Decide Now!

My new favorite blog, Teachers Use Tech, gave me this app idea!   

A spinner app with cool graphics and crisp audio, this app allows you to customize your spinner choices if you get the .99 cent version!  

1. Plug in the names of kids in your class to randomly pick participants.  

2. Enter vocabulary words on the teacher iPad (and project on Apple TV or LCD) and have students spin to pick a word they must translate as a bell-ringer review. 

3. Students can enter their own text to create a list of words they can quiz each other with!   Gives student choice of words and high student-to-student interaction! 

4. What about using charades words?  Students spin to select what they will act out (keeping the spinner private), while other students have to guess.  This would take care of one problem I have when doing charades, that when several students have gone, the answer gets to be too easy to guess...now, they might have to repeat words so it will keep them on their toes. 

Any other ideas?

Augmented reality

I've been learning recently about augmented reality but I've been struggling with how to add it in my classes....this blogger has a great idea.  I intend to start using this for Spanish next semester!

http://www.teachersusetech.com/2014/03/how-to-make-augmented-reality-word-wall.html

Cinco de mayo

If you have ever taught Spanish at this time of the year, you know how annoying it is to hear..."Are we gonna have a fiesta for Cinco de Mayo?"  Thanks to propaganda by beer distributors, most people have the wrong idea when it comes to what Cinco de Mayo really is.  But, wait!  There's an app for that!!!!  

Cinco de Mayo:the Battle of Puebla is a mostly free app.  Upon opening, it goes directly into a summary of what it is, and more importantly what it is NOT.  It is pretty concise and the audio is delivered in Spanish-accented English.  You can toggle a text version of the story.  The other functions must be purchased for .99 cents each, so it's not *exactly* free.  There is a memory game which is pretty pointless, I'd skip that.  You only match icons, with no reinforcement of what the icon represents. The quiz is pretty good, probably worth the .99 cents.  I suggest projecting it and having the class work on it together.  

It gives feedback like the above, but it never does tell you what is right and what isn't.  Kind of annoying but still moderately useful to inform and engage for a few minutes at the end of class.  

The coloring pages upgrade is exactly that. Maybe worth it for younger kids. Maybe. 

The other cool thing is that there is a completely Spanish-language version of the app.  I believe this was developed as a service to inform and instruct Spanish-language speakers about this commonly misunderstood holiday.

If you look at the developer, you will, in fact, find several similar Spanish-language apps...including one about the revolution of 1910, 'App Revolucionaria', and another called 'Héroes Bicentenarios'. 

In summary: good for a few minutes to close class, but only buy the quiz option, and only get it on your teacher iPad, then project.   Get it in Spanish for a more authentic and challenging tool.