I’ve been teaching 6th graders for more years than I care to admit.   It’s amazing how much technology has changed since I started teaching.  When math games and other grade-appropriate websites started popping up, I eagerly passed along the info to grateful parents.  Finally kids had somewhere to go for extra help.

Our school system recently started a “Bring Your Own Device” initiative….basically, kids are allowed and encouraged to bring their Kindles, iPads, or other devices to class and use those devices for educational purposes.  It’s a win-win situation most of the time.  It makes the classroom more technology-friendly.  Using devices in class is a major motivator for many students.  It’s also a great benefit to teachers who often have limited resources.  My students tell each other about helpful apps that make learning fun.  This is an app that I’ll be sharing with them!  The iTooch app from eduPad is a great resource for elementary and middle school students who need extra practice.  I previewed the middle school app to see how my students might benefit from it.  Even better, these apps are FREE for the basic versions.  This is a great chance for you to preview the app before purchasing it.    If your child really struggles in school, I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase the full version.  At only $4.99 for the full version, it’s a huge savings over hiring a tutor! 

 I explored the math and language arts downloads to get an idea of what they cover.  I hope that eduPad will expand the current selection to include Science and Social Studies because the choices are somewhat limited right now.  Still, math and language arts are the primary areas to strengthen for many school systems, so I feel that it’s quite relevant for today’s classroom.  I’m also going to encourage my daughter to play on this app over the summer so that she doesn’t have the notorious decline in skills that often happens over the weeks of summer sunshine.

The math download proved to be right on grade level, from what I could tell.  When I taught math, the biggest problem that most kids encountered was the resistance to working out a problem.  iTooch  makes it fun to “show your work” with the writing section.  I would LOVE to have my students use this app in the classroom.  The assorted colors offered are a great way to have students color-code the solution to each step in the problem (see my example above).   Students could take a screenshot of their work and submit it via email.  Love it!!  Even the most reluctant of math students would be tempted to practice on this page.  There are also the typical multiple choice questions, computation problems, and so on.  I wonder if eduPad plans to make the quizzes accessible to teachers so that they can create their own tests and quizzes?  What a great next step that would be!

iTooch gives immediate feedback for each question with a fun little sound and a check mark for the correct answer.  If an incorrect answer is given, the correct solution is displayed.  Students then move on to the next question.  That makes it very non-threatening to those children who are afraid of making a mistake.   Students can self-monitor progress by checking in at the home page.

I also visited the language arts section to see what was going on there.  I loved the multi-media approach that these practice questions demonstrated.  There were images, speeches, and other forms of literature presented even in the initial phase of practice.   When I clicked on one of the stories, for example, this page appeared:

Now, I was expecting the colored words to be clickable but they weren’t.  Again, I’d love to see that as an option (and perhaps it is on the paid version.)  Still, what a treasure trove of information presented in child-friendly language!!  Knowing that these programs are aligned to the Common Core Standards makes it even more attractive.  With the current shift toward these standards, students will be required to make connections over a broader curriculum.  This is an excellent opportunity to help your child get the upper hand on these concepts while having fun.  I’m going to keep up with eduPad to see what they add to these apps to make them applicable to more content areas, specifically science and social studies.

Is this an app that you can use?  Who will you share it with?

FREE app from @itooch to help your kids meet Common Core Standards. savingsinseconds.com/?p=7143 sponsored twitter.com/SavinginSecond…

— Savings in Seconds (@SavinginSeconds) February 23, 2013