Posts Tagged ‘iPad Apps’

The 20 Most Popular Posts of 2010

Friday, December 31st, 2010

I have to admit that as I compiled this list, I was genuinely surprised by which posts were most popular with our readers. I do believe the numbers are a bit skewed, though. Parentella’s readership has grown tremendously throughout 2010, and I think some gems from early in the year have been overlooked. But still, all the articles listed below are also fantastic!

Topping the charts by far for “Favorite Post” was 10 Tedx Talks that Teachers Should Watch, compiled by Ainslie Hunter. If you haven’t seen these videos, they are worth your time!

By far the most popular category was “Conferences,” particularly when we did live coverage from the conferences. Here is a sample of a few winners from this category:

Can Twitter help with Education? by Aparna Vashisht: At the ISTE conference, Aparna clearly proves the power of Twitter helps educators.

Educators Making an Impact at the #140Conf in Boston, a recap of the conference by Shelley Terrell.

Upcoming Education Conferences compiled by Amanda Henson.

Here are some more of our readers’ “Top Picks for 2010.”

A Parent’s Field Guide to Parents by April McCaffery: a biting response to a post written by Jason Flom on The Ecology of Education site that poked fun of parents.

Confessions of a Problem Parent by April McCaffery: speaks out about trying to find a balance between homework and quality of life.

A Dilemma by Amanda Henson: getting the locals schools to adopt technology in the classrooms.

How to Bridge The Summer Learning Gap by Aparna Vashisht: offers suggestions to help your children keep their skills sharp over the summer break.

Washington D.C. New Teacher Contract by Aparna Vashisht: a summary of the dramatic changes the Washington DC teacher’s union has agreed to.

Don’t Let Budget Woes Derail Education by Deven Black: a poignant article about why schools should not be run as businesses.

What is a Good Teacher? A Parent’s Perspective by April McCaffery: April talks about how well her children do in their classes is directly tied to how much they like the teacher.

How Would You Fix One Single Problem in Education? by Ainslie Hunter: Ainslie challenges us to look for practical, “not sexy” solutions to the education crises.

The Tony Danza Teach(ing) “Experiment” by Steve Franklin: Mr. Franklin realizes that Tony Danza’s teaching debut is not that different from his own.

How to Engage Parents at a Title I School: a compilation of strategies for improving parental involvement in low socioeconomic areas, written and compiled by several teachers and support staff.

“Race to Nowhere” vs. “Waiting for Superman” by Christi Grab: a comparison between two very different movies about education reform that were released at about the same time.

The Decisive Element in the Classroom: Three Ways Teachers Positively Impact Students by Signe Whitson: the importance of teaching children problem solving skills, as well as imparting them with self-esteem and self-efficacy skills.

Parent-Teacher Meetings: What Works by Steve Franklin:  three strategies to encourage parents in poor socio-economic areas to be more involved in their kids’ educations.

Alternative Priorities by April McCaffery: April discusses why she chose to not take away her daughter’s extra-curricular activities as punishment for not doing well in school.

Welcome to Featured Apps! by Ann Leaness: Ann shares how much both children and adults love the ifish Pond App for the Ipad and Iphone.

Dad and Daughter Dates by Ainslie Hunter: Ainslie talks about the importance of children spending time with their fathers.

We want to thank all of your for reading our blog, as well as for all your comments, tweets and Facebooking posts about this blog and Parentella’s awesome private parent-teacher social network! We look forward to a fruitful 2011!

————————

Written by Christi Grab, Parentella’s Editorial Director and author of  The Unexpected Circumnavigation: Unusual Boat, Unusual People Part 1 – San Diego to Australia.  She is currently working on book two of the series.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Ainslie Hunter, Amanda Henson, Ann Leaness, Aparna Vashisht, April McCaffery, Christi Grab, Conferences, Current News, Deven Black, Education Policy, Education Reform, Guest, Learning Activites, Media, Parent Perspectives, Parent teacher communication, Public Schools, Schools, Shelly Terrell, Steve Franklin, Teacher Perspectives, Technology | 10 Comments »

Featured Apps – Word Games

Sunday, July 18th, 2010

Welcome back to our Featured Apps!

Summer in our house is a great time to unwind and play games. Every year we drag out the board games and have some good old fashioned family fun time. This summer, we continue the laughs and comrarderie, but with a little bit of a technology twist. What a hit it has been.

Our first featured app today is Scrabble. The Scrabble App on the iPad is gorgeous!

There are several ways to play: single game against the computer, with your facebook friends, against those in your local network, pass and play mode, and party play.

Our favorite is the pass and play mode. In the pass and play mode you can add up to four players. The beauty of playing scrabble this way is that the App does all the work. It distributes the tiles to each player, it keeps score, and it has a built in dictionary. The one feature that we like best is the best word feature. Each player can use the best word feature up to four times. We have a family rule that only the little kids can use it! It helps keep those early readers engaged in the game, so they can keep up with the more word savvy competitive adults. And, there is no cheating on the adults’ part because the little heart below each player’s name shows how many times the best word is used. The adults in our family have enjoyed some healthy competition while gathered around the scrabble board, and this App is helping us break in a new generation of scrabble lovers.

The Scrabble App is available on both the iPhone ($2.99) and the iPad (9.99) The iPad App is a bit pricey, but we have definitely gotten our money’s worth!

Our Second Featured Word Game App is Chicktionary!

Look out, this game is addictive!  In each game, you are given a set of seven scrambled letters nested in the chicken’s bellies. The object of the game is to fill every egg crate with a word made from the letters provided. Sounds easy, no? Well, think again. It can be a real challenge trying to fill those crates. You can shuffle the letters by dragging them around to see a new perspective. There are two modes of play, the timed version where you try to get as many words as you can in a given amount of time, or long play where you need to get all the words with no time limit. It really doesn’t matter if you are 7 or 70, you will easily get hooked into finding all the words to fill your egg crate. This game also has some built in features to help the little ones. Beak sneak, shows you one letter placement in each egg crate and free bird gives you a free word in one egg crate. Another great feature is the dictionary. If you create a word but don’t know the meaning, you can tap on that word and it will take you to an online dictionary.

Chicktionary  is available for FREE right now on both the iPhone and the iPad, so you might wnat to get it while you can.

Let us know what you think about our featured apps and if you are enjoying the games as much as we are! Also check out our posts on geocaching and the ifish pond!


Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Ann Leaness, Learning Activites, Technology | 5 Comments »

Welcome to Featured Apps!

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

Welcome to our new Featured Apps Posts!

There are so many iPhone and iPad Apps in the Apple store it is difficult to decide which Apps will fit our needs or interests. It is our hope that by highlighting different Apps we can save you some time and point out some real gems that you might not want to miss. Our focus is to provide you recommendations for kid friendly apps that will not only entertain kids but also provide educational value.

For our first App, we thought we would start out by sharing something fun!

Do you have the shiny new iPad?  Well if you are lucky enough to have one, you probably know by now that everyone who sees it wants to take a peek. Well, the screen size is perfect for the cool factor of this App–iFish pond HD.

The kids love iFish. They love to run their fingers across the screen to see and hear the gently rippling water.  They quickly catch on to dragging lily pads and frogs onto the pond’s surface, and set them jumping from pad to pad with the flick of a finger. Another tap on the dragonfly icon and the sound of buzzing accompanies the tiny bugs flitting across the surface of the pond. If that’s not enough, they can add a thunderstorm or sit for a while and fish in the pond. Catching lots of fish unlocks more features.

Here is a video:

The true beauty of this App, besides all the oohs and ahhs you will hear, is that it appeals to all ages. Kids and adults alike can’t wait to touch the screen to see the water move. Hearing the soothing sounds of nature naturally reduces the stress and anxiety of a busy day. Another great perk is that the ifish Pond App is the upgraded version of the pocket pond for the iphone. The Pocket Pond is free so you can test out some options to see if you might want to splurge on the upgraded HD Version.  $1.99 for the iPhone and $2.99 for the iPad.

So, need to entertain your little ones during these hot summer days? Then, iFish Pond HD is a great way to start. Have fun testing out the first featured app and be sure to let us know whether your kids or (you) liked it! Also, check out the posts on geocaching and word game apps.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Ann Leaness, Technology | 16 Comments »