Apps Review

Google Documents

Google documents is an app that I have used many times in my career as a special education teacher. The app has worked well to create team reports on individual students after their special education evaluation is completed. The process we use is that one staff member creates a document with the report template and then shares it with the rest of the team members. Team members then input their test scores for the student on their own time. As each change is being made, the document is automatically saved. Once everyone has their part in, we are able to print the complete report. Another our school staff has found for Google documents is planning our social gatherings such as staff breakfasts and wedding showers. The event coordinator creates a list of needed items and shares it with the staff. Each staff member is then able to access the document to see what is still needed and sign up to bring something. Google documents is also useful because it is linked with Google drive which is a great way to store and access documents from any device that is connected to the internet. Another feature I like about the app is that you are able to use many of the same formatting tools that you would find on Microsoft Word. They are easy to find and user friendly.


PicMonkey

PicMonkey is an photo editing app that I had not previously used. The first thing I liked when accessing the app was that you didn't need to create an account or sign in to be able to use the photo editor. This made it quick and easy to get started. There were many different tools that could be used to enhance the photo including text, backgrounds, shapes and images that could be overlaid, and more. Photos could then be saved to the computer or shared on Facebook, Twitter, etc. When trying some of the different editing tools, I thought this app could be fun to use to create holiday cards for a family or even for students. Students could even edit a photo of themselves by adding text or holiday headings. These could be printed off on the regular classroom picture and then colored by the students. I think this would be a fun activity that both the students and their parents would love. One thing that I would have liked to see in the app that I didn't find was a way to store the edited photos online or create an album that could be shared with others. Either this option was not available through this app or if it was it was not user friendly or easy to find.

Google Sites

Here is a link to the classroom website I created on google sites. I included a map for parents to find the location of our school and a calendar with the national holidays on it. I also included our classroom handbook with information about our program. I included photos of some of the centers in our classroom for parents to get an idea of some of the activities we offer.

bubbl.us

This is a concept map that I could use to explain to parents or other teachers how students qualify for the Early Childhood Developmental Delay program for which I teach. Since my students are not readers, I would not use bubble.us with the students directly, but could use it with parents or the staff team.