Back To It and Some Great Teacher Oriented Android Apps

Today was the first day back to school for the kids. It was a nice, much needed break. Obviously I took a break from both work and my blogging, I just needed that time away from it all, and it was well worth it. I'm feeling refreshed and ready for another full semester.

I currently have a lot of little projects I'm working on. I will begin posting them as I complete them. I have so many different things going on now, from work stations to videos to units to webquests, that I won't even begin to list them here.

I've been pleasantly surprised with the steadily increasing readership of this blog, and will continue to keep it going.

Today, I wanted to share the educational apps I have on my phones. I get all of my apps from the Google Play Store (Android OS App Store), and the ones that are listed here are free apps.

My phone runs Android ics (Ice Cream Sandwich), which has so far been my favorite of the Android Operating Systems. I love that you can group apps on your home screen, similar to what Apple does with its apps. I have a group of apps I call Education apps, and they include a few calculators, and some other great tools. Let's take a quick run down of these tools that I use.

First, there are three calculators. The first one is the stock calculator. Secondly, the white icon is a great calculator that has a history function, and is called Seven+WP7 Calculator. Finally, there's a sales tax calculator that I use both when running errands and in class when teaching about the concept of tax (which isn't often, but I put it here anyways).

Next up, there is a great app called simply Common Core (if you search common core, it's the first result). I love this tool, it allows you to search through the CCSS. This has saved me a lot of time when I'm planning on the go, and I recommend it to any teacher who is under CCSS.

On to the second column, with Handcent SMS. I use the stock text messaging app for most of my texting, but what makes Handcent great is the ability to send bulk SMS messages. You see, Android only allows 10 messages to be sent at a time. This is inconvenient if you send daily text messages to your parents as I do. I want to send the same message (a daily run down of homework, things due, important dates, etc.) to 32 people. Well Handcent lets you do just that. This app has saved me a lot of time!

Next up is Goodreads. I love to read, and have a Goodreads profile. It's social networking for your books. This app is great, I can update my status, do reviews, and find new books all from the app.

Next is Embiggen. It's a simple concept: type something in, and embiggen makes it as large as your entire screen. It's a lot of fun to be able to send a quick message to students with the phone. They get a kick out of it for some reason.

The Boosed Grader app is something I've posted about before HERE, it is an EZ Grader app for your phone.

In the last column is BeyondPod, which is a podcast service (I have the paid one, but there is a free one available), and finally TED. TED lists hundreds of the TED talk videos, which are AWESOME.

So there you have it, a quick listing of some great apps for your Droid.

How to Send Text Messages to Parents All At Once On Your Android Phone

I've been sending daily (for the most part) text messages to my parents for going on four years now. I've found that it has done a lot for me, parents feel like they're in the loop day by day, I have to make and answer far fewer phone calls from parents during my at home time, and the vast majority of my students hand in homework, bring back important slips, and know that they're accountable. I use the texting with parents to let them know about classroom issues, set up meetings, or even answer questions.

I'm very up front with parents from the beginning. I tell them that I love text messaging, ask for their phone numbers, and the past two years, I've been sending texts to every single parent of every single student.

There are some services out there that you can use if you're worried about sharing your cell phone number with parents, or would like to send text messages from your computer. If that is more what you're looking for, I will refer you to a post Richard Byrne made on his Free Technology for Teachers blog titled 7 Services for Sending Group Texts to Parents and Students.

Now, I currently use an Android smartphone, and send my texts directly from it. Before my Droid, I had a Blackberry. The primary difference I noticed right from the start is that I could text all 52 parents (moms and dads, remember!) in one text on my Blackberry, but on my Droid, I'm limited to groups of 10 people. It is a little more of a pain, but what I did was I placed everyone into groups of 10, and when I sent a text, I would first send it to the first group, then forward it to the next group, etc. It would take about 45 seconds in all to get the text out to all groups.

What I like about the Android is that you can control your groups and your phones address book right from your web browser. When signed into Google, usually for me I get to the menu from Gmail, you do the following:

1. Click MORE
2. Click CONTACTS

3. In the page that opens up, on the left hand column, click NEW GROUP

4. Name your group (when I'm starting the groups for my class, I usually do something like CLASS 1, CLASS 2, etc.).
5. Once you have your parents all in your normal contact list, which you can either do from your phone or also in your web browser (it's faster) once you've collected phone numbers, just click the box next to their name, click the add to group button, and add them to your group.
6. Repeat over and over again. Remember that you'll only be able to add 10 per group.

Now, the next time you send a text, when you search for a recipient, the Android system will give you the option of finding your groups.

It works for me, because I prefer to send my texts from my phone. If you have a smart phone, it's pretty much a given that you have unlimited texting (if you don't get it, you're being ripped off big time). I send a daily text letting parents know of important dates, homework, etc. I also send texts as needed to parents to let them know of behaviors, to praise students, etc.

My favorite part of all this is that I utilize a free app called Sms Backup + that will backup your call log and all of your text messages to your Gmail account as often as you would like. So what this means for the teacher is you have a record of parent communication, which is great.