Create a Starring Role for Your Students

Today's Tuesday Tech Tip revolves around two apps in particular. The first app is one that I am pretty much obsessed with because it is SO awesome! It is called Shadow Puppet Edu and it allows you and your students to create videos to tell a story, explain ideas, or document a process. Even better, the app gives you suggestions for usage. Here are just a few of the ideas/templates that they have built into the app:

When you first download the app, it walks you through a 20 second tutorial that explains how easy it is to use. It is designed for ages 5 & up. I highly recommend it. It is rated highly by several reputable educational organizations, such as graphite.org. Try it out! You will love it.

The next app is just as fabulous and it has been used heavily by one of our own! It is called Starmaker and Julie C. shared this fantastic app with me. In fact, she made me embarrass myself by testing it out with my singing. It was scary.  Anyway, Starmaker is a music video app that shares song lyrics with you on the screen, you read off the prompt and it turns it into music.  Similar to a karoake experience.  The reason that Julie and her students are enamored with this app is that a) it is a great tool to encourage reading fluency and b) it is so much fun!  The only caveat is that you need to be sure to preview the songs to ensure you and your students select G-rated songs, such as Happy.  Otherwise, you may find your students singing about things you don't want them to sing about.  

Both of the above apps are free. Shadow Puppets are easy to share and Starmakers are easy to save and playback. I hope your students enjoy their moment in the spotlight!