Quixey- Search Engine for Apps

One of my Favorites!

Website:  https://www.quixey.com/

Cost: Free

Difficulty Level: Easy

Device:  Across Platform

Did you know there is a search engine for Apps?  Quixey is a great alternative to using Google to search for apps.  I think it is even better than the app store because in the app store searches are very specific.  If you don't have the exact word for the app you are looking for sometimes apps are very hard to locate.  Quixey can do searches just like you would on Google but it gives only results to apps.   To share the app with your device, it gives the option to text a link to your phone or gives you a direct link to the app store app.  It also has a Beta (test) version for android out right now.  Very, very cool!

App: Brainfeed

Cost of App: FREE with limited videos

Paid In App available for more videos $6.99/year

Difficulty Level: Easy 1st-8th grade

Device: iPad

Need:  Connectivity to Wifi

This is a great alternative to youtube for children that want to explore videos.  This app has several categories to choose from including science, tech and design, english, arts & music, and many more.  I love this app because it has a handful of free videos offered for each category and if you want more you can pay for the "locked" videos $6.99 for the year.  I would so much rather give my children this to explore and play with than have them exploring the scary territory of youtube.   Many, many valuable videos to learn from on this app.  Highly recommended!

Taking notes while a video is running in Google Drive!

Jules loves this one!

Website:  VideoNote.es  

Cost of App: FREE

Rating by Jules: 5 star 

Difficulty Level: Medium

Device:  PC/ipad

Need:  Login for Google Drive

Wow!  This website is the next best thing to sliced bread!  It is so easy to use!  Simply provide students with a link to VideoNot.es and a URL link to the youtube, coursera, udacity, edX, KHAN, or vimeo video you want them to watch and take notes.   Students will have to sign into Google drive in order to take the notes.  This has awesome features.  When the students take the notes, google drive provides a timeline to match to the video where the notes are being taken.  Google Drive will also sync the notes automatically and students can share notes with their teacher and/or other students.  Very, very cool!

Google Connect with Virtual Field Trips via Google Hangout!

Website: Connect Classrooms with Google
http://connectedclassrooms.withgoogle.com/#

Cost:  FreeRating by Jules: 5 star

Difficulty Level: Easy

Device: Across Platform

This is great!  I wish I had found this site earlier in the school year.  We had a google hangout with a rocket scientist in Boulder, Colorado a month ago and the kids absolutely loved it.  We had to actually organize everything ourselves.  This website, Google Connect, provides you with prearranged "hang outs".  The ability to take a virtual field trip is a wonderful way to enrich your classroom.  Try it!  I don't think you will be disappointed.

Technical notes:  Our intermediate school district arranged the hangout in our distance learning room and it went very smoothly.  I would imagine you could arrange you own in your room as long as you have a google account, a web camera and a projector.

Green Screen App by Do Ink- Super Easy to Create your own movie with a green screen

App:  Green Screen by Do Ink

Cost of App: $2.99  (available at Volume Store 1/2 off for 20+)

Rating by Jules: 5 star

Difficulty Level: Easy

Device: iPad

Super sweet app for our Jr. High Students- High School Students.  It is very user friendly and the price is  very reasonable.  Are you concerned that you can't use this because you don't have a green screen?  No worries, use a curtain, construction paper or anything green to hang in the background.  Years ago, I had to have a special software to create green screen news casts for our school.  This app makes it oh so easy.  Load pictures and or video into the background of the videos.  Very profession looking results!

60 Apps in 60 Seconds....

Great Apps in 60 Seconds.....I had to pause to see a couple, but they all look great!  I have used several and ditto the recommendation!

If you use Renaissance Learning in your school, this app is a must for iPads

App:  STAR  

Cost of App: Free
(School have to have subscription to Renaissance Learning)

Rating by Jules: 5 star

Difficulty Level: Easy

Device: iPad

Are you assessing your students with the Star program by Renaissance Learning?  We assess our students 3-4 times per year with this program.  We ran into some issues  in our K-1 building.  The building was not equipped with a computer lab.  There was just 5 stations per room.  This posed a serious problem when assessing the students.  That is when the iPad carts came into save the day!  We loaded the "Star" app on the iPads and we were able to assess the entire class!  What a huge saving s of time for the teachers!  The app works great on the ipads, the only negative part about the app is that the URL had to be manually put into each iPad in the star app.  It stores on the ipad, but if the student clicks on "settings", it can be easily removed.  Students loved taking the assessment on the iPads!  I highly recommend this app!