Shake-a-Phrase App Review #EngChat #EdChat

Shake-a-Phrase

Full Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this app for the purpose of a review.

It's been a while since I've done an app review, but I'm glad I started back with Shake-a-Phrase by Artgig Studios. Shake-a-Phrase is a fun app thats purpose is helping with parts of speech by using crazy and funny sentences. It is a wonderful idea that kids will have a great time using. It can be downloaded on the iPad or iPhone/iTouch.

Break Down:

There are three different parts to the app.

You can use the Shake it! This will create random sentences that the user can read and select words to get the definition and the part of speech it belongs to. It is a very simple part of the app that is tons of fun. The sentences were silly, but easy to understand. They might not make a ton of sense at times, but that really isn't the point. The picture on the iPad is very clean and the words are easy to read. It really is a great UI for all ages.

If you are looking for students to write stories of their own, consider using the Story Starter part of the app. The Story Starter starts the user off with a crazy sentence and leaves the rest up to the imagination.

This is a fabulous example of starting a story in the classroom. The kids could have a field day with this type of starter. My mind actually raced for a bit as I thought of crazy extras to add to this story. This is wonderful for a teacher looking to get students writing creatively.

Lastly, there is the Quiz Me! portion of the app. The Quiz Me! portion of the app places a silly sentence on the screen and asks the user to identify verbs, nouns or adjectives. It worked very well and I made it to level 11until I moved on to other parts of the app. The difficulty increased as I moved along and I could see kids challenging each other for bragging rights on who went the farthest. 

Another cool feature of the app is the ability to choose different themes. There are 5 different themes:

Shake Starter will provide random sentence goodness and Animals, Fairytale, Monsters and their new theme, Sports. The sentences match up to their respective themes and are fun to use. You can see that I really liked the monster theme. The little boy in me just found them too funny not to use. The new sports theme is just as solid as the others and I look forward to more themes being added over time.

Extras:

The app has a couple of extras that I really like. The Fave button allows the user to store their favorite sentences and the share button allows the user to email the shake screen to a friend. I have already emailed one crazy sentence to Tim. 

Overall:

I really like this app and think it can be used by teachers in the classroom. The UI s fabulous and the app looks amazing on the iPad2. Everything was crystal clear.

The Themes were fun and refreshing and always creative. I went through over 100 shakes and I never saw a duplicate sentence. I looked weird as I sat there shaking my iPad, but I always had a new sentences to read.

Sharing the sentence and saving them for later was just a simple tap of the screen.

I can see the iPad being connected to a projector and students having a blast as they try to finish the stories started or point out the nouns, verbs and adjectives in the wacky sentences.

For $1.99, I think it is a steal. I would recommend that teachers pick up this app and share it with their students. It can be used together as a class or by individual students.

Shake-a-Phrase is a great app that will keep students laughing and learning. 

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Arithmaroo and You Too: An App Review

Picture from http://arithmaroo.com/

Full Disclosure, I'm no good at Math. It has never been my strong suit and I currently eat lunch with the Math Department in the hope I can build enough credit to have them tutor my future children. :-) I ran across Arithmaroo on Twitter and they suggested I take a look at their Arithmaroo 1: A Counting Math Game for Kids app. As an English teacher, I wasn't sure what to expect from this app, but the @Arithmaroo people were so nice, I couldn't say no. Here are my thoughts on the app.

The app is a very simple game that allows up to 4 players and one guest to store scores and compare them with friends. The screen consists of a row of numbers and pictures that appear. The pictures might be rocks in various order or hands holding up fingers. Their might be multiple hands with different number of fingers or many rocks in various formations.The goal is too quickly count the objects on the screen and select the correct number. As time ticks down, the picture at the top changes from a Kangaroo (fastest), a Salamander (Fast) and a Turtle (The Nerdy Teacher Speed). The first level is fairly simple and focuses on numbers 1-5. It took me a couple of times to get straight Kangaroos, but I eventually got through it. 

Level 2 has 10 numbers and the combination of rocks and fingers intensifies. Again, this took me many tries, but eventually I made it to level 3. Level 3 brought me to a dark place as I tried to count objects in the allotted time up to 20. After stressing for 20 minutes, I was able to jump to level 4 where the total number goes to 50. That is where the level review ends because I have no idea what is beyond that and may never find out. I guess it is 75 or 100, but I'll need to ask one of my younger cousins to give it try and let me know how it goes.

I took a couple of days off from playing the app and went back and was surprised to see that I had an easier go of it the second time around. My responses were faster and I had more points than I did last time as well. I still could not get past level 4, but I felt that I was doing better. I was learning to identify patterns and identify quantity at a much faster pace. From that perspective, I would say the app is wonderful. If anything can improve my quick math skills,  think it's great.

As a high school English teacher, I can only guess how this would play in the Elementary Math classes. I think the fact that multiple students can store their scores on one app is great. It allows some nice competition amongst peers. Teachers could reward students for attaining certain levels and have class competitions if there are enough iPods to go around. Given time to play with this app, I can see that students would strengthen their Math skills. I have never been strong at looking at items and adding them up, but this app could help me grow in that area with continued use. 

 I think the timer moves a little too fast, but I think that is because I'm terrible at counting quickly. I did not encounter any glitches along the way. I tried selecting various wrong answers to see if it would freeze or shut down, but nothing happened. The clock stood that at turtle, mocking me, as it waited for me to eventually get the correct answer. I think it would be nice to see different images over time, but since I never made it past level 4, I'm not sure if there were others.

I think this would be a fun app to add to a class set of iPod Touches in Math classes or for personal use. The app looked great on the my iPad as well. Kids would strive to beat their previous best, their friends high scores and even their parents totals. For $1.99, I think it is a good buy if parents and/or teachers are looking at a fun way to help kids with their spatial math skills.

Thanks to Arithmaroo for talking me into this app because I will be recommending it to the teachers in my district. Great job and I look forward to seeing other great apps from you in the future.

Pictures from www.arithmaroo.com

iPod Touches in the Classroom

Here are some links that people requested I forward along after I requested some info on using iPod Touches in the classroom. I was given some great links and will pst others as I receive them.

I'm excited about the information I have looked over. There is some support in my district to use the iPod touches in the classroom. These links might push those on the fence over.

If you have any good links or lessons that you have used, please post a comment or hit me up on Twitter. I teach High School English, but any grade level or subject would be great. The more the better.

Have a great day everyone!

iPod Touch Ning

http://bit.ly/b7UdsR

Wiki on iPod Touches in the Classroom

http://bit.ly/cd4mS9

Shakespeare Rome and Juliet App

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=165342&id=254232564177&ref=mf

Research on 1-1 Computers in the classroom.

http://1to1schools.net/2010/03/cross-posted-on-creative-tensioni-frequently-hear-negative-press-regarding-laptop-initiatives-and-it-seems-like-the-positive.html


@TheNerdyTeacher