Apps for Education

This is my first attempt to begin blogging and I am really excited to give it a try.  There are so many Apps to use in education, so I am going to choose a few that I think are either helpful to parents and teachers or engaging for students.

1. Lit Leveler is a great app for teachers and parents who are looking for the book level of high interest books.  I really believe that the love of reading does not come from a level and it is OK for a children to choose books that are below their reading level or challenge themselves with a book above their reading level.  However, at times, it is helpful for them to choose books on their level so this app is helpful for a quick determination of the level of the chosen book.  Teachers can also find that the Lit Leveler app can save them time leveling their classroom libraries.  The app allows you to scan the bar code of the book and immediately the Lexile score, the DRA score, and the GRL reading level pops up!  If the book does not have a bar code, you can type in the title as well.  Gone are the days of going to a website and having to type in the book's information to retrieve the reading level.  It is important to note that this app has a small fee of $3.99.

2. Remind is a great app for communication purposes.  I use it with my faculty and I am able to have two way communication with them directly to their phones without having to have their cell phone numbers and they don't have mine.  My teachers love using the app to communicate with their students' parents.  Some of them turn off the two way capabilities and use the app to send out a message to the class as a whole or to a small group.  They can also send individual messages to the parents.  The messages all arrive to the phones as a text message, which are always checked right away unlike mass emails or take-home folders.

3. QR Reader and QR Code Generator are great apps for engaging students.  I had a great time with my faculty at a faculty meeting by sending them on a QR code Scavenger Hunt.  They split into teams and searched around the library for QR codes. Using their QR Reader app on their phones they scanned the codes which led them to trivia questions.  The first group to answer all questions correctly won!  This led teachers to create QR codes for a classroom review.  One class was seen working together to scan QR codes around the room that were next to specific pictures of geometry terms.  Each code led them to the next term for review.  The students were excited while reviewing their geometry unit.  Another teacher added a QR code to her homework that led students to videos on the topic, they were studying, for extra support.  There are so many engaging ideas that can used with QR Codes!

4. Voxer is another communication app that can be used in many different ways!  It is an app that turns your phone or device into a walkie-talkie.  Recently, I joined a few Voxer groups one of which led me here, to my first blogging experience.  I joined a Blogging Challenge group that discusses blog posts we each create beginning with each letter of the alphabet and having to do with education.  I also joined a few leadership groups allowing me to broaden my professional learning networks, giving me more support and idea exchanges.  Voxer can also be used for book talks in a book club.  Students and/or adults can choose a book and Vox about each section read.  I know a teacher who also uses it during her reading conferences.  The student Voxes himself reading and the parent can here it and offer positive feedback right then and there, but also the student listens to his Vox submissions and hears his own fluency progress.

There are so many wonderful apps out there for education and I am sure that some of my future posts will include some other ones.  For now, enjoy the four Apps for Education that were written about today!