Tag Archives: AASL Best Apps for Teaching & Learning

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: STEM: Cosmic Watch

Last summer, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2017. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration, and encourage discovery and curiosity.

This app is a celestial watch based on a 3D model of the solar system as experienced from earth, and is a world and astronomical clock.
“It shows time as what it really is – our position and motion in the cosmos. Students can learn more about astronomy and our solar system, watch the real time movement of sun, moon and stars or simply enjoy the beautiful design of the celestial sphere.” The app’s website features tutorials as well as some educational resources that  feature images from NASA missions.

Level: Middle School +
Platform: iOS/Android
Cost: $4.49

Read this review from PC Mag for a detailed description of the app as well as pro/con items. You can also read a review by a teacher here, from EducationalAppStore.com.

 

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended App: Books: Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Last summer, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2017. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration, and encourage discovery and curiosity.

The app Shakespeare’s Sonnets features all 154 poems performed by an all-star cast, background analysis, and shareable videos. Users can “dig deeper with commentaries by the Arden Shakespeare and Don Patterson. In addition to the performance videos, there are expert interviews that take closer looks at Shakespeare and the sonnets.”

Read this review of the app from Common Sense Media, or preview the app with this detailed review here.

Level: High School
Platform: iOS
Cost: $13.99

Watch this short video to get an idea of how the app works:

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended App: Organization and Management: Quizizz

Last summer, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2017. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration, and encourage discovery and curiosity.

Quizizz is “a game-based tool for class review or assessment. It provides class and student level data and works on any device with a browser. You can find quizzes made by other teachers or create your own, and you can conduct “live” quizzes or assign a quiz as homework. Students play together but each at their own pace. The app has gamification elements like avatars and memes.”

Level: All
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: Free

Read a detailed review of the app from Teachers First that also includes several examples of ways to incorporate the app into your classroom. This article from Common Sense Education does a side-by-side comparison between Quizizz and the Kahoot! app. And check out the Quizizz website for testimonies from teachers that use the app.

Watch this video to see how Quizizz works:

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended App: STEM: Disaster Detector

This summer, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2017. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration, and encourage discovery and curiosity.

The app Disaster Detector from Smithsonian Institution “teaches players how to analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and how to implement tools to mitigate the effects of those disasters.” Students work to protect the citizens of the town of Smithsonville by predicting and preparing for natural disasters.

Level: Middle School
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: FREE

On the app’s website, you can find 6-8th grade level curriculum to use in the classroom, as well as some resources specifically for Earth and Space Science. PBS Learning Media has a quick description of the app and how it incorporates certain Educational Standards. Blogger Larry Ferlazzo who specializes in ELL/ESL websites writes in this post that the app looks to be accessible to ELL students and “would be an excellent game for students to play who are learning about natural disasters.”

The Smithsonian Science Education Center, which developed the Disaster Detector app, has their own YouTube channel, which you can find here. Watch their quick intro video below:

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended App: Books: Goldilocks and Little Bear

Last summer, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2017. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration, and encourage discovery and curiosity.

Goldilocks and Little Bear is an app that tells the familiar story but with a twist. It also tells the story of Little Bear, who ends up exploring Goldilocks family home. “Enjoy each stories in parallel, individually, or however you’d like – you can toggle between the two at any point. The app includes beautiful artwork, stunning animation, ingenious, playful forms of interactivity, original music, voice work and sound effects, and more.”

Tech for Kids has a review of the app you can read here, and School Library Journal also reviewed the app. Their article includes this link to a video by Steve Burke, who created the music for the app, which gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the process!

Level: Elementary
Platform: iOS
Cost: $4.99

Watch the trailer for the app here: