Apps

I frequently use apps with my students or recommend them for use at home for practice or for fun sound exploration. I try to promote only free ones, but it isn't always possible so I always give a strong "this one costs real money!!!" warning if they ask about a particular app we may use in class. And of course, there are apps that I use as a teacher for organizational or lesson-planning purposes so I'll include those as well.
  • Rhythm Cat (Lite) - practice tapping rhythm to a music track
  • Star Composer - compose your own rock music with a few taps on the screen
  • Garage Band 
  • Songify - turn your speech or singing voice into a tune
  • Monster Chorus - good for pitch-matching
  • Soundrop - make walls for pitches to bounce off of and react to
  • Finger Maestro - music creation/composing
  • Musical Squares - music creation/composing
  • Tap and Sing - little robots who sing on a neutral pitch or even solfa!
  • Musyc - similar to Soundrop; very science/physics-related 
  • Chatterpix - make a picture talk or sing; let the kids show (or sing!) what they know
  • Quiver - an augmented reality app; I especially love the bird! have the kids color the bird (maybe for a sub lesson or a day you've lost your voice) and then give him a voice as he comes alive!
  • Phonopaper - draw sounds! Or something like that? It's hard to describe, but download it and play around.....it's fascinating!
  • BaiBoard or any dry erase board app - I like to let the kids draw vocal rollercoasters on my iPad and then we project them on the Elmo for everyone to follow. They beg to do this! 
  • Any Voice recorder - kids need to hear what they sound like! I often record them and play it back to them (as groups or privately as individuals) because they do not realize what their voice sounds like. This really helps make corrections when their voices are lower than they realize.
  • Lots more - this list is under construction!
  • Google Drive - it's a bit limited compared to the desktop version, but I love having access to my Google Drive on my iPad. I do all my lesson plans on Google Sheets, so I can have my lesson plans open on my iPad wherever I'm teaching and they're always right there. Since my iPad goes everywhere with me, I can look them over or edit them while I'm at my son's soccer practice or waiting at the doctor's office....possibilities are endless.
  • iDoceo - amazing gradebook/scheduling/seating chart app! When you have over 500 students, an app like this really comes in handy. It let me import my class lists from another source and all I had to do was take pictures of my students to match the names. I could then arrange my kids into their seating charts. I enter grades/observations/attendance easily with the tap of a button and I can also input my entire schedule including holidays, assemblies, field trips, etc. (Only for iPad.)
  • Dropbox - I mentioned this one in the websites already, but it is also an app. You can sync it with your devices and allow it to upload the pictures you take on your iPad/iPhone. Great for exchanging files from device to computer, etc.
  • Feedly - great RSS type app for gathering all your favorite popular educational blogs in one place.
  • Faster Scan - a scanner app; perfect for making copies of documents or notes; easy to upload to your Google Drive, Dropbox, Facebook, etc.
  • Plickers - I haven't used this yet myself, but it comes highly recommended! I am definitely going to dive in this summer and see how I can put it to use in the fall.
  • Evernote - I mentioned this on the websites already, but it is also an app. Just like many others, you can sync it with your other devices. Great for organizing or taking notes directly.
  • Lots more - this list is under construction!

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