iMovie

  

iMovie is a video editing app that was developed by the company Apple. iMovie is great for creating short trailers or long video projects. This app is available on most ios devices such as iPhones, MacBooks, and iPads. With iMovie you are able to edit any video that you upload onto iMovie like a professional videographer. You can add photos, music, sounds, voiceover audio, clip and adjust parts of your video, and add great transitions for a smooth and professional look. iMovie also provides interesting filters to give off a cinematic touch to whatever video you are making. iMovie allows creators to express their passion through the videos that they create. iMovie is great for students who would like to add something special to their projects and really show their hard work and dedication. iMovie can work for almost any age group. Students who are in middle school can use this for their class projects/presentations. Students in high school and college can use this app as well for their projects/presentations but can also use this for their school's news or any other important announcements that their school might provide access to. iMovie is great for educators as well, whether it be for regular lesson plans or presentations at pep rallies. Teachers can use iMovie to make their lessons a bit more interesting and keep their students engaged in the lesson. Overall iMovie is a great app for anyone to use and is great for people to use and express their creativity.

Storyline Online

 

                    

Storyline Online is an amazing resource for early childhood and elementary teachers. It is a website, app, YouTube channel (also on SchoolTube and Vimeo), and blog that provides story times from all kinds of different people reading a bunch of different books. It has many, many videos to offer!

By doing this, teachers can fully engage their students without having to buy a physical copy of a book or bring a guest reader to the classroom. The videos also give teachers a break and keeps them from losing their voice. It is a great setup for virtual learning, since Storyline Online is so accessible and free!

Pandora

 

                Pandora is a mobile radio station for your phone. I have used Pandora for as long back as I can remember. Admittingly, Pandora is responsible for half of my music taste today. Pandora, as well as any other type of radio, has introduced me to many different songs and artists. Pandora radio has gotten me through middle school and high school. Pandora is a music platform with an optional subscription feature. Pandora was actually created about 20 years ago, which thoroughly surprised me. I had always assumed Pandora was a more recently made app. Although Pandora is not necessarily a direct educational tool, I would still strongly consider it an important part of education for most people. Music can help so many people focus, and get into the zone when doing school work, or taking notes. When walking through hallways, or sitting alone, popping in a headphone and listening to your favorite radio station can help relieve the stress from school pressure and expectations. Although Pandora is free, getting rid of ads, and having endless skips costs roughly 4 dollars a month. In comparison to Spotify, I consider paying only 3.99 instead of 10 a month is a steal. 

When I become a teacher one day, I hope to use Pandora in my classroom to help my students focus, and to feel relaxed. I could use a lo-fi music station, pop and more; catering to my student's music tastes. Even though Pandora largely has music available, they also offer podcasts as well. I am not exactly a podcast fan, however, for people who really enjoy them, Pandora can be used as a great listening platform as well.

Kahoot!

                  

In education today technology is always advancing, and one way it has advanced is in the form of online testing.  A prime example of an online application that is widely used across the country to quiz students on their knowledge is Kahoot.  Kahoot is a game-based learning platform that allows teachers and administrators to self-generate multiple choice quizzes that are accessed via the web.  The process behind creating a Kahoot is rather simple, which is a positive for teachers that have little experience with technology.  Kahoot requires teachers to generate questions in the form of a typical multiple choice question seen in a pencil and paper version; however, student answer using their technological device, whether that be their phones or a laptop.  Once the question is created, teachers then have the option to set a time limit per question, requiring students to answer the question in the given amount of time or receive a wrong answer if not answered on time.  the next step is for the teacher to publish the quiz and share the entrance code with their class.  Whoever has the access code will be admitted into the game.  When students enter the code they will then be instructed to enter a display name.  This function can be risky in the sense that students like to mess around and enter inappropriate names, nevertheless, the teacher has the ability to remove the student from the game, which in that case, they will be required to re-enter under a different, more appropriate name.  Once the game has started students will be competing with one another to see who can answer the most questions correctly as well as who can answer them the quickest.  After the game has concluded their will be a leaderboard with first, second, and third place.  While some may think that only certain subjects would be able to apply to Kahoot, there are actually endless possibilities to what subjects are best suited for the application.  Anything that can be answered with multiple choice answers is suitable for the Kahoot application.  

In terms of using it in the classroom, I believe that it has been a revolutionary development in online learning that has sparked a drive in students to do well.  The feeling of competition is a great motivator as many students find themselves competing quite regularly whether that be in academics, athletics, video gaming, etc.  When I was in high school I remember using Kahoot in many of my classes and every time the teacher said we were playing a Kahoot everyone got excited and very invested.  In my future classroom I plan to utilize the Kahoot application because it is an effective way to test students knowledge as they are taking the time to answer correctly and efficiently, overall enhancing their learning experience.  

LOOP

 

 

Loop is an application that was created in Melbourne, Australia to help educators find a more effective method to collect student feedback.  The tool offers many forms of feedback for teachers from text responses, multiple choice questions, even emojis and includes a device to reply to student’s individual response to a group survey. Through this application student feedback will come back instantly in under 30 seconds where teachers can filter and reply to all students with similar response at once or even follow up directly. This will help strengthen relationships with students to get a true understanding on how they are doing in the class by enabling anonymous replies and helping solve individual issues students may have. The platform allows educators to focus attention on any trends in feedback to improve the outcomes of their class and even export their data to use for future analysis of their classrooms. Some other fun features that is available is easy setup through Google Classroom, safety and security of all user’s data, and even a way to schedule questions for enter/exit tickets.  

 

 

 

 

Bloomz

 What is Bloomz?

Bloomz is a parent communication app that teachers can use to give updates, post photos/videos, and as a class calendar. It even has volunteer signups as well as 2-way messaging, student portfolios, and behavior tracking.

What else is there to Bloomz?

It is available on apple, android, and computers. You can even choose to receive text/message alerts.

Best of all, its services are FREE!

Remind

  

Remind is a website/app that acts as a messaging system for teachers to text their students or the parents of their students one on one without having to give out their actual phone number. Remind is great to give out mass group texts that don't require an individual message. If teachers need to send out any updates regarding the class they can send out a group text to their students or the parents of their students and provide them with the additional information that they would need to know. You can use Remind with any age group or grade. This is available for students K-12 and also some high school professors happen to use Remind as well. Remind is also great for the environment. Teachers and other educators tend to use a lot of paper for very simple things such as classroom updates, individual messages for students, and any news regarding the school or the classroom. With Remind, people won't have to use as much paper that they have used before and they can also guarantee that the student or parent did receive their message since students can misplace or lose the worksheets that may have been provided to them from their teachers. Remind is free but if you would like to use any additional features other than what they already provide you with than you will be charged additional fee's. Overall Remind is a great service that can come in handy for last minute updates so that any educator does not have to stress out about getting their message to their students or their parents.