Download These 9 Mobile Apps for Education Majors Now

Take the time to look through your app store and you'll quickly realize that there is an app for everything. Looking for one that can help you improve your health and wellness? There are many options from which to choose. Or maybe you want to enhance your productivity? There's an app for that too.

But which apps are especially helpful to education majors? We've found a few. We've also broken them down based on what you'd use that particular app for, such as if you're still learning yourself or if you're ready to take on a bonafide classroom. With that in mind, here are a few education-related apps to consider.

Apps for College Students (Education Majors/Future Teachers)

MyStudyLife (Android & iOS; free to download)

As an education major, it's extremely important to keep track of your classes so you don't miss a homework deadline or forget to study for that upcoming exam. (After all, how can you expect your future students to master this skill if you don't do it yourself?) With MyStudyLife, you can stay on top of your studies because this app gives you a place to record when assignments are due, what actions you need to take daily to keep up in your classes, and more. It also stores this information in the cloud so you have access to it across all of your devices, even working when you're offline.

Forest (Android & iOS; $1.99 to download)

The main purpose of this app is to teach you how to stay focused so you are present in all that you do. This can help you as you study to become a teacher by limiting your outside distractions, but it's also a skill that can make education majors more effective in other areas as well. The great thing about Forest though is that whenever you do focus, you plant a tree that grows. Lose focus and the tree will die. Over time, you are able to build an online forest that symbolizes the time you've been able to fully concentrate on the task at hand. But perhaps the best part is that this app partners with an organization that plants real trees, putting all of your hard work to good use for the world as a whole.

Apps for Effective Classroom Planning & Organization

Microsoft OneNote for Education (Android & iOS; free to download with premium options)

Part of being a good teacher involves creating effective lesson plans. Microsoft OneNote for Education gives you a place to organize these plans. This app is also helpful if you want to take notes, brainstorm new ideas, or record a list of things you need to do later. And it keeps all of this information in one convenient location so you never find yourself asking, "Now, where did I put that?"

Evernote (Android & iOS; free to download)

Evernote is like Microsoft OneNote in that it gives you a place to create and organize lesson plans, create to-do lists, and better manage all of your class's ongoing projects. With this app, you can also clip web pages so you can go back to them later or simply save their information. Evernote also enables you to tag your content, making it easier to find when you're ready to retrieve it.

Planboard (Android & iOS; free to download)

The one thing that sets Planboard apart from other planning and organization apps is that it allows teachers – or even future teachers learning the ropes - to add their local curriculum and then individualize their plans. Planboard also contains a Standards Progression tool. This helps you keep track of the progress you're making within each of your classes while ensuring that the minimum standards have been reached. And if you want to share your lesson plans with your colleagues, you can do that with Planboard as well.

Apps That Make Learning More Fun

Kahoot! (Android & iOS; free to download)

If you're the kind of teacher who believes that learning should be fun, Kahoot! is a good app for you. With Kahoot!, you're able to create quizzes that not only test your students' knowledge, but do it in a way that keeps them engaged and motivated to want to learn more. Kahoot! gives students instant feedback, so you're able to assess their progress instantly…without having to spend a lot of time correcting assignments.

Lumosity (Android & iOS; free to download)

The Lumosity app helps improve brain function by engaging users in various games designed to enhance their memories, increase their ability to focus, and overall feel mentally sharper. One great feature of this app is that it reminds the user to perform these activities daily. It's also personalized so it meets the user at his or her skill level, offering brain-based exercises that are challenging but not so tough that they want to give up.

Apps to Better Communicate with Students and Their Families

Remind (Android & iOS; free to download)

As a teacher, you may struggle with getting students to turn in their work in on time or you may find it hard to get them to actually share important information with their parents or caregivers. Education majors should be fully prepared to handle all types of communication with various individuals. One way to overcome these types of challenges is to use the Remind app. With Remind, you can send messages to your students to reinforce when a particular assignment is due but you can also use it to let their families know what you did in class that day so they stay informed and involved. This app even tells you how many people have read your message so you know whether it was received.

Seesaw (Android & iOS; free to download)

The Seesaw app enables educators to communicate with as many as ten of a student's family members to keep them updated on the student's progress. Seesaw also has a space where students can perform work within the app, giving teachers and family members a place to leave encouraging comments. Though, the family's comments do come to you before making them visible to the student, giving you a bit of control over the things your student sees.

The Bottom Line on Apps for Education Majors

If you are an education major or even a current educator, these are a few apps you might want to download because they can make your life easier in more ways than one. They can also make teaching more exciting and can empower you in so many ways to improve your teaching strategies and find this work even more rewarding than it already is.