New Apps for January

I recently read on twitter about a 5th grade teacher who wrote and developed an app about decimals. Have you ever heard of the phrase "a day late a dollar short." That describes me in November I searched and searched for an app to review rounding decimals over Christmas I found this app. Darn that could have been me writing and creating an app.  Oh well, I am sure glad I found it because it is really good!

I also got Tap Reef Fish for free. Honestly the educational value at this point I am not sure of.  I purchased it because I am going to start teaching Life Science next week and the graphics were beautiful and looked real. Here is the snippet about it: astonishing 3D social aquatic experience for iPod ! If you thought owning a virtual fish tank was awesome, just wait until you dive into your very own 3D REEF! Starting with a bare reef and a couple of Clownfish, you must cultivate a thriving community of sea species, from Blue Tang to Bottlenose Dolphins. I knew the students would like it and for right now it's the January pick of the month.  Check back in February to see if it wins app of the month.

Finally I made two huge purchases spending $4.99 on ILive Grammar Autumn.  I was on the search for parts of speech review at a higher level than Grammar Jammers.  I am up in the air on the app because I have found it very hard to figure out how it works.  I put it on the students iPods and told them to play "learn" around with it.  Some students have started to figure it out. I am still up in the air if it was worth the money.

I also purchased and LOVE as well as the students LOVE the Bill Nye videos.  "Bill, Bill, Bill."  Come on sing along with me-you know the words :)  These were the first videos that I have purchased for the iPods, and it is the best money that I have spent and they were only $1.99.  There are many reasons I would encourage you to purchase videos.

*extends learning beyond our classroom (mobile learning)
*students want to watch the video again and they watch it for a different purpose
*eventually I plan on having them watch the videos at home so I don't have to spend time in class watching the video-I can spend the time teaching from the video and reinforcing the concepts with watching clips from the videos
*I am considering giving the students questions to answer after watching the video to start their thinking about a new science topic.

Check these apps out and don't forget soon I will be blogging about the students favorite app for January I predict it might be one of these!!!