Thank you for joining our session and having fun learning tips to be the most productive and efficient teacher you can be! You're on your way to becoming an Apple Teacher and information from the session can be found below. You'll also find "How To" videos we created, along with posters, and some BONUS iPad backgrounds (great for organizing your shared iPads!). Feel free to share the video/s with staff and/or students (the Clips one is especially student friendly!). Click here to get all the freebies! Enjoy! 

Why become an Apple Teacher? 

Professional Benefits • You'll be efficient and productive! PLUS its a great PPG! 
Amazing Resources • The Apple Teacher program makes valuable tools available to you! 
Free and Valuable PD •  It's FREE & you're encouraged to work through it with other staff!
International PLC • Connect via Twitter, and AppleEDUchats on Tuesday evenings! 
Newsletter • A newsletter that's actually helpful! It's full of ideas from real teachers!

Program Logistics

• Sign up at Appleteacher.Apple.com
• Choose a path to start with (Mac or iPad) 
• Select a badge to earn (we recommend starting from the top with the basics!)
• Read the pages (iPad) or the Starter Book (Mac) and try out the tools/projects
• When you feel confident, take the quiz to earn your badge! 
• 4/5 questions correct will earn you the badge
• If you don't pass right away, try again! 
Repeat with the next badge until you earn all of either the Mac or iPad side! 

NOTE: Keep checking back in the Apple Teacher Learning Center after you become an Apple Teacher! They add content and projects all the time!

Already an Apple Teacher? 

Check out the New Skills in the Apple Teacher Learning Center! Below are some that I strongly recommend! Creating a workbook in Pages (see their ISTE space example!) is amazing and incredibly powerful! Give it a try! 

Click the link below to download the PDF of the Apple Teacher: Continuing to Learn worksheet that was shared during our session. These are our top 18 of the "New Skills" in the Apple Teacher Learning Center. 

They're divided into three groups; Must Do, Cool Tricks and Super Helpful. 
The Must Do's are ones that every teacher using an iPad should know. These will help you to truly redefine learning in your classroom and use your iPads to the fullest potential. 

The Cool Tricks are some that will help you become a more advanced user in the apps. You'll be amazed what you can create! 

The Super Helpful section has some inside tips on some of the tools that will help you become even more productive!

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10 AppleTips to Simplify Your classroom life

1.  Trust Apple's Apps

• Apple's apps (including Pages, Keynote, Numbers, iMovie, GarageBand, Clips and more) have amazing features including awesome shapes (that you can make as big as you want to!) and tools like Instant Alpha (to remove backgrounds.) 

These apps help you to create powerful, professional files, from spreadsheets, to documents, videos and more. 

The apps work seamlessly together and once you learn one, the others are very similar and easy to pick up. The Apple Teacher program provides free professional development to teachers. The Apple teacher program showcases the best features of each app. Click here to learn more!

Don't forget Mail and Calendar! Sync multiple accounts and calendars by using Apple's Mail and Calendar apps. This can really simplify your organization and help you keep everything straight, whether it's for school, extracurriculars, or family. 
This also eliminates a couple of tabs in your internet browser, which, if you're anything like the teachers I know....is FULL of different tabs! :) 

2. Use siri and dictation

    • Never underestimate the power of Siri. She can make your life much more efficient in your classroom. With skills like rolling a dice, flipping coins, picking numbers, and my favorite, setting a timer, Siri can make your time with students efficient and fun. I often use the timer when students need to leave for appointments, or are asked to take a break). 

Dictation can be a powerful tool when it comes to typing. Students can speak to their device and instantly they get the typing, rather than the "hunt and peck" method of the past.

3. Easy Attachments

Mac: Click the file (in finder or on your desktop) and drag to the Mail app in your dock. It will automatically attach the file to a new message.

On iPad: Tap the Share Arrow (square with an arrow pointing up) then mail and it will open a new email with the attachment. 

4. Easy PDFs

(This will make sharing things with non-Apple users even easier) 

  • Mac
    • Easily save a PDF - whenever you go to the “Print” menu (in ANY app on a Mac) 
    • In the lower left corner is a “Save as PDF” option. 
  • iPad
    • Press the Share Arrow then export as PDF

5. Try a Video

    •Clips is an amazingly powerful app. I've used it with students creating as young as 2nd grade, and I've created videos that I use in teaching constantly. 
    • They're fast and easy to create, and are a fun way to share on social media to keep parents in-the-loop with what's happening in your classroom. 
    • A great way for kids to show what they know - and they'll have a blast too!
    • Instructional videos below! (NOTE: There are two...the top one is the updated version and the second is the original version; I know that some districts don't update right away and wanted to leave the original resource available.)

I also included an overview of Green Screen by Do Ink. 

6. Quick look and spotlight search

In Finder, select a file and tap the space bar to activate "Quick Look." This will give you a preview of the document without having to open it up. It's a great way to quickly find what you're looking for! 

     Spotlight Search (the magnifying glass in the corner of your menu bar, or the search bar in finder) is your BEST FRIEND.

It can find information from the titles of documents, to words found within the document, etc. 

7. Use accessibility features to personalize your experience

  • On the Mac, go to System Preferences
    • Try Hot Corners
    • Customize Touchpad Controls
    • There are hundreds of options!
  • On the iPad
    • Go to Settings>Accessibility
  • There are TONS of resources on Apple.com for Accessibility. These tools set iPad/Mac apart from other tablets/computers. They allow for everyone to create with them, and they make work easier for everyone. Give them a try! 

8. Undo and Shortcuts

    • Here are a few of my favorites! 

  • Command+z = UNDO
  • Command+c = Copy
  • Command+v = Paste
  • Shift+Command+4 = screenshot

You can also click buttons in the menu to see what the shortcut is for them. You can even create your own!

On iPad, look for a back arrow to undo. To copy and paste, tap and hold to select copy or paste. (Note: if you're using a Bluetooth keyboard, the shortcuts listed above for Mac will also work!) 

9. Use airplay and airdrop

    • AirPlay is a great way to have students share work from their own iPads
    • It is especially nice for showing work mid-project before turn-in 
    • Works with Apple TV or the AirServer app on a Mac
    • See the FREEBIE Poster 

    • Simplify your life with AirDrop - there is no reason to email files to yourself/other Mac users with AirDrop - send them the file directly with AirDrop instead!
    • Great for sharing files between Mac/iPad/iPhones
    • A huge time-saver - makes charging the only real use for a cord! :) 
    • Poster PDF or Pages doc below!

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AirPlay Poster.pagesAirPlay Poster.pages
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10. Don't Worry...be happy!

Don't worry about making it perfect! Often, teachers spend hours editing videos for classroom projects or documents to send to parents. A while back, a presenter gave me permission to stop being perfect and it transformed my teaching.  I started using video more, and caring less about the little "ums" I occasionally said. This has opened the doors for me to use tech in my classroom. 

Don't worry about being an expert! One of the biggest hesitations that I see from teachers is that they don't use tech because they themselves aren't an expert at it. Give your kids a chance to explore. They'll learn and teach you things! Hesitant to dive in? Try using one of my App Overview videos! They're designed to be shared directly with students at the beginning of a lesson,  so that you can watch and learn alongside your kids! The best part....the kids can go back and review anything that they forget/miss! 

 

ADDITIONAL TIPS AND HELPFUL RESOURCES

Trying to organize photos? Try the Photos app!

Find the hardware/software that supports you

    • For me, this was HUGE. Once I got iPad stands in my room my tech use increased significantly. That may work for you, or maybe not - but find what does to make your tech work for you. If it's not fast and easy, it won't happen. Classrooms are busy places!
    • Click here for a FREEBIE of color-coded wallpaper for shared iPads - this is one way I make the iOS work for me - the wallpaper becomes a fast easy organization system for our shared iPads, the kids remember what color they're on and it's easy for them to tell you the color/number for tracking. 
    • Here is some of my favorite hardware for Stop Motion

               

  - iPad Gooseneck stand $25 - adjustable in thousands of ways, holds the iPad steady so that the images are all consistent. I also use this stand to take time lapses of students in art. 

 - Wire Rack $9 - I bought something similar to these for my students to use to create stop motion drawings/videos with paper cutouts. The iPad sits on top of the rack (with the camera  aligned in one of the spaces) and the paper is taped underneath it on the table (so that it doesn't move). The way that my desks work, the legs that the rack has were not quite tall enough, so I used Snap Cubes to make the legs taller.                  

 - Headphones with Volume Control Button $12 - Did you know that the volume control button on your headphones will trigger the camera if you're in the camera app (or Stop Motion Studio)? We used the headphones to trigger the image so that the ipad would have no  movement from the actual touching of the button on screen. I did this project with wiggly wobbly 4th and 5th graders so this ended up being a crucial tool for our success.

Drawing in the apple apps 

• Your students can now draw in Pages, Numbers and Keynote! It is possible with just a finger, but even better when using a stylus or an Apple Pencil. This allows them to incorporate their own art into their work instead of just images from the web. Even cooler - in Keynote you can animate your drawing with the "Line Draw" transition, and watch the drawing from beginning to end of it's creation!

Don't forget templates

 Yes, I like to start with blank documents too, but have learned (after creating tons of my own!) that the templates are a great first place to start. It is much easier to personalize a template than it is to reinvent the wheel. These can be a huge time saver, and they look great!

Screenshots (and screen recording)

See the videos below for screenshot and screen recording information! They're great resources to share directly with students! 

  • Mac
    • Shift+Command+4 
    • It will save to your desktop
  • iPad
    • Hold the home button and top button at the same time 

 

BONUS:NAMING IPADS

We discussed classroom organization and this file will help you to organize your classroom iPads by changing the backgrounds. Your new backgrounds will each have your name (as a teacher) and the backgrounds are both colored and numbered (they also say the name of the color to accommodate color blind students). 

10 iPad home screens wallpaper.key 10 iPad home screens wallpaper.key
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