Lesson plans using your apps by Vicki Windman

How do you take an app and create a lesson plan?

Strip Designer $2.99 - Kids can create a story using comic blurbs that you write. Add photos from your library or if you really want to boost creativity, add Drawing Pad, $2.99. Drawing Pad is cheaper than a box of crayons and has a toolbox of supplies that can make anyone feel like an artist. Students can work individually creating their own story or work as a class. These two apps are perfect for helping students create interesting book reports.

Timbuktu Free - First iPad magazine for children. It combines imagination and technology to display news and stories through the most advanced methods of education. Read one article, add thoughts to Popplet $4.99, a graphic organizer that gives students a visual tool to remember the five w's.

In a World Drama $1.99 - Drama is a fun app that lets you create and star in your very own movie trailers. It's Mad Libs meets the movies. This is another way to create and present material to the class. Students can choose the pictures, music, and dialogue.

Video Time Machine $.99 - Pick a year from 1860-2011 and watch categories including TV, Music, Advertisements, Trailers, Video Games, Sports, and more. Have students go one step further with Webnotes (free)- It gives you a side by side pad and the ability to surf the Internet on the other side. Once you have completed your assignment you have both your Video Time Machine and Internet notes documented. The information can then be copied and pasted to the notebook app of your choice.

Writing Prompts $1.99 - Four prompt generators: Scenes, Sketches, Texts and Words. Store your favorite prompts into the "Fav's" tab by tapping the favorite star on any prompt. Over 250 scene elements, 400 words, 60 sketches, 10 colors, 80+ genres and more -- all of which generate millions of unique prompts. Writing Prompts gives students a creative boost when they need to be write. To increase the pleasure of writing, Maxjournal, $1.99, gives users a true journaling experience while allowing them to import pictures.

Vicki Windman is a special education teacher at Clarkstown High School South.