Free Applications
Every now and then, a teacher asks if we have already written or, if not, can produce a little time-saving application. In such cases, our programmer delves into his vast archive of self-made applications (generated as off-shoots of his 28 years work in secondary school). Sometimes he finds "just the thing" that's needed or decides that he could do with the entertainment.
Here are some such programs, created in our programmer's leisure time. We thought you might like to try them:
Written to help sports teachers organise tournaments and produce instant league tables.
This Excel application automatically builds your fixture lists and keeps your league tables up-to-date as the results come in. A very popular utility. In fact, our programmer enjoys using it himself to pretend that the Baggies are doing well.
Written for school managers and subject leaders, this program has been designed to provide visual and numerical comparisons between the performance of students in different subjects. It is not a value-added tool.
Users can define the grades and point values they wish to use and then, at the touch of a button, produce sophisticated charts for individual subjects and charts to compare subject with subject. A useful tool and great fun if you like that sort of thing!
Written for teachers to help explain to young students how Sudoku puzzles work and the tactics used to solve them.
Ideal for use on an interactive whiteboard. Users have different modes from which to choose:
- Click to get the next squares (logically) and show reasons or
- Click to get clues leaving you to fill in next squares
Great if you're stuck in the middle of a puzzle. Will always find next most logical solutions and, if a little guess work is required, allows you to save present position whilst you experiment.
A logic game (similar to the Mastermind Board Game) for students to play or for teachers to demonstrate on a whiteboard.
The player guesses a randomly generated four digit number and then receives feedback from the program.
Excellent for best-strategy investigations in maths lessons.