This week, instead of the normal blog reflection, I have explored some videos from Tech Edge. I will share with you three videos that I watched, and the main apps I learned about that I could see myself using in the classroom!
Episode 165 – Nutrition Apps:
I found this episode to be pretty straightforward with information on three different apps to use for teaching kids about nutrition. Nutrition and eating healthy is something that I think is important for all kids to learn about from a young age, so that they can understand the foods and drinks they are putting into their bodies, and how it can affect them. The two apps that I could see myself using in the classroom are:
Farm to Plate: This app is a very simple app for especially younger elementary students to use. It is colorful, easy to navigate, and uses very few words to describe each section. This app uses the “my plate” model as opposed to the food pyramid, which makes it easier for young kids to visualize what proportions they need of these foods on their plate. I could see this being used in the classroom as an assignment where students would work in groups to learn about one of the sections (fruits, vegetables, etc.) and then report back to the class at large what they learned.
Eat & Move-O-Matic: This app I think could be very fun for all elementary to middle school students to explore. With this app students can manually, or randomly choose a food or drink to learn about. Then they can look through certain activities and see how many minutes they would have to do a certain activity in order to burn off the calories from the corresponding food or drink. I think that students could do an assignment using this app where they have to explore 3 foods and 3 drinks that they eat/drink, and then find an activity that they already do to see how many minutes of that activity they would need to perform in order to burn the calories. This could be a very fun and informative activity & app for many students to enjoy and explore.
Episode 154 – Sight Words & Spelling Apps
This episode focused on three different apps that teachers can use in the classroom to enhance spelling and recognition of site words. The apps that stood out to me are:
Spelling Test Free: This is a free and easy to use app for teachers and student alike. It allows teachers to create their own spelling tests for students to practice on, and of course students could create their own as well if you wanted to do it that way. The word will be said aloud to them and then they get to type in the spelling of the word. What’s nice is that you can look at the scores students got on the test and you can share tests among teachers. You can also differentiate the spelling lists for each student if needed – which is a great feature I think! I can see this being used in the classroom for either practice for their spelling tests, or being used as their actual spelling test.
Sight Words Learning Games: This fun app provides students with 6 (or two if you have the free version) fun games to practice their sight word recognition. This would mainly be used for Kindergarten & 1st Grade students and would be a fun activity to set up at a center for students to get to practice their sight words. I can really see students loving this app because of all the color and fun and it could really keep the young ones entertained.
Episode 135 – Cursive Writing Apps
In this episode you get to learn about 4 different apps that can be used to help teach students better handwriting and in particular, cursive. Since learning cursive can be something that many students may not think is fun, some of these apps could help them out with practicing in a way that is not just the normal pencil to paper. The apps I liked most are as follows:
Cursive Writing HD: I liked this app because not only does it let students practice the letters of the alphabet, but it provides 234 words for students to practice and learn about how the cursive letters connect to one another to form words, and sentences also! This could definitely be used in a classroom for extra practice during free time, centers, etc.
Cursive Words: This app provides students with guided practice to help strengthen their skills. It gives them directions for step by step which strokes to do next, which is nice for students who may still need that guidance. This app once again can be used for extra practice during free time or for centers.
It has been really great gathering this information about the many apps that I can use in my future classroom from Tech Edge this week! Tech Edge posts a new video every week and is a great source that I will continue to look at for app info in the future. They really take the time to help us teachers out – so check them out!