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Often times overlooked because of the popularity of the CNN app, the ABC app for iPad demands use. My SPED students LOVE the globe presentation of the news broken down by content. Wonderful presentation of the news for teens and should be a mainstay for app use.

Great app to give your students access to up-to-the-minute news stories in a simple format that is easy for them to navigate. Students can browse by category, photos, or video content. Students are able to rate articles using a star system, save favorites and send articles by email, as well as post to Facebook or Twitter.

The Math teacher at my school has influenced a new group of students who love chess. The students have been so excited about playing chess that they requested a app be loaded onto the Library ipads. The Master Soft Chess app is a wonderful addition. It provides hints, history and overall is a good chess app to help support chess matches.

Yes, Twitter is a powerful educational tool that can be used with students. My students use Twitter as a promotional tool for their student news program and to share current event announcements. Please keep in mind, it is very important to have an initial lesson and ongoing conversations with your students about Cyber online behavior. Check it out for yourself - https://twitter.com/PhillipsHSBTP

My "Behind the Paws" student news crew uses this app heavily. Current events are presented for student reading in a clear, concise and visual matter that all students can understand. Moreover, the sharing to other apps such as the student Twitter account is helpful tool for sharing current events with their peers

This app generate APA 6th Edition style citations for a wide range of traditional and new sources (including EVERYTHING I can think of!). You can copy the citation and paste it into other applications. You can save the citation (and create separate lists of citations), and/or e-mail citations. One disadvantage is that the app was designed for the iPhone and you can't turn the iPad to work with a wider screen, rendering the typing a little slow. Here is an example of a citation I generated: Matt Taibbi. Michelle Bachmann's Holy War. RollingStone. (1134/1135), Retrieved November 3, 2011 from RollingStone. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/michele-bachmanns-holy-war-20110622

Students are able to create, direct, and act out their own stories using this app. I love how you can actually see the stage and the offstage. Students have been able to quickly teach themselves how to use the program with little direction from me. This one has been especially fun for two students to use with headphones and a splitter. I love watching them collaborate together to create a story.

I wanted to come back and let you know that I was able to purchase the Puppet Pals Directors Pass. This app costs 2.99 per iPad (of course, I used the VPP and bought 32 copies for half price). Students can now download different backgroups and characters. The free one only uses the fairy tale set. They love mixing them up and making new stories. However, what I am really excited about and what made me want to spend the money on it -- the students can use the camera on the iPad 2 and take pictures to make their own characters and backgrounds. My idea is that they will take a picture of their traditional science fair board then they will the puppets that will talk about their science fair. Fun app!

Voicethread for the iPad just arrived, and it's amazing! It allows students to create narrated slideshows. It also has many many options for hosting open discussions of media where invididuals "comment" in various formats (e.g. written, voice, video). Voicethread can upload a broad range of audio and visual format. The voicethread app is free. Free accounts allow for up to the "voicethreads" per user. I paid $60.00 this year to obtain a one-year classroom account with 50 student accounts which I can manage and supervise very efficiently.

The VoiceThread app has exciting possibilities for students to present their research in a new way. My students used a combination of text slides created in Doodle Buddy and screen shots of images to create slide shows. They did voiceovers on top of the slide show and could even draw on the screen to point out the part of the diagram that they were referring to. One other exciting game-changer is that students can listen to another student's voicethread on their own ipad and then respond to it in text or record their own response. Then the student presenting (and teacher) can read and listen to the feedback. Some of these features are limited on the free version, like only 5 voice threads per account. There is more teacher control on the paid version as well. I'm definitely considering buying the full version.