My Top Picks: Educational Apps

Technology has become a part of our daily lives, although it can be distracting. There are a number of educational apps out there that allow us to harness the power of technology. Here are some of my favorites broken up by age.

Elementary Apps

Dr. Seuss’s ABCs: This app allows children to highlight specific words, listen to recordings of the word and even record the words themselves and share their recording with others. This app brings Dr. Seuss’s wacky world of literacy to a whole new interactive level!

Amazing Alex: Created by the same team that brought you Angry Birds, Amazing Alex is a fun game-like app that allows students to develop spatial thinking skills and gives them an elementary foundation in physics and geometry. The tasks are designed like puzzles and there is more than one ‘right answer’.

Kids’ Timer: The Kid’s Timer is one of the most practical, not to mention most adorable, apps out there for young children. The app breaks down tasks such as “getting dressed” or “clean room” into intervals and allows children to select the option. The child then has the option to either “beat the timer”, turning the activity into a game, or “count down” and use it as a traditional timer. The best thing of all is that the app is easy to use, and really child friendly all while teaching the basics of time management!

Middle School Apps

Presidents vs. Aliens: Civics can be a tough and dry subject for many students. But Presidents vs. Aliens makes learning about the presidents an intergalactic adventure. Not only is the app full of hundreds of trivia questions on each president, it involves battling against evil aliens.

MyHomework: MyHomework is one of the easiest and most simple apps students can use to help organize all their classes and homework assignments all while remaining organized and always knowing what is coming next. The app allows students to track important assignments, upcoming exams and projects, and even upload important documents. This app is a great alternative for a kid who may be struggling to write everything down in an agenda.

High School Apps

Quizlet: Tests and quizzes can become a weekly occurrence for high school students, which means one thing: lots of studying. What Quizlet masterfully does is to allow students to create a study set or search the existing database for one. Students input the information they’re looking to study and the app generates flash cards, practice quizzes and other study activities for the student to use.

30/30: One of the easiest ways to simplify the homework process for both students and parents is to implement a timer. 30/30 is my favorite timer for middle/high school students. The app allows you to manually input a task, color code it, and select the desired time. The app then counts down with numbers and a visual representation of the time. The tasks can be scheduled back to back so, you can have a set schedule “Do Math: 10 minutes”, “5 minute break”, “Proof read English essay: 20 minutes”, etc.

Technology is everywhere we turn and with more schools implementing the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) program, it is becoming an integral part of most students’ education.