My Favorite Apps for the Media Center

When I first started in the Media Center, I requested iPads.  Within a year, I had six iPads for the Media Center and was enthusiastic about using them.  A few years later, our admin purchased at least 2 iPads for all classrooms.  How exciting!

There are so many things that can be done with iPads.  I try to use them as much as possible so that teachers can see all the wonderful things an iPad can do in the classroom.

Last year our county became 1:1 with Chromebooks in 3rd grade and up.  As we've gotten more and more used to using Chromebooks, our classroom iPads haven't been used as much.  Because of that, our admin offered the iPads to me for use in the Media Center and I now have access to 27 iPads-enough for 1:1 use for when classes come to the Media Center.  Eek!.  Some of our iPads are older than olders and some of the apps I have used for years on those very first iPads are no longer available in the app store, but I have tried to put the apps I use most on as many of the iPads as I can.

So what are some of my favorite iPad apps?  Here is what I use most and what I use them for...

iMovie
This is probably my favorite app.  I use it all the time to create fun promotional videos for the Media Center and school videos.  I app smash it with other apps to make the videos even more spectacular.

DoInk Green Screen
I only purchased this app recently after hearing about how awesome it is for years.  I can't believe I didn't download it sooner.  It isn't a free app, but it is worth paying for.  Because I have only just begun playing around with it, I haven't used it with students yet, but can see it being used for book trailers as well as fun promotional videos.

Video Star
This is a great one to create music videos.  I like to use this one towards the end of the year to create a summer reading video starring all of the kids.  They look forward to it every year.

Funny Movie Maker
This one is similar to ChatterPix Kids.  I discovered it first and tend to use it more because of that.  It's fun to use to make book trailer or even for research reports.  Just find a picture to make "talk," save the video and add it to iMovie.

Scrolling Credits
This app is great for adding credits at the end of an iMovie creation. It makes the movie look even more polished.  Just type in the credits, save it to your camera roll and add it to your iMovie.

Nearpod
I LOVE Nearpod.  I use it to deliver content to all my 3rd-5th grade classes.  Now that we have Chromebooks, we don't use it on the iPad, but it can be used on iPads.  I use it mostly on my phone to advance slides in lessons.  It always cracks me up the first time I do this with 3rd grade and they all suck in their breaths in surprise that I have changed the screen on their Chromebooks.  I have an entire blog post planned just for Nearpod, so stay tuned for that.

Flipgrid
This is a great app for a ticket out the door type activity or as a wrap up to a lesson to check for understanding.  I started using Flipgrid several years ago when it first came out and shared it with my staff.  You can read about it HERE.  Flipgrid has come a long way in the last four years and consequently, its popularity in schools has grown.  It has really started to catch on this year, especially with fourth and fifth grades.  I recently used Flipgrid with those classes to share their favorite genres and books.  The kids really enjoyed it and it even inspired one fourth grade teacher to start her own account and use it in her classroom.  I also have a blog post planned for how I am using Flipgrid.  Continue to stay tuned.  =)

PollEverywhere
PollEverywhere is a great app to use to get instant feedback.  And there are so many options for answers, multiple choice, short answer, even emojis!

HP Reveal (formerly Aurasma)
This is probably my favorite augmented reality app.  I used it every year for a lesson about locating fiction books for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade, and have used it with Kinder and first grades when reading books to make the books "come alive" as well as teaching the parts of a book.  You can see how I've used HP Reveal in the past by clicking HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.  I will be updating the How to Guide soon.

Quiver
I use this app a lot during special days like Dot Day because Quiver has so many free downloadable pages that work with the app.

AR Flashcards
This app is so fun to use with PreK and K as they are learning their letters.  Just download the free alphabet flashcards and scan them with the app. So cool and so fun for the littles!

Spacecraft 3D
This is a great app to use with classes studying about space.  Download the free trigger images to see different space vehicles.

Epic!
This free app has thousands of eBooks.  Students can sign up for accounts to be able to read at home. I like to use Epic! to show books on our ActivBoard.

Follett Destiny
If you use Follett Destiny as your cirucuation software, you can use the Follett Destiny app to remotely check in and check out books. This is great if you need to circulate during checkout and not be stuck behind the circulation desk.

Scholastic Book Fairs
This is a must if your school uses AR, Reading Counts, or Lexile.  It will save you time looking up levels of books for customers.  Just scan the barcode on the back of a book or even the cover and get the AR level and points, RC Level, Lexile level, age and grade level, and price of the book.

Osmo
If you have the Osmo system, I recommend any of the Osmo apps which include Words, Numbers, Tangram, Newton, Masterpiece, Monster, Osmo Coding, Coding Jam, Pizza Company, MindRacers, and Coding Duo.  My students especially love Osmo Coding, Osmo Coding Jam, Tangram, and Words.

Dash and Dot Apps
If you have Dash and Dot, you will want some apps to be able to use them.  Wonder, Go, Path, Xylo, Blockly, and Blockly Jr. all work with Dash and Dot.

Sphero Apps
If you have Spheros, these apps will help control them.  Sphero, and Chromo are some of my favorites.

Coding Apps
Kodable, Hopscotch, Tickle, and Code Spark Academy are great apps for students to learn and practice coding.  Some are easier apps to use than others.  You can play around with them and see which ones would work for your students.

Tiny Tap
I have to admit that I haven't used this app as much as I would like. But it could really be a great learning tool.  You can create your own games using this app where the user taps the answer on the screen and receives feedback, programmed by you, as to whether or not the answer is correct.  This would be a fun app to use with older grades to create sight word games or addition and subtraction flashcards for younger students.

Seesaw
This is another app that I haven't quite used as much as I anticipated, but can definitely see the potential in it. I think because we are a Google school, I tend to use Google Classroom more, but Seesaw is a great alternative especially for sharing student work.  Students could create on the iPad and upload it to Seesaw to share with their families in a safe and secure way.

What are your favorite apps for the Media Center?

What a Month!

September has been a whirlwind of a month and ended the same way.

I started the month by presenting at the 2014 Instructional Technology Conference presented by our local area RESA.  Another local media specialist and I presented about our new favorite app, HP Reveal, formerly Aurasma.

I organized everything into a LiveBinder for the presentation to make it easy for everyone to follow. Of course the LiveBinder would only work if the wifi did and as most technology conferences go, the wifi had its issues.  But all in all, I think it went well.  If you would like to view the LiveBinder, you can find it HERE.

While at the Conference, I picked up a lot of great information about some new web 2.0 tools and apps that would be great to use in the classroom or school library media center.  I made a couple of Symbaloos to keep up with all the tools shared.  Click HERE to view the web 2.0 tools Symbaloo. Click HERE to view the app Symbaloo.

I had a great time at the conference. It was fun to get away for a little bit.  I am looking forward to next year, although I hope it doesn't fall around the same time as our book fair like it did this year.  It was a bit stressful getting ready for both at the same time.

After the conference came the Book Fair, Grandparents' Week, Picture Day, and a visit from the State School Superintendent all in one week...no wonder I am wiped out.

The fall book fair theme this year, as set by Scholastic, was a "renaissance" theme.  The decorating kit made it easy.  I highly recommend spending the $50 for it...well worth the price.  The kids loved the theme, too.

This year, I decided to try doing the book fair during Grandparents' Week.  While we had a great fair because of it, the week we picked was a little chaotic.


Right in the middle of the week was fall picture day and we ended the week with a visit from our state school superintendent who came to present our school with a special award that only 4 other schools in the state received.

It was a great honor and the welcome mat looks great in front of the school.

It was a day that even the little ones will remember, if only because Dr. Barge arrived and left in a helicopter.  LOL

Although September was a fun and busy month , I really hope that October won't be quite as exciting, even though I know it will be busy as I have a ton of new books to process from the book fair.  But  I am ready for a little bit of calm.  Of course, it is the month of spooks so, yeah, that probably won't be the case.

Appy New Year!

I hope you all had a great holiday and are ready to start the new year with your kiddos. It's my first day back to work and honestly, I would love to have a few more days off, but I do love my job.  So that makes it easier to get back in the groove.  I have  few items that might help make the new year easier for you, too.

First up is a fun little app I discovered about a month ago and since have seen several postings on others' blogs about it, so I though I would play around with it myself.  The app is called flipgrid.

Source

Flipgrid, just like it states in the picture above, is unique.  It allows you to post a question and have students answer it with a short (90 seconds or less) video clip. I am trying out the demo version which is free for 21 days. If I decide to purchase it is $65/year.  This includes unlimited questions per grid and unlimited responses per questions.

The demo version allows me to create up to 10 grids, which are basically classes and then I can pose questions in each of those grids.  

It is very easy to create the questions and the on-screen directions tell you step by step what to do. Once you've created your question, you can share the link to it with your students. All they have to do is press the + sign to create their video answer.

One downside is that students have to have an email address in order to post their response.  If you are using this in your library or classroom, you could always use your email address, if you are comfortable with that.

Once an answer has been posted to the question, you will see a picture of the person who answered the question.  You can set the question to be private so that only those with the password can view and/or post answers.  This is helpful for privacy reasons.

Anyone who has access to the question can view other's answers and like them by clicking on the little heart button.  Your picture that you set up when you answer the question shows up first.  Please ignore my rough appearance.  It was late when I made this flipgrid.  =)

What I like about this app is that it is a different way to assess learning, one that doesn't involve pencil and paper. And one answer can lead to another question. I am going to try it out with some of my students to see if it is worth the investment.  The question I am posing is "How will you take care of your library books in the new year?"  If you'd like to take part in the discussion, you can access it here.  You do need to download the flipgrid app, first.  But the app is free.  I am excited to see what kind of responses I get.  =)

Source

I was contacted a while back about reviewing an app called AnimMoby.  I admit, it took me a while to get around to checking it out, but I am finding it promising. For full disclosure purpose, I will tell you that I was given a promo code to try out this app in exchange for my honest review.  However, paid for the app outright and did not use the promo code.

My first impression of the app was very positive.  The navigation is very easy to understand.  This is a screen shot of the first page.

Creating a project is very simple as well.  It is similar to PowerPoint, but in some ways is much simpler to use than PowerPoint.  I think even kindergarten and first graders could master using this app.  I was told that you could convert PowerPoints from the computer to the iPad, but I didn't see a way to do that.  I will have to play around with it a bit more and maybe I can figure it out.  The final projects can be saved and viewed like PowerPoint or as PDF.

There are tons of images that you can use to create your project which you can access by clicking on the picture icon or by using the grid icon in the top left hand corner.  The images can be made larger or smaller by "pinching" the screen.  The pro version ($7.99) comes with 16 sets of images, but more sets can be purchased for .99 each.  I have found that the images it comes with was enough for my needs. There is also a free version of this app which comes with fewer images.

Another great feature is that you can import pictures from your device.  You can also crop them to the size you like.  This is a nice feature that older students may like to use to be able to customize projects.

Adding text is pretty simple as well.  Just click on the text icon (the large "A") and a red box pops up which you can then make larger or smaller by "pinching" the box.  You can also move it around to where you want it on the screen.  You can increase the font size and set it to be right, left, center, or justify alignment.  One downside is that you don't get a choice of fonts, but the font that is available is easy to read.  You can also write on the screen and you can choose the color of pencil to use.  Highlight is also an option.

You can record your voice and even your actions of making each slide by clicking the red circle at the bottom of the screen.  When you are finished, you can publish to the Animoby app, email your creation, or share it on facebook.  It is also saved on the Animoby website.

From the website, there are buttons that allow you to share your creation even more ways (Twitter, Google, and embed with a code, although when I embeded it, the screen was too wide for my blog). Here is the quick Animoby I created.  Please excuse my strong southern accent.   As much as I've tried to lose it, it has only gotten more pronounced since moving to Georgia.  =)

A neat feature about Animoby is that you can search through the app to find different projects.  I did a search for "Book Care" and the project I created showed up.  I also like that viewers can "like" a project.

I can see this as a great way of sharing book reviews or maybe even how projects.  Let the students make an Animoby project about how to choose a book using the 5 finger rule or how to check out a book.  These might be good for those students who are more visual and kinesthetic learners to create a book talk.

If you'd like to get a free download of Animoby Pro (a $7.99) value, just leave a comment below by January 14.  I will do a random pick from all the commenters. I will  announce the winner on January 15.  

The giveaway is now closed.  Click here to see who won.

Appy New Year, everyone!