Kick Start Your SchoolYear by iTunes

The iTunes Store has compiled an extensive list of apps that will help you and your students become better organized and productive, in addition to increasing knowledge.  Included are reading and writing apps for all ages, apps for organization, and apps for math, science, history, geography, and art and creativity. So—as the new school year is about to begin, you’ll want to browse through the offerings (free and for-pay) in the Kick Start for the School Year section of iTunes.

Free Scholastic Reading Timer

It’s often difficult to turn students on to reading. When parents tell me they can’t get their children to read, I often suggest that they require their children to read as much as they play video games or watch television. A new app from Scholastic may help as well. It tracks children’s reading minutes, provides a weekly log, and offers book lists, tips, and articles about children and reading for parents.  The Timer motivates children to have fun reading every day.

The Scholastic Reading Timer app works with iPod Touch, iPad, iPhone, Android devices, and Windows phones.

Memories of Today and the Future

The app To Me, By Me ($1) lets students email their future selves. They can choose to receive an email in as little as a month or in several years. Using the app, students think about what memories they want to preserve. The memories can be text, images, and audio recordings.  The company that produced To Me, By Me also has apps for journals and daily diaries.

Hollywood’s STEM Connections

Texas Instruments (TI) together with the Science & Engineering Exchange,  a program of the National Academy of Sciences has created STEM BEHIND HOLLYWOOD. The program, which features free STEM activities for students, is available for use on TI-Nspire CX handhelds, TI-Nspire Teacher and Student Software, and TI-Nspire Apps for iPad.  With the program, your students will learn about the science and math behind Hollywood’s depictions of superheroes, zombies, space travels, and forensics. Available now is the STEM OF THE LIVING DEAD or the Zombie Apocalypse. Students take on what brings zombies to life as they investigate a Zombie disease that is spreading throughout the world.

Sign up for email updates to learn about future volumes in STEM BEHIND HOLLYWOOD.

Splash Math

For students, up to Grade 5, Splash Math offers activities that make math fun to practice and easy to learn. There’s Learn Money for ages 4-9, Splash Math Kindergarten with its HD graphics and “titillating animal sounds”, Telling Time for ages 4-9, a back-to-school workbook for Grades 1-5, Summer Review Math workbook, and Splash Math Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, and Grade 5.  The lighter versions of the apps are free; the complete or full ones are priced at $4.99-$9.99.

Paper-Folding Fun Apps for Kids

Creating animals and objects by folding paper is fun, and now there are apps that can help children create with origami.  The apps provide the designs, but the children do the cutting, folding, and decorating. TH origami apps for children, recommended by Jinny Gudmundsen in USA Today (07/28/13), are Mr. Shingu’s Paper Zoo for iPad, iPhone, Ipod-Touch; Foldify for iPad; Gomma Friends for iPad and Android; and SallyBob for iPhone, iPod-Touch, and iPad. The apps are priced from $1.99-$3.99.

Bookabi

There are 2D and 3D characters, fun backgrounds and stickers, and lots more in Bookabi by Tamajii, Inc. Your students can make up their own stories by using the resources available and adding speech bubbles. Students can take their own photos and use them as backgrounds in the story.

Adam Bellows Says Create, Not Just Consume

Adam Bellow, who gave the closing keynote, “Change the World” at ISTE 2013, says that we need a “start up culture” in our schools.  This culture would embrace individualization, not standardization, in “environments that ‘respect failure, embrace curiosity, and grow dreams.’” To bring about these changes, Bellow suggested that we use tools like MineKeeper, Minecraft, and Raspberry Pi, and that we share with each other through social media and personal interaction. Bellow is an inspiring speaker; his ISTE speech is available online. If you listen to it, you’ll get some excellent ideas for starting the 2013-2014 school year.

Wonderful, Wanderful Books Now Available for iPad and Android Devices

Harry and The Haunted House, Arthur’s Teacher Trouble, Ruff’s Bone, and other children’s digital classics are now ready for Android devices. The series, which has until now, only been available for the iPad, includes thirteen apps, eight of which are for the U.S. market and have story content in English and Spanish.  Other apps are available in UK English and in French. iPad apps for the books can be found at the iTunes App Store; Android apps, at the Google Play Store. If you haven’t tried these delightful apps, you’ll want to download the Wanderful Storybook Sampler to enjoy some very special pages from these very special interactive digital books.

Are You in Information Overload?

The leaders of the Texas Computer Educators Association (TCEA) know about information overload, and in their technotes, they offer suggestions for keeping current without being overwhelmed. To help you “relax and recharge” after a busy school year, you might want to take time to try Spigot, Zite, and Flipboard. Spigot is a free site that offers snippets of current information for teachers and media specialists. Zite, called a personalized magazine, finds out what you are interested in and brings stories you want to your mobile device (Android, iOS, Windows). With Flipboard, an iOS and Android app, you create your own publications filled with what you want to know. Both Zite and Flipboard can gather content from Websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.