We have picked our 10 best apps!

1. Name
Appeal: Looks &
Sounds
Engagement and
Motivation
User Friendly Directions
& Instructions
Performance and Ease of
Use
Differentiation of
Learning Rationale
Dreambox
Excellent: It is a clean look
that puts the focus on the
math manipulatives and
problem
Excellent: This app is
motivating because you want
to master the skill and earn
coins. When you earn coins
you get to go to a special
shop.
Excellent: The app has clear
instructions and takes the
student to the exact place they
should be at.
Excellent: The app always loads
quickly and there are no issues or
confusion. It just automatically
saves the place the studnet left off.
There is a diagnostic feature that
identfies students needs.
The app is cutomized to
each student
automatically and
progresses as the child
does.
Dreambox is a great tool for
every student no matter
what grade level or skill
level they are.
Happy Numbers
Excellent: It is appealing
for the students and keeps
their attention
Excellent: It is fun and
engaging for the student
Excellent: The app is easy to
use and gives clear instructins
Excellent: The app is easy for
teachers to check prgress and to
modify rosters. If there is ever an
issue, the tech support team is
amazing.
Excellent: The app meets
the child where they are.
Happy Numbers is a great
resource and the students
really enjoy it as well.
When they are engaged
more learning takes place
so this app is a winner.
Lexia
Excellent: It has a fun and
engaging screen that is
easy to us.
Good: It has a score board
that lights up as you finish
each unit. Students like to
earn their level to light up the
board and move to the next
level.
Excellent: It is easy to see
where you left off and what you
have left to complete.
Excellent: There have been no
issues with this app. It also has
the feature of sending the teacher
a daily report of what specific skills
need to be addressed and provides
intervention lessons and
worksheets.
Excellent: The app has a
diagnostic feature so the
students have lessons
theu need most and are
tailored to them.
Lexia is an excellent app
that every student can
benefit from and the
teacher as well. Itgives
specific information to the
teacher about each student
and provides lesson and
worksheets to help students
struggling with a skill.
Learnng.com
Good: It is set up well but
could use some updating
Good: The students are
striving to earn three gold
stars as they travel down the
path.
Good: There are good
instructions but occasionally
they can be unclear. It is very
informative.
Excellence: The app rarely has any
issues and the students learn so
much from it.
Good: The students are
assigned lessons
according to grade level,
but not tailored to each
student.
Learning.com is a great
resource for students of all
ages to learn technology
skills, digital citizenship and
coding.
Brain Pop
Excellent: It is an updated
app with easy to use
functions like quiz, video
and games clearly marked.
Excellent: It is engaging
because it provides lessons
on interesting topics. It is
taught in kid friendly language.
Excellent: It is very user friendly
and instructions are clear.
Excellent: The app rarely has any
technical isses and is very easy to
use. All information about a topic is
in one central location.
Good: It provides a ton of
information about all
kinds of subjects. It is not
tailored to the specific
needs of each child.
Brain POP is a great app
that provides information for
all different types of
subjects. Students like the
capability of having different
tools for one subject, such
as a movie and a game. It
is very informative and
interesting.
Code.org
Good: It is a bit dated in it's
set up, but not in a way
that negatively impacts the
user experience.
Excellent: The games and
activities are engaging and
fast paced. This makes it easy
for students to start and the
fast pace keeps them
motivated.
Excellent: It has a good mix of
written and narrated directions
that make the activities flow
well. The class set up could use
some minor changes to
enhance the user experience,
but otherwise it is very
intuative.
Excellent: It is easy to manage and
use on both the teacher and
student sides.
Good: It has a wide range
of topics from computer
science to math, history,
science, and the arts. It's
library is more limited in
core subject areas
especially at the middle
school level.
Code.org is a great way to
integrate computer science
skills and creative thinking
into any subject area. With
it's easy to use and grade
format, code.org provides a
quick and easy way to
upgrade your lesson plans
and engage your students
in meaningful learning.

2. IXL
Excellent: It is an
extremely well supported
application with several
intuative options for
assigning work to students
based on their age and
ability.
Excellent: The constant
feedback and individualized
pacing of the activities keep
students motivated and
engaged without pushing
them too far too fast. It also
has several features which
allow you to easily keep track
of what students are doing
and a chat feature that allows
you to reengage a distracted
student without having to call
them out in front of the class.
The awards and personal
rankings also help to keep
them engaged by giving
frequent goals and
achievements.
Excellent: It has easy to
understand and very explicit
instructions and feedback. It
also has a great teacher
interface with easy to
understand breakdowns of
individual students, classes,
and skills.
Above excellent: This site is built to
be easy on the student end as it
saves a students progress
automatically meaning they can
start and stop a skill as many times
as they need to without any impact.
Their site is truely idiot proof, even
a random computer or internet
malfunction cannot erase their
progress. On the teacher end, they
have thought about everything
from easy data collection, to
records of skill mastery, to tracking
student growth over time in easy
and explicit formats that can be
exported for other use. They even
have two live features. The first
one allows you to see all the
students who are currently
working's progress in real time
while also alerting to anyone who
is off task or struggling with the
ability to message them
individually. The second allows you
to pull selected students into a "live
jam" where you all answer
questions together on a chosen
skill before students start working
on their own. This feature (added
this year) allows the teacher to see
who is answering correctly or
incorrectly, display the current
problem, and chose whether to see
a more difficult problem, and easier
one, or one at the same level next.
You can release students
individually or as a group allowing
you to easily differentiate and pull
small groups.
Excellent: While math is
the most supported area,
it covers everything from
preK to college level
calculus. Language arts is
steadily gaining in support
and skills with spanish,
science, and history being
the newest.
IXL is the perfect tool both
for reaching students who
are behind, even 5 or 6
grade levels behind, while
also providing excellent
extention and growth
opporunities for gifted
students all without any
extra work on the teachers
part. Through their
diagnostic test you can
quickly see where your
students are and if they
have any major
weaknesses or strengths.
IXL then assignes them
recommended skills that
meet students where they
are to bring up weak areas
and grow them in their
strengths. It is easy to
grade and easy to use. I
cannot encourage this
application more.
Khan Academy
Good: It is easy to use and
intuative for students once
they are in an assignment.
However, finding the
assigned skills can be a
learning curve when
students are frist
introduced to the platform.
Good: It has achievements
and scores for students as
they finish skills and answer
questions, but ths aspect is
not as well supported as the
rest of the application.
Excellent: It includes a number
of easy to understand and
thorough videos and directions
for every skills which makes it a
breezy for teaching a new skill
or reenforcing an old one.
Excellent: It is easy for students to
see and track their progress and
because it saves as they go there
is no danger of work being lost to a
internet outage or accidental
closing of the tab. On the teacher
end, it tracks their progress in a
way that is easy to access and
grade making it a great addition to
any lesson.
Good to Excellent: This
depends on the skill of
the teacher. While Khan
academy can easily be
used to having students
working simulatiously on
individualized plans that
all depends on whether
the teacher knows how
and takes that time to
assign work on a more
individual instead of
whole class basis.
Khan academy is a great
resource for many subjects
that can easily enhance a
lesson, help with
differentiation and
remediation, easily flow into
station work days, or just as
a resource for classwork
that gives immediate
feedback to students.

3. Prodigy
Excellent: It has a modern
and fun graphic style that
pulls in students and
makes them feel like they
are playing a video game
instead of completing work.
On the teacher end, they
have created a synergistic
style to the student side
that does not sacrifice
readability and easy use.
Beyond excellent: This is the
only application that I have
used where students beg for
extra time to "play" as a
reward. Even assigned work
does not detract from this
because the students rarely
even notice the difference
between playing and working
on their individual growth plan
and working on an assigned
problem set. Students can
battle eachother or engage
with the world on their own
allowing for fun competition or
individual exploration while
still working toward the same
goal.
Excellent: It is extremely easy
on the student end, functioning
just like any other role playing
adventure game. On the
teacher end, it is easy to track
and monitor student progress
and assign work or skill tracks.
Excellent: I have not experiencced
any major issues with the site.
Occasionally a student will "max
out" their individual track, but they
are still able to participate and
complete assignments. This only
happens for students in the highest
age bracket.
Excellent: The game
questions are tailored to
each student. Even as
two students from the
same class "battle" their
questions will be at their
own personal levels
unless you have assigned
a particular skills to
everyone.
Prodigy is a great way to
engage students in math
problem solving and critical
thinking in a fun, stress free
environment. It allows even
the weakest math student
to feel like they are
competing with your top
scorer without either
student being aware of the
difference in their levels. It
has functions that allow you
to easily assign and grade
classwork and quizzes that
your students will beg to
take.
Kids Academy
Excellent: It has a fun and
easy to understand
graphics style that is
tailored to the needs of K-3
students. The narration
and pictures make it easy
for them to stay excited
and engaged.
Good: Students are presented
with fun games, videos, and
worksheets that they can
complete.
Excellent: They have done a
great job of making sure that
their product is easy for young
students to use. On the teacher
end, it is easy to see student
results progress and assign
work.
Good: While I have not used it
personally, it has great reviews and
scores for reliability and ease of
use.
Excellent: This software is
designed for
differentiation and
remediation. It has many
standards aligned lessons
as well as individualized
learning plans for
students.
This software is a great
place for teachers to get
resources, engaging
activities, and differentiated
instruction for young
students that is designed to
fit their needs.