Whether you’re a teacher enjoying your summer off, or a parent looking for the latest in edtech, we’ve been all over the place scouting out the best of the best and bringing it to you here at Techfaster. Check out these 8 EdTech apps and platforms to check out this summer.
Grammaropolis
Whether you’re a language arts teacher or a parents of a student in grades K-5, you need to check out Grammaropolis. Grammaropolis helps kids learn grammar the same way we learned about bills becoming laws and conjunctions. They’ve turned all the parts of grammar into characters that match their functions personality, very similar to School House Rock. Find out more here.
Field Day App
Teachers using a Project Based Learning curriculum know just how rewarding it can be. They also know how disorganized it can get in a flash. You’re not working from a book or a straight curriculum. Your students are creating, collaborating and working toward a common goal, all while learning at the same time. Field Day app allows teachers to better manage a project based learning project and curriculum. Learn more here.
Great Kindness Challenge
Getting kids into the habit of being kind is just filled with awesome and that’s exactly what Great Kindness Challenge has done. The Great Kindness Challenge is a week long activity where kids across a school do kind things, it instills kindness in them. Now there’s an app to track the 50 kindness challenges, and a little secret, you can challenge your kid to do it anytime. Just call it “practicing” .Find out more about Great Kindness Challenge here.
Teacher Lists
It’s just about back to school time and it’s time to start getting your kid’s school supplies. You’re lucky if your school is on the national school supply lists directory at teacherlists.com. If your school isn’t on it, tell them they need to be and find out more here.
Tales2Go
Tales2Go is the Netflix for kids audio books. These days, especially with common core state standards in place, listening is just as important as reading. Tales2go has thousands of familiar childrens titles for one monthly unlimited listening price. Founded by a former Nickelodeon, National Geographic and Disney executive, Tales2go was designed from the top down to appeal to, and work easily for kids and their parents. Learn more here.
Graphite
So how educational is that educational app? The fine folks at Common Sense Media have created a platform that answers that question exactly. Teaming up with a range of educational experts Graphite reviews educational apps, games and websites for their educational value. It’s from Common Sense Media so you know it’s a valuable resource. Find out more here.
Weekly Reader is gone but now there’s something much better and it’s Newsomatic. Newsomatic publishes 5 original stories per day for kids specifically. Their app is like a daily app based newspaper for kids, that’s even more feature packed than USA Today. Kids can read the stories, learn about where they take place, see how far away that is, play games, participate in art contests and more. Newsomatic is now available in the iTunes app store and the Google Play store and there’s a classroom version that’s definitely worth checking out.
EdPuzzle
There’s a huge world of content available to teachers today in the form of online videos. Whether it’s YouTube, Vimeo or another video platform, turning web videos into teachable content has never been easier than with EdPuzzle. The EdPuzzle platform allows users to overdub their voice, insert annotations and mark up videos so that they can teach a lesson. Rather than writing on a smartboard around a video or using a handout, with EdPuzzle the video becomes the lesson. Find out more about EdPuzzle here.
