach me offers from toddler to year 3 levels that progress at a good pace but accordingly adjust the motivational tools well, It motivates and keeps interest well by giving small rewards every 3 correct questions and major reward options about every 15 questions. This has been a good App option for our teacher support staff iPad program, working with special need and negotiated education plan students. The students all look forward to their time at the end of sessions when they can do their ‘iPad school’. It has also been a great app for my sons (3 and 5) who both engage to their level in different ways but find the complete enjoyment in it. Only 2 days ago my son came yelling down the hall to tell me he had achieved a merit and star for addition. I was lucky enough to get these apps when they were free but would gladly pay the small $1.99 fee they now ask .  $1.99 each (6 in series)
Fun and engaging ways to complete math and literacy tasks	Eye catching and personable rewards pages that progress through the years	Easy to use multiple accounts with photos	Progress screens that clearly show achievements and next level progress information
	Simple video that shows Teach Me.  Be aware that it now has an English teacher too.

Idoceo: Assess Appy!!

 

iDoceo - Assessment made easy and portable

This the first App to really help create an educational change in my school. Teachers took to iDoceo quickly and very easily. Although a spreadsheet savvy person could easily do most of what iDoceo offers, it does do it in a very pretty and well structured way. It also offers some cool little added party tricks to meet the needs of most teachers. 

Along with being clear and easy to navigate, iDoceo can store important personal information, show seating arrangements, do random student picks and export all data to Dropbox fairly easily.

Worth a look.

Cost - AU$6.49

A Quick look at some of the cool ideas on iDoceo

 

Jo (School Science Teacher) talking about how iDoceo has changed her assessment.

Multiflow: Times Tables Reimagined

I can't stop using this in class.

Multiflow is a simple app that gives kids 10 seconds to answer multiplication problems one at a time. It moves quickly to problems outside the traditional 12 x 12 range. The reason it is so great and worthy of a mention is the way it has evoked discussion about how problems can be solved via different methods.

For instance a discussion we had in class around multiplying anything by 5
This was brilliant with every student involved because of the interest already being developed through the want for success within the game.

We bombed out of our game due to another problem and then 16 x 5 and 19 x 5. A student who had got one correct that was similar explained how they knew how to do it and used their times table knowledge.

They said 16 x 5 .....12 x5 + 4 x 5.....the class agreed it was a very plausible idea, easy to do but not necessarily fast.
We wrote several examples on the board and looked for anything obvious...

Then another student says

Halve the first number and add a zero......WOW!

As a class we then decided on halving the last even number and adding a 5 for odd numbers ie 19 x 5 = 9 add a 5 = 95

If an app can provoke discussions as good as this one and more it has to be worth a go.

$Free

Wilderquest

Fun, Visual, Informative and full of learning possibilities.

Probably one of the coolest free  apps available in 2013. This is one of those apps that gives you every literacy tool needed to motivate reading through discovery and challenge.

Wilderquest puts a camera in the students hands as they take on a wildlife warrior role, searching, hunting for and discovering Native Victorian Wildlife in 360 degree environments. As they snap the hidden creatures they develop a nature portfolio that contains information about the creature, videos, photos and more.

$Free

3 Great Mental Math Apps

Math Party Mental Fun Fun App that has users competing with simple mental problems and number facts $Free	Operation Math Code Squad Brilliant Maths App that allows teams of 4 to work together to conquer math missions. This App is very addictive. Single operation to multiple operation focus $2.99	Math Slide All areas A great Maths App that allows 4 users to compete against each other in a fast pace snap style game. Great fun for all ages. $Free - $2.99

Educreations

If you have an iPad in the classroom, an interactive board and wireless connectivity then you have all that you need to use this great app. Educreations is a mobile whiteboard that makes student involvement and incidental examples of work so much easier and much more interactive for the students.
$Free