# Is there a good app for helping a middleschooler get organized?



## perugiagirl (Oct 16, 2012)

Hello!  I'm new here.  Hope I am posting in the right place.

My 13 year old has Aspergers and has difficulty staying on top of his homework assignments, due dates, things to do, etc.  We have tried to get him to use an agenda, but that never seems to fly, perhaps because handwriting, particularly hand writing in tiny spaces has never really been his strong point.  We are wanting to find an organizational tool that doesn't depend on handwriting.

I have a Kindle fire he could use, (his school now allows electronic devices) but I am not familiar with what is available.  What would you recommend?  Is there any apps that could help us?  We are open to any ideas- Kindle based or even others.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Since you're asking about Fire apps -- which are different to 'active content' Kindle apps that are designed for the eInk devices -- I'll move this to the Fire Talk board.  I know there are calendar based apps. . . perhaps someone will be able to recommend something that will work for you.


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## TraceyC/FL (Mar 23, 2011)

I'd look for something that used a google calendar - so you could check it along with him on the device.

There are a quite a few "homework" type of apps for iOS. I'm not sure how many are available for Android/th Fire, but if they are cross available - i would highly recommend reading the iOS reviews on them too.

They are only as good as what gets entered - and some have a desktop/web companion that might help too. 

Good luck - and if you find something that works, post back!


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## hsuthard (Jan 6, 2010)

My kids have all adapted to planners, although my 13 and 14 year old boys both prefer to rack their stuff online. Most of their teachers have online blogs that they follow daily as well. I have their RSS feeds set up to email them whenever a change is made on any of their teachers blogs. Does your son's school use any online tools?


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## TraceyC/FL (Mar 23, 2011)

hsuthard said:


> My kids have all adapted to planners, although my 13 and 14 year old boys both prefer to rack their stuff online. Most of their teachers have online blogs that they follow daily as well. I have their RSS feeds set up to email them whenever a change is made on any of their teachers blogs. Does your son's school use any online tools?


I have to laugh at this... I showed up to Open House at the middle school a couple of weeks ago. My daughter is in the special needs, high functioning, self-contained classroom. I was the ONLY parent there. I've gotten NOTHING from this teacher, and she had only brought home 6 papers in 6 weeks (and all in one week). The teacher proceeds to sit me down and "lecture" the whole time. She says at one point, "She can check my website to see what are goals are for the week."

Really Could you not have emailed ME the website? Or sent a paper home with it on there? Apparently that was too much to ask for.....

The good news is, she is no long a student there 

So basically - count yourself lucky that your kids have teachers that have something like that to help them!!


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## hsuthard (Jan 6, 2010)

TraceyC/FL said:


> I have to laugh at this... I showed up to Open House at the middle school a couple of weeks ago. My daughter is in the special needs, high functioning, self-contained classroom. I was the ONLY parent there. I've gotten NOTHING from this teacher, and she had only brought home 6 papers in 6 weeks (and all in one week). The teacher proceeds to sit me down and "lecture" the whole time. She says at one point, "She can check my website to see what are goals are for the week."
> 
> Really Could you not have emailed ME the website? Or sent a paper home with it on there? Apparently that was too much to ask for.....
> 
> ...


I've heard stories like this before. But I'm not lucky, I'm broke. I send mine to private school. At our Open House nights, there's no available parking anywhere within a mile of the school. It's SRO in most of the classrooms as both parents typically show up. And we're viewed more like customers than parents a lot of the time.

It sounds like a good move though to get her out of there. If you can find her teachers' email addresses and send them a note, they may have some resources or suggestions for you. So many of the teachers are younger than me and have blogs just as a matter of course. They all seem to prefer email communication at any rate.

This year I did find that most of the teachers communication now goes directly to my son and not to me AND my son, so I miss out on a lot of things. We do get a weekly newsletter, but it's not the same. Does your daughter have a school email account? My sons do and I have to periodically check them for pertinent due dates and info just to stay on top of things.


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## Tip10 (Apr 16, 2009)

hsuthard said:


> This year I did find that most of the teachers communication now goes directly to my son and not to me AND my son, so I miss out on a lot of things. We do get a weekly newsletter, but it's not the same. Does your daughter have a school email account? My sons do and I have to periodically check them for pertinent due dates and info just to stay on top of things.


You know, as a parent and having access to son's e-mail and depending upon what e-mail client he is using, it might be possible to write some client based rules that will forward e-mails from teachers on to you but not forward other things -- might be a way to show a nice compromise with son (I am not spying on your e-mail but I do need to know school communications so let's set this up to help us so we don't have to rely on the teacher's "remembering").


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## TraceyC/FL (Mar 23, 2011)

hsuthard said:


> I've heard stories like this before. But I'm not lucky, I'm broke. I send mine to private school. At our Open House nights, there's no available parking anywhere within a mile of the school. It's SRO in most of the classrooms as both parents typically show up. And we're viewed more like customers than parents a lot of the time.


Parental involvement is good. I hear your public schools are pretty bad!



> It sounds like a good move though to get her out of there. If you can find her teachers' email addresses and send them a note, they may have some resources or suggestions for you. So many of the teachers are younger than me and have blogs just as a matter of course. They all seem to prefer email communication at any rate.


I'm good, she was home schooled before this 18 month experiment in public school. My ex finally realized they weren't going to be able to meet her academic needs so she is back home. Finally.



> This year I did find that most of the teachers communication now goes directly to my son and not to me AND my son, so I miss out on a lot of things. We do get a weekly newsletter, but it's not the same. Does your daughter have a school email account? My sons do and I have to periodically check them for pertinent due dates and info just to stay on top of things.


No, the students didn't have email accounts. They wouldn't do that as they are a Title I school with about 70% of the students on free lunch. I'm happy to be DONE with them. I can relate to the shift in informing the kids vs the parents. But they were all lamenting that no one showed up for open house school wide. Well, maybe you should have sent SOMETHING home about it rather than expect the kids to tell their parents.


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

perugiagirl said:


> Hello! I'm new here. Hope I am posting in the right place.
> 
> My 13 year old has Aspergers and has difficulty staying on top of his homework assignments, due dates, things to do, etc. We have tried to get him to use an agenda, but that never seems to fly, perhaps because handwriting, particularly hand writing in tiny spaces has never really been his strong point. We are wanting to find an organizational tool that doesn't depend on handwriting.
> 
> I have a Kindle fire he could use, (his school now allows electronic devices) but I am not familiar with what is available. What would you recommend? Is there any apps that could help us? We are open to any ideas- Kindle based or even others.


To get on with the original poster's question ...  ... I use GooCal, which was, I believe, a freebie in the Amazon app store. It ties to GoogleMail, so if you or your son have a gmail account you can synch them. I usually update on my computer because it's easier for me, but you can also update the calendar from the Fire. There may be others out there and I'm sure others will chime in.


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## TraceyC/FL (Mar 23, 2011)

HappyGuy said:


> To get on with the original poster's question ...  ... I use GooCal, which was, I believe, a freebie in the Amazon app store. It ties to GoogleMail, so if you or your son have a gmail account you can synch them. I usually update on my computer because it's easier for me, but you can also update the calendar from the Fire. There may be others out there and I'm sure others will chime in.


That would be my suggestion first off too.

I use PocketInformant on iOS that links to a Google Calendar, then everyone (supposedly) can access it to see the schedule.

I googled with iStudiez Pro android and got some alternatives. THis one is in the google marketplace - so maybe it will be elsewhere?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acj0.classbuddypro&hl=en

There was another one in this thread: http://androidforums.com/android-applications/172814-istudiez-pro-alternative.html

SOmeone in another thread mentioned using Evernote. I don't "think" like it, but it might be a good thing to keep everything together and work well depending on the student.


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