Apple Professional Opportunities

Apple Professional Opportunities and Options for teachers:

A once-in-every-2-years opportunity will be coming up next month: the application window to be an Apple Distinguished Educator.  Click here to read more details about what's involved.

 If you have not already done so, please send me a screenshot of your Apple Teacher certification.  This is a great resource at any time if you want to learn on your own about using Apple applications in your classroom.  About 70% of our teachers and admins have earned this certification.  Click here to get started.

There are plenty of opportunities for 'partner' support with learning, discovering, and using computers in your classroom in effective and engaging ways.  This can include working with your PLC team, requesting a coaching cycle with your building instructional coach, or requesting support from your district technology integrationist.  Also, this is our third school year to have an Apple Professional Learning Specialist come for 3-day visits to partner with teachers in the buildings.  

Please let me know if you have any questions. about any of these opportunities.  There are similar opportunities with Google Education, too.

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We all need a break, but there are a few little tasks that you may want to do between now and 2019:

** Update your laptop's operating system to MacOS Mojave.

 -> App Store -> Search for Mojave

It will take about 20 minutes to download and another 20 to install

** Connect your school devices to your 'managed' Apple ID.  Click here for details.

** For those looking forward to using the new Apple Schoolwork, we will be ready to begin another group right away in January.

** Take a risk and try something new in 2019.  Let me know how I can support you.

Apple Schoolwork - it works!

Thank you to Davis Elementary's Mrs. V for taking a risk this week as you continually work to create a rich learning environment for your students.  We took a risk in learning together with a new tool, called Apple Schoolwork.  It is an iPad application produced by Apple.  Click here to read more about it.

Groups of fourth grade students worked on the following learning objectives:

• Lesson 1:  Students practice lyrics to a song to be performed
• Lesson 2:  Students can read treble staff notation
• Lesson 3:  Students understand note and rest beat values

For each lesson, students were assigned a 'Handout' through Schoolwork where they were asked to create work to demonstrate their understanding and turn it in.  They were each distributed a Keynote template.  Each student was logged in to their school iPad using their managed Apple ID.

Here a submission from one student:

Students were excited to try something new.  They followed directions well and were generally patient if it did not go right the first time.  Some students needed support if they did not have one of the applications installed ahead of time or were not initially signed in to their managed Apple ID.

Students who were not initially signed in to their Apple ID on their iPad were still able to complete the work.  They were shared the same Keynote template using Apple Classroom.

A Managed Apple ID allows Schoolwork to distribute digital lessons.  It also makes our Apple applications collaborative, including Pages, Keynote, and Numbers.  It engages very well with many other applications already on our iPads, such as Clips or Kahoot.

Our school district issues an iPad to every elementary student.

Tools used included for these lessons:

• Apple Schoolwork - this was our first venture into using it
• Apple Classroom
• Keynote
• Accessibility -> Assistive Touch
• Control Center -> Screen Recording

Pitfalls to watch out for when using Schoolwork:

• All students need to be signed in to their managed Apple ID, even loaners.  These accounts were made with Apple School Manager, which is tied in to our Student Information System (SIS).  We use Infinite Campus.
• iOS 'Terms and Conditions' need to be agreed to for any recent updates.  This is a quick fix.
• Students need to have iCloud enabled - this is turned on, unless they happen to turn it off.
• Students will need to have the other complementary applications installed ahead of time, such as Keynote, Clips, or Kahoot, that will be used with the lesson.
• It is best to have the same updated versions of the applications, as well as operating system.
• There are times where a shared document does not open right away from Schoolwork, such as a Keynote presentation.  It will likely open directly through Keynote or even from Files.  If all else fails, try restarting the iPad.  We've had that work, too.