My Favorite App

It has been awhile since I posted, but we are going full steam on our 1:1 ipads in the classroom! They LOVE them and so do I! I thought I would begin with my favorite app and it's a freebie!!!! The app that has really changed our classroom is.... SHOWBIE!

 

It is a great app for going paperless in your classroom. (Our upper grades are using Google Drive/Google Classroom but there are some restrictions for primary using it, so I had to find another way to achieve this goal). Now....I have to state my feelings toward a totally paperless classroom. I'm not a fan. I think it is SUPER important that students still have paper and pencil...especially in writing. There are so activities or assignments that are too hard to do on an ipad without an actual pencil and paper BUT....wow! We are doing a lot in this app! 

Weekly I assign 2-3 assignments through Showbie - at least 1 reading and 1 math. So when they visit that center throughout the week, they know to get their stylus and ipad to record their answers. When they log in, they will see this in Showbie. 

They simply choose the center they are currently in, like "Word Play". They chose a card and recorded the correct word to complete the sentence. 

 When they are finished they hit "Done" and that's it! I can then leave feedback (which shows as red). 

 We have done A LOT of practicing zooming in to make their writing neater. The first few assignments looked a lot like this: 

This app is SUPER easy and it really cuts down on paper/copy costs! When I log on here is what I see:

It shows me how many students have submitted assignments. If I click on the assignment it will show my class list and who has submitted (but I can't show that for privacy reasons!). I can leave feedback in red and/or type in a comment. Every Friday we have "Feedback Friday" where they check their assignments in their ipads to see how they did and what comments I made. This helps them know what to work on next week. 

This is how we started out in Showbie. We are continuing this for 2-3 centers a week...sometimes more, sometimes less. We have done SO much more incorporating other apps with Showbie that I can't wait to show you! 

Again....this is ALL FREE. There are definitely perks for a paid subscription, but I am thrilled with what we are doing with it for free!