Epic!

My students LOVE using Epic! It has motivated many of my students to love reading for fun. My students love the program so much that they ask to go on Epic! when they finish their work. Sometimes I even have to tell them, "Right now is not the appropriate time to be on Epic! you should be doing your math work, reading activity, etc." I have even caught students listening to their newly discovered Goosebumps audiobooks while working on their math work, snack time, or during morning work.

But what makes Epic! so great for teachers? That is simple. I don't like Epic! simply because my students like it, I love the program too. IT IS FREE for teachers, there are many resources, a variety of books, and its fun to see my students excited about reading.

Epic! has a large number of books available for students and teachers. The best part is that the books that are available are an electronic version of actual books that students are familiar with, meaning they are published books.

Within a large number of books, there are many fiction and nonfiction books. The books are from a large variety of categories that are categorized for students and teachers to search through, especially for the times that you want to read a new book to the class or to use a new book for a lesson.

When searching for a specific book or a subject, there are many different forms of books to go through. This makes it easy to search for the perfect book to go with any unit or concept.

Once you find the perfect pre-made collection of books or a series of books, you can add them to your own personal library for future use or easy access. When starting a new unit I love creating collections or using one that was already created by another teacher. This way once I give my students access they are able to read pre-determined books about a specific concept. Your collection can be shared with students or even other teachers. You also have an option to make your collection public so that other teachers can use your collection and save time for others or you can save time by using the collection made by another teacher.

Once students take off with their reading there are different data that the teachers can use. There is an activity feed where the teacher can view what students are currently reading, their reading progress for the book, and any achievements that students receive.

As the teacher, you also have access to your class list with the students reading stats (books finished, hours read, and last time they were active in their account). Not only do you get that information for each student you get to see the progress made as a classroom and set goals for the class.

But the best part of Epic! is that students love the program! As a teacher, you can find programs that you believe are great, but if students do not buy into the program then it won't be successful. Students love logging into Epic! since they get a chance to choose their own avatar and collect badges (achievement rewards).  There is a long list of badges that they can earn, from reading at night, zooming into a book, to holiday badges. Students love these. Especially when they can see and compare each other's amount of badges, just like they can when they go to log into the Epic! There is a class list with their names and their avatar. Under their avatar, there is a number indicating the number of badges earned. I always hear my students saying "Oh I have 20 badges and so and so has 19."

With all the student motivators, a vast amount of books, and ability to search for specific books, this makes for a great resource. My students love using Epic!

Top 5 Classroom Apps

These are Top 5 iPad apps that are used in my classroom that students love! How do I know??? They keep on asking to use them and they wrote a paper about their top 3 apps.

1. Chicktionary-   Free

Chicktionary is a scrambled words game. Players work through different levels trying to make as many words as possible from the scrambled letters.

*Fun but simple spelling game.

*Collect golden eggs and "buy" chickens.

*Challenging words.


How do I use this app in my class?

-Station: I have students use the app as one of my stations, as an extension to my Word Work station. Even though students do not have the words from their list or the pattern. This is great to have them find words that follow their spelling pattern.

-Reward: After students finish their morning work they get to choose an app that I have on the iPad as an activity of their choice. Most of my student pick Chicktionary.

This was the app that was written about the most in my classroom. 22 out of 28 students wrote about Chicktionary as one of their favorite apps on our school iPad.

2. Front Row- Free

Front Row is an app and website where students can practice ELA and Math skills. In both ELA and Math student first take a diagnostic test that is used to place students in their learning level. Not only do students practice at their level but you can assign practice lesson and assessments for students to take.

*Critical thinking questions. 

*Videos that support student learning.

*Reading comprehension practice and writing practice.

*Differentiated learning

*Rewards for questions answered correctly (coins)

*Piggy Store: Students can use their coins to "buy" many items for their avatar.

*Prompts struggling students to ask for help.

*Math Inquiry Based Lessons

*Free math printable worksheets

Analysis Report

*Great Reports


How do I use this app in class?

Front Row Schedule

-Bell Work: When students walk into my classroom for math they use Front Row. Each day students practice a different domain. In my classroom I have a schedule of what domain to practice each day of the week. Underneath each domain I write students names who have mastered each standard until the grade level I want them to meet. For example my 2nd graders' goal is to master all standards from k-3. I use the Analysis report to provide this information.

-Classroom Assessments: Once we finish a unit I assign students the benchmark for that standard. I use their results as part of their report card grade. I print out the student's assessment report which include the questions, correct answers, student answers, and if they got it correct or not. I white out the correct answers, if they did not answer correctly, and give it to them to reflect back on their mistake and try to answer them correctly.

3. Adobe Voice- Free

Adobe Voice is a great app that allows students to create stories and presentations in a video form. The stories include images, pictures, background music, writing, and of course the student's voice.



*Fun and easy to use

*Publish videos online.

*Adobe Voice searchable images or images from the iPad camera roll




How do I use this app in my classroom?

-This app is a great way to introduce students to story writing.

-Daily 5: Work on Writing Station

-Presentations: After students write a research report they create a presentation to teach others about their topic.

Student Examples:   Student A             Student B

4. Nearpod-  Free

Nearpod is a great app for teachers that students love! Teachers can use their iPads or computers to manage the content that students view on their tablets/computers. It is similar to a PowerPoint presentations, but students can not move on from the "slide" until the teacher moves the lesson his/her device.

Promo Code JYX6RU

*Students collaborate in the lesson.

*Real-Time assessments

 *Instant results for the teacher and students
*Different modes of student engagement

*Students get to go at their own pace on quizzes/videos/images


How do I use this app in class?

-Lessons: This is a great app to use as lessons. In the lessons I  can include videos for students to watch (I ask them to watch a video 2 times minimum as they have control of the video), classroom polls, quizzes for checking student learning, open response questions, drawing.

-Exit Ticket: I use my exit ticket as a Start Class Ticket- I give students a quick check for understanding quiz before I start teaching. As I get immediate results I either create small groups by needs or reteach a concept to the entire class.

-Typing class: Students type a sentence/paragraph on the iPad with the open response interaction. Students have sentences or paragraphs that they need to copy and submit. As soon as they submit their response I can check their typing and provide feedback.

5. Motion Math: Wings-   Free

This is an app that helps students understand multiplication. Students look at arrays to find different forms of multiplication. For examples, as the bird flies through the air the student moves the bird's flying motion to go through the array that shows the greatest value.


*Engaging and exciting

*Levels that become more challenging

*Earn wings and islands

*Game format


How do I use this app in class?
-Practice: This app is used during instruction, small group, or when students get to choose an app to use.

Other Apps that students wrote about:
Free:
      *Versa Mate                    *Bills & Coins                 *Code.org      
      *QR Code Reader           *Showbie        *Sushi Monster

Paid:
        *Raz-Kids                     *IXL

Having engaging apps that students enjoy and look towards to use make learning exciting and engaging. It is always exciting to hear that students ask "Are we going to use . .  . today?" Or when they complain and sigh because they do not have a chance to use an app.

Here are some examples of my students' writing:

Student A      Student B       Student C

I'm Back . . .

These couple of months have been crazy. I finally finished my Master's and passed my State Principal test! Getting your Master's, being a mom, wife, teacher, and so on is a difficult journey, but it is not impossible. I am not the only person out there who has worked hard to achieve it. I had a wonderful group of teammates that helped me go though this journey (picture on the left). The most amazing thing happened during my commencement ceremony, I saw my 3rd grade teacher (picture on the right). This is the person who inspired me to be a hard working teacher.

Enough about me, this year was an amazing year as I had the wonderful opportunity to use iPads in the classroom. This experience helped me realized the role that technology plays in helping students learn. Students had the opportunity to use the iPads to do many projects, activities, and discoveries. From creating an information pamphlet, creating presentations, playing games, and researching.

This is a list of a few apps and websites that my students and I loved:

My personal favorite is NearPod. I love using this app to teach. It allows teacher to still guide a lesson but have students individually see the lesson on their iPad, and my favorite part is the individual student control components and instant feedback. Students can take quizzes and answer opened ended questions and immediately see their response.

 XtraMath is a great website where students log in daily to practice math facts. My students enjoyed this and looked forward to it. As a teacher you got to see their practice and see how many students struggle with simple facts that many times we do not think about. The only downfall is that using the website on the iPad is a bit tricky and it would freeze on students, the reports are a bit confusing to understand at first, but the benefits are more than worth it.

HaikuDeck was my students top app. HaikuDeck is like a PowerPoint/slideshow. My students wanted to create a HaikuDeck for every concept and activity that was interesting and meaningful. Students get to create a slide with information and then put a picture either from their selection or from their own pictures. Once the slideshow is published it will be online. Once published you can save the presentation as a PDF.  *Students never wrote their name they wrote their iPad number* -Requires a password-

 TenZen Light is a great Tangram challenge for students. My students enjoyed this app and constantly wanted to solve the challenges to finish all the levels.

Sushi Monster is a scholastic app where students get to practice math facts while feeding a monster. This is a great game, the name alone is fun.

My students loved practicing their telling time skills by playing Kids Clock. They did not only like to play the game but also loved the noises that it would make. Great review method.

 Singing Fingers was another kid favorite. I used this app to help students practice their spelling skills. They had to say the sound of each letter in a word as they wrote the multi-color letter. After they finished, if they retraced the letter without making noise they could hear their records. This is a fun app.

 Sky Drive was a great resource in my classroom my students used the online version not the app. Using this app with a class of 3rd graders requires patience but the outcomes are wonderful. It is a bit challenging to use it on the iPad because of some features and the keyboard, but nothing too challenging and students get to use Word and PowerPoint. I would suggest first using HaikuDeck then introducing PowerPoint. A great way to for students to turn in work that was done on the iPad.   -Requires a password-

 Dropbox is a great method of making files accessible for all students to see at the same time. This is a great way to save paper. -Requires a password-

Inkflow  is a great way to take notes, solve problems, and brainstorm. It's like a digital notebook.

Time Math is a great app to help students to learn and practice telling time. The great feature of this app is that it takes students through each component of telling time in different levels. This is a must have app when teaching how to tell time, and even after learning it as practice.

Wings  students loved this app. This is a game app that allows students to practice multiplications and arrays. Students need to fly the bird through the greatest array from two that are presented.

VersaMate was another favorite app that was constantly played. Students played against the computer or other students. This is a great way to for students to practice identifying fractions.