Long Live Flashcards! How Tiny Cards is Changing the Way Students Learn Vocabulary

Vocabulary tends to be one of the biggest barriers all educators face in our classrooms, regardless of subject area. Even though our students come to our classrooms with diverse background experiences and learning needs, they still need options for how language, vocabulary and symbols are represented.

Tiny Cards iOS App:

Tiny Cards is a free iOS App designed for students to quickly learn new vocabulary terms in effective and efficient ways. Students can find user-created flashcards on a plethora of topics such as foreign languages, geography, history, and science.  You also have the option of creating and publishing your own flashcards with a free account.

Options for Learning:

I like the fact that Tiny Cards represents vocabulary terms in different ways for students through text, images, and spoken text. I also like the fact that Tiny Cards provides users with different ways of learning terms through interacting with flashcards, multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and self-assessments.

Conclusion:

The App is designed in a way that customizes instruction and provides students with the appropriate scaffolds, support, and rigor. After reading more about the App and its privacy agreement, I have found that this is an excellent tool for students ages 12 and older.

Help Students Monitor Progress with Progress Bar Timer

How do you help students learn how to reach their goals? This is an important aspect of self-regulation or how we help students develop important intrinsic, self-assessment, and coping skills. Using a progress bar can be a great strategy to provide our students with a tangible way of measuring their progress.


















The Progress Bar Timer App is an excellent Google App that you could use to help measure student performance on your Chrome Browser. This is the perfect tool for Chromebook schools. After installing the App on your Chrome Browser, you or your students can measure performance in three different ways:

1. Counter

The counter feature is the perfect way to measure performance. Use it to count the number of books read or the number of pounds you shed. Simply add a bar, provide a description, then enter a starting value and ending value. Once your bar is installed, you can manually add or reduce the number.

2. Timer

The timer feature acts like an egg timer and provides a count down. This might be a perfect tool to help students keep track of study time, free time, and even exercise time. Need to take a break? You can pause the timer or reset it so that it can be used again.

3. Clock Feature

The clock feature can be a great study tool to help students visually see how much time they have spent on a task and how much longer they have to go. This is a great tool to keep things in perspective.

Conclusion:

Self-regulation is an important intrinsic, self-assessment, and coping skill that students (and adults) need to learn. Self-regulation can be thought of as "mind over matter." Sometimes changing our perspective or measuring our performance can help in achieving our goals! The Progress Bar Timer can be a great tool to tangibly measure student progress.

Help Students Manage Time with the 30/30 App

Time management has to be one of the most difficult tasks for students (and adults) to master. There are so many things to do and keep track of each day! When we are helping our students become expert learners, we need to help them develop important self-regulation skills, like sustaining effort, managing time, and even breaks.

A Great Time Management App:

One of my recent graduate students wanted to find an App that could help her students plan and manage the amount of time they spent on assignments, tasks, and even breaks. She found an excellent iOS time management app called 30/30, where students set up a customized list of tasks and the expected time of each task. When students start the timer, you will be prompted when to move on to the next task.

How can you use this App?

Step 1: Create Your Task List

Students can open up 30/30 and create their own new Task List, where they can customize the task name and amount of time spent on each task. Add as many tasks as you would like.

Step 2: Create Your Tasks

Add Tasks to your Task List, customize the amount of time spent on the task, and even add an icon. I would highly recommend adding time for breaks! Students can even reposition the tasks in an order that makes sense for them.

NOTE: If you go to settings, you can email task lists to others. This may be a little tricky if email isn't setup on student iPads; however, this could be a great tool for 1:1 environments.

Step 3: Begin Using Your Task List

When students are ready to use their Task List, they can open it and press play. They have the ability to add time, decrease time, check the task as complete, or even delete the task. 

My Thoughts

With an easy-to-use interface, this App is a powerful tool for any classroom. It can help not only our students manage time, but perhaps we can use it ourselves. How often do you find yourself wondering where all the time went? 

Do you have a similar tool that you use? I would love to hear about it. 

Changing America: To Be Free App

listen to ‘Changing America: To Be Free App’ on Audioboo

On January 1, 1863, The Emancipation Proclamation changed the lives of everyone in our nation. Regardless of our race, age, or gender, all of us can connect with this historic American event. Changing America: To Be Free is a free App to correspond with the Smithsonian exhibit in the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

I really like the fact that this App provides users with the ability to personalize their experience. As educators, we need to find new ways to engage our students. In the "Make a Connection" section, students can personalize their experience by making connections with historical figures who are similar in age, race, or gender.

There are a variety of known and little-known historical figures available for students to explore. Each historical figure's profile contains a short bio and quote. Students can browse through all historical figures at once or filter by age and/or race.

Finally, there is a social media component built into the App, where students can join a much larger discussion by Tweeting their feedback in the "Share Your Thoughts" section.

How would I use this? 

This App could be used in a variety of ways. If I were a History teacher, I may assign each of my students a historical figure to research and present to the class.

If I were a Language Arts teacher, I would search the "Make a Connection" section and find someone similar in age to my students. As a writing prompt, I would have my students read their short bio and write a short story about what they may have been experiencing during this time.

I feel that it is important for our students to connect with history in different ways. This App would be a great tool to do so!