Sorry for just reposting it I thought this was a great list

http://www.edudemic.com/2013/09/70-best-apps-teachers-students/

So I was doing a cool art project where you dye a photographic image onto fabric using LUMI Inkodye and the sun and I ran across this really great image editor.  It allows you to edit images for free with amazing tools.  Very awesome.  

I just found 2 great sites that will help with the common core standards for next year.  The first one, Gooru, allows users to search articles by topic and it suggests collections and articles.  It even has a place where you can look at what others have collected.  I really like that it is a multimedia collection so students can do close reading for a variety of media.  Last year I had my students do an indepth look at the Sandy Hook tragedy and gun control.  I wish I had this resource then,

The second website I found is called Youth Voices.  This is an interesting site where there are articles written for youth and by youth on a wide range of topics.  Take a look at the Mission tab where you will find a link to common core related challenges and tasks.   I also like the guides.  It has frames that will help struggling writers.  

When I was younger I used to keep a journal where I would write down quotes that I thought were meaningful. Today I found a site that allows you to type in a quote and choose a template to make

a poster out of it. This is great for people like me who can find the interesting quote but don't have the artistic talent to give it the umph it deserves to make it classroom wall worthy. http://recitethis.com

http://www.problem-attic.com/

I get mixed feelings around the time we start testing. I can tell the kids feel put upon and I get angry at all the politics that surround the test. Teachers should not be judges based on their kids scores. Schools should not be judged based on student performance on one standardized test. We are not numbers and learning can not be quantified with filling in bubbles. And yet, at some point I swallow the koolaid. I want my kids to do well. I give them tips and strategies to beat the test and we cram the last 2 weeks before the test. I do this because I don't teach in a multiple choice way so they are not familiar with assessments that involve an answer with no justification. The answer is never as simple as a letter. "Why do you think that? Explain your thinking." This test takes away the critical thinking and makes learning about eliminating wrong answers and eeenie meanie minie moe.

That said,they take a test. People look at it how they did. My school is compared to others based in how students score. Parents choose schools based on that performance. We've all swallowed the koolaid.

So here's a website that has all the released questions from multiple states that teachers can format into worksheets. Meh! But here it is anyways

I get mixed feelings around the time we start testing. I can tell the kids feel put upon and I get angry at all the politics that surround the test. Teachers should not be judges based on their kids scores. Schools should not be judged based on student performance on one standardized test. We are not numbers and learning can not be quantified with filling in bubbles. And yet, at some point I swallow the koolaid. I want my kids to do well. I give them tips and strategies to beat the test and we cram the last 2 weeks before the test. I do this because I don't teach in a multiple choice way so they are not familiar with assessments that involve an answer with no justification. The answer is never as simple as a letter. "Why do you think that? Explain your thinking." This test takes away the critical thinking and makes learning about eliminating wrong answers and eeenie meanie minie moe.

That said,they take a test. People look at it how they did. My school is compared to others based in how students score. Parents choose schools based on that performance. We've all swallowed the koolaid.

So here's a website that has all the released questions from multiple states that teachers can format into worksheets. Meh! But here it is anyways

Tony Vincent( learninginhand.com) has developed a fabulous infographic designed around matching teaching and learning verbs to apps. It also has explanations for what each app does and how aps differ from each other.



A second infographic I found matches depth of knowledge( or Blooms or whatever else you want to call the critical thinking scale) to apps.

So today I found what has the potential to be a really inventive digital story telling site.  This site helps you to create an interactive timeline where you can add digital media and narration.  What I love about it the most is that the user has the ability to edit video clips right on the web site.  The drag and drop interface looks very easy.  Also you complete the narration in segments so there 's no need to redo something over and over.  

The education pricing is FREEEEEEEEEE.  That is itself is awesome!  I am not sure if it works on iPads

Here is a link to the How To Video.

Here is a slide show I created with my current favorite apps.  Most are free Apps but a couple of them are Web pages.

Since I have had the ipads I have been looking for ways to do on the spot, interactive assessments.  Last year I used Socrative and I showed it to many here in our district.  After using it for awhile I realized it had some limitations that made it only useable for certain types of assessments.  I could not format text so I could not do anything with poetry.  I could not put whole passages on in for students to read so I still had to print documents for the students.  

Then along comes infuse learning.

"Infuse Learning allows teachers to push questions, prompts, and quizzes out to students' devices in private virtual classrooms. In an Infuse Learning room a teacher can give students a wide variety of formats in which to response to a question or prompt. Students can reply to prompts and questions in standard multiple choice, true/false, and short answer formats. But Infuse Learning also offers an option for students to reply by creating drawings or diagrams on their iPads, Android tablets, or on their laptops." Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers

What I really like about this site in particular is the draw response.  It allows you to take a picture of something and then have the students annotate it.  They submit their annotations as pictures.  I also love that it keeps track of class data.  Although I haven't played with it much.  This site seems to offer greater possibilities than Socrative!

One of the problems I face in teaching ELA is that most apps are not specific for my subject, they are either general production apps or for content like math. That is the interesting thing about Language Arts, it's not really a content per se but a vehicle to understand other materials. Yes, there are some literary Structures that you can learn,but for the most part, if your learn to read and write with thoughtfulness you can learn anything.

That said, I ran across the great article today on the edsurge website that had some great explanations of some tools just for language arts classes.

I have seen Subtext before and I even think I have it as an edmodo app, but I haven't put it to use yet. I'm going to give it a try when school starts again. I also like the 2 book selection apps, but my one concern is the amount of logins for students. There is starting to be some
confusion about which app to use for what.

I'm going to add these to my web page for them to access.