This is one lesson that I could have spent weeks on but time and students prevented me from doing so! Our school is definitely not an Apple community so we don't have iPads available for kids but kids have iPhones and iPads at home so I let them test out some apps. Some we found that we really loved were:
DragonBox Algebra - the kids really liked the game feel and even my math-savvy kids said it was fun and helpful. This will be a great app for my 9th graders struggling with algebra and to prep for the ever-looming Regents exam.
Poems By Heart - OK I picked this because I love poetry. Kids weren't as thrilled with it as I was but it's an app I think I will try with my AIS English students to see if they can 'present' a poem to the class.
Paper - my artistic kids LOVED this app and created all kinds of cool creations. It's definitely not so much my thing, I'm more of a list it and write it out type of girl with zero artistic talent, but kids that are visual learners will especially like it. Organizes your info into a very album cover like view and the kids liked that too!
Cell and Cell Structure - just because my Freshmen are learning about this and I think the visual and interactive nature really helps them grasp the concepts and ideas. Again, particularly useful for studying for the Regents.
Simple Physics - an amazingly simple and frustrating app to work on your physics skills. Frustrating to those of us who don't 'get' physics, simple and cool for those learning the principles of physics. My physics kids thought this was pretty nifty and used it to help them get ideas and information for creating their roller coaster projects in their physics class.
So much for the apps. Now for the QR codes. I've been thinking for a long time about doing something with QR codes in the library. I've created two simple things - I used cheap white boards and one has share an app - post a QR code to your favorite game on it. Then I taught kids how to get the QR code with goo.gl and they are posting them up there to share. They love that board! The other board I put on one of the tables in the library and set the white board on an easel. At the suggestion of Kathleen O'Dean I modified the words to "Call Me Maybe" and posted a kid friendly message that invites the kids to "Read me maybe" with QR codes of books in the library posted all around the message. That's new this week and I'm curious to see how the kids respond. Now that I have a quick and easy way to create and save QR codes I'm on a mission to QR the lib!!
This was a great learning project. Thanks for the push to explore.
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