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So Many Apps, So Many Choices

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With so many apps out there for educators, it can be really easy to be overwhelmed and not know which is the best to use in the classroom. Well, I have used a few and some have worked better than others. I like Plickers, and I also like Quizlet and Kahoot. There is no perfect app and different situations would utilize different apps or sites better. Quizlet is still one of my favorites, but as with any of the sites, you always have to be on the lookout for snafus. I enjoy having my students compete in a group during a Quizlet Live session, but I have to watch for the students who take over and the ones who will sit back and not participate. I often times put the weaker student in the middle of a group, rather than the outside and purposely tell certain students that they can only be helpers. Sometimes, the students are not allowed to communicate verbally during a Quizlet Live (only with hand signals), and other times, they have to stop when their team is down to the last question in an...
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Plickers

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Another cool app that I have used in the classroom is called Plickers. Plickers is a made up word that stands for the words, "Paper Clickers". We've all used the clickers with either our Smart Boards or Activ Boards, which are awesome. These clickers are free on the website  https://plickers.com . See photos below of students using the paper clickers. As I stated earlier, the paper clickers are free, as is a teacher account. There may be a time later on that there will be a premium account that can be subscribed to for a fee, but the creators want to keep as much free as possible. To use, you just log into your account and print off a set of the cards on light colored card stock. I usually buy a pack of 50 pages of white at Walmart for about $3.50. As you can see in the photo above, each card looks sort of like some bar code or QR code of some kind, which is exactly what they are. Each card is slightly different, and they are all numbered.  Once you print out you...
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Other Cool Apps

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I just have to share the news I found about an amazing app. Right now I'm just using it for my own personal use; but I'm certain I'll find some educational uses as well. The app that I've been so excited about using is called  Project Life. A friend and I were commiserating about our lack of time to work on our scrapbooks and how life was just getting away when she shared with me how she was using this app on her phone. You can basically tap the different page layouts, add photos and text, and in no time at all you have created a scrapbook page! You can then share them socially, or order them in 12X12 pages for your scrapbooks, which is what I plan to do. As soon ask I got home that day I put the app on my tablet and have created several pages already. Here are a couple of pages that I created: These are my fur babies. My human ones have left the nest and don't live with me anymore. This is a photo log of a walking food tour that my daughter and I took ...
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Fantastic Fifth Grade

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Hey there everyone! My name is Martha Young and I teach fifth grade! Before I taught fifth grade I was a computer lab manager, so using technology is kind of second nature to me. It's the way of our world these days too, and I try to find that balance in education. Today's kids are so more tech-savvy than they were just 10 years ago. The changes are happening so fast. You know those people who are always staring at their phones for everything? Unfortunately I'm one of those; Yep, I'm sorry; I do almost everything on my phone, from Facebook, to  Pinterest, to keeping up with appointments and setting my alarm, to using the GPS on my phone.I really am addicted and I know I can do better. I think in today's world it's finding that balance between the old and the new. I read books on my tablet, but sometimes nothing beats a dog-eared novel I can take to the beach. No, this isn't me, but you get the idea, right? All the students I teach have an iPad issued...
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