When it comes to teaching, there are two different types of lessons. There are the specific, academic, topical facts and figures you teach your students… historical dates, scientific experiments, algebraic equations…. And then there are the intangible, vital life lessons that aren’t included on any syllabus but that somehow slip in along the way – the lessons they’ll take with them and use in further education and beyond, and come to thank you for one day, even if they don’t realise it in the beginning!
And now, thanks to the rise and rise of brilliant education technology, there’s an app to pass on and preserve almost every one of these little nuggets of wisdom! Here are 4 of our favourites…
1. Punctuality
Teachers’ obsession with timely arrival is one of the great mysteries for students – I vividly remember my own frustration at getting in trouble for being only minutes late for a physics lesson and subsequently being on the receiving end of what felt like a disproportionate telling off! But looking back, it is one of the greatest life lessons school ever taught me. From arriving ten minutes early to university finals to realise I had the wrong exam room and would have been late without that safety buffer, to turning up early at job interviews and impressing the interviewer with my reliability, I can safely say that simple lesson has truly saved the day on more than one occasion! And now, with 25 great alarm clock apps available  for their smart phone device at the touch of a button, it’s never been easier for students to stay on the ball and ahead of the clock. Plus brilliant apps like the Timer+ let them keep track of multiple running stopwatches, so they can time their homework, science experiment and oven pizza all in one go!
[BONUS] Try out Rise for iPhone for one of the most beautiful and simple Alarm Clock experiences around!
2. Individuality
Learning to do your own hard work and earn the credit for it is a vital life lesson best learned early- and while not peeking over your neighbour’s shoulder during that French vocab pop quiz at school might not seem like the biggest deal in the world, when you reach university or college level plagiarism is an extremely serious matter indeed. Help your students learn about the importance of academic individuality early, and learn to protect themselves by checking their own work for plagiarism, with the plagiarism checker app, which scans their work against major search engines like Google.
3. Planning Ahead
Another brilliant life skill best learned early; teachers can encourage students to plan ahead and learn how to juggle different school and extra-curricular commitments, standing them in great stead for college and beyond. Help students keep their lives in order and never miss an appointment, using a great, easy-to-use, free app like Tempo. Perfect for tech-savvy students, the app intelligently incorporates relevant contacts, data, emails and documents into your calendar so you can organise your life without ever leaving the page.
4. Taking Good Notes
Swift, detailed, well-organised note-taking is a skill that starts in the classroom but is invaluable through university, into client meetings and board rooms and beyond. Give students a great introduction into making a clear record with a fantastic free app like Evernote, which adds notes, photos, to-do-lists and voice reminders to the humble notepad’s capacities, and even makes notes completely searchable.
What are your favourite apps for sharing with students? Let us know using the comments section below!
Image courtesy of Flickr, Waag Society.