Reflecting on SAMR, Blooom's, & App-Smashing

I've been in PD sessions ever since school ended last Friday - for a technology team for my district.
I'm loving all of the possibilities for my classroom, and the potential for how it will change the way I teach.

This morning, we worked tirelessly on app-smashing across all grade levels and subjects.
Here's a glipse at the apps I've been using most:

• Popplet (paid for by the district)
• Explain Everything (my favorite so far) (paid for by the district)
• Evernote
• Skitch
• Tons of math manipulatives (Constructor, Geoboard, Number line, etc)
• Quizlet
• iBooks Creator
• MathPad
• Educreations
• iMovie
• Pic Collage
• TopNotes
• Tellagami - deleted because now they're requiring money for everything. BOOOOO. 

Basically, you use these amazing "core" apps to create the most amazing, engaging presentations that can include just about anything - all students created. 

Part of our assignment was to read and reflect on this article:

App Smash: The Ben Bloom Fist in the SAMR Glove

Great read. The big points for me:

• You don't need a billion apps. Pick 10 or so really functional ones. 
• Start with the end game in mind. "I want students to make a video" is not what you really want. You want students to explore a topic or teach a topic to their peers, and share it with the world. 
• Let your students be creative, and they'll get more out of the experience. Reflect using SAMR.

I'm so excited to start using some of this information for my specific content. Right now I'm just trying to process all of the possibilities swimming through my brain. 

And just because I know you could use a laugh, here's some of the random stuff we worked on this morning to become more familiar with the apps. (Keep in mind this is just rambling - so we could play around with the features while recording.)

Let me know if you've done any math app-smashing before - I'd love to hear as many ideas as possible!