Create Digital Pumpkins

Happy fall, y’all! 🎃 I’ve shared these activities in quite a few different variations through the years and it’s always a hit with kids! Essentially, one activity is using the tools students have (Apple tools or Google Tools) to practice home row typing to create a pumpkin. The other activity is using the tools students have to paint cells in a spreadsheet to create a pumpkin picture.

Which tools do your students have? Once you know which tool you want to use, print the instructions or have students split their screens so they can have the instructions on one side and the activity on the other. It’s always fun when they complete the activity and their creation comes to life. Activities such as this inspire students to challenge themselves to create their own directions and then determine if classmates can use the directions to create their mystery picture!

Home Row Pumpkin Typing using Pages (Mac & iOS)

Home Row Pumpkin Typing using Google Docs

Create a Mystery Picture in Numbers (Mac & iOS)

Create a Mystery Picture in Google Sheets

My Top 4 Updates to iWork for iPad

I am like a kid in a candy store reading about all of the new features just released by Apple to iWork for iPad. I couldn’t wait to share them with you so that you could get busy playing with the newest features and creating awesome content for your students when they return back to school. I am happy to share with you my Top 4 iWork updates.

 

1. Insert recorded audio to slides, documents, and spreadsheets:

You can now add recorded audio to slides, documents, and spreadsheets. This is a game changer…Keynote slides can become books, portfolios, and enhanced presentations with the added feature of audio. Think about how this would impact students being able to create full movies right in Keynote (especially with the new exporting features…scroll down to read more). Pages documents and books now have the added feature of recorded audio. Spreadsheets come to life even more with the addition of audio. Teachers can send out assignments with a recorded narration button to explain in greater depth what requirements are for an assignment. The possibilities of how this will impact our students are going to be amazing!

2. New shapes, advanced fills to shapes and drawings, and image galleries:

You can now add custom gradient fills as well as image fills to any shape. SCORE! There are even more shapes to add to the already large library of shapes. This allows students and teachers alike to create professional looking presentations, movies, posters, spreadsheets, documents, and other graphics. The addition of image galleries is a great feature for presentations and templates for students.

Fill options

Variety of ways to fill a shape. In this example, I put my two ADE buddies, Kelly and Wes, as the image fill with a color overlay.

Add an image gallery!!

3. Charts get a new look!

You can now change the look of your charts by rounding the corners…just a fun and contemporary update for columns and bars.

Change the look of bars and columns

4. My new ALL TIME favorite update: Exporting presentations in Keynote as movies or images!!

Long gone are the days where the only way you could save a slide in Keynote for iOS was to take a screen shot. Now, we can export slides as images or movies. This is a HUGE WIN for students, teachers, and other creatives! Students can create an entire book in Keynote complete with recorded audio and export as a movie. The possibilities for creativity and showcasing and sharing learning excites me so much! They can later import their movies into iMovie for sound effects, music, and other movie editing features. Being able to export Keynote slides in a variety of ways is going to change the ways students publish work.

 

With every update to iPad, my strong feelings supporting iPad in education increase. There’s nothing the iPad can’t do. Our students deserve to be able to interact with tools that give them a variety of options to showcase learning. The greatest part about these iWork updates: they are free! And as my great friend Jim says, “Free is in the budget.”

Have fun exploring these new updates and drop me a line to tell me how they are impacting what students are doing in your classroom!

 

 

Digital Skills Learning Badges

 

Happy back to school! If you’re like me, I have loved the #AppleTeacher movement to encourage teachers to learn more about using Apple tools in the classroom! What I love about it is that teachers can learn new skills in utilizing the most powerful technology tools for learning and teaching all at their own time! I thought, why not make this same concept available for my students? I have created digital skills badges for all of the Apple applications I use in my classroom as well as other applications that we use frequently. Additionally, I created badges for skills such as Internet Safety and Keyboarding. Here’s what you need to know to create your own Digital Skills Badges!

1. Think about what skills are most important for your students to master. You can create skills on just about anything and you can use my template or create your own. My template is broken down into skills using a variety of applications and included are both iPad and Mac versions.
2. I created a website where students can take the skills quiz to earn their badge once they are finished with a final project within that application or learning component. For example, our first learning module is on Internet Safety. Once students have learned about Internet Safety, they will work in teams to create a project. Once their project is finished, they will take the quiz and upload their final project. I felt that taking a quiz wasn’t enough…I wanted to see the projects attached to the skill so that I could understand the creative process students went through to finish their badge.
3. All of the apps I have listed involve creation. To me, it’s not about how well you know the tool, but what you can do with the tool AFTER you’ve learned the skill. (Can I get an AMEN???) 😜
4. I put all of my quizzes in Google Forms so that I can view or grade them once they are turned into me, but you could easily use something such as Quizlet, Quizizz, Go Formative, Survey Monkey, Socrative, Padlet, Flip Grid, Answer Garden, or Wizer.
5. Once students earn their badge, then, I will add their name to two different versions of “shout outs!” First one is I have a bulletin board outside my room where I have each badge and I will add student’s names as they earn their badge (coming soon!) The second one is a Padlet where I have each badge with student names as they earn them. Adults love to earn badges, so why not give kids this same experience!

RESOURCES:

• appsolutelyapril Digital Skills Badges
• Website I created with forwarding links to quizzes
• Padlet to recognize kids who’ve earned badges
• Note: you are welcome to use these resources with proper attribution. 😀

I will post more resources and examples of student work once I kick this off with students, but I just couldn’t wait to share it with all of you!

For more information on the Apple Teacher program: https://appleteacher.apple.com

Cheers!

 

Become an Apple Teacher

In September, Apple Education announced its Apple Teacher Program, a program aimed at helping educators unlock the magic and potential of Mac, iPad, and apps in the classroom. Teachers sign up and learn new skills, test their knowledge, and earn badges to be ultimately recognized by Apple as an official “Apple Teacher.”

The best part about this program is that it is self-paced and teachers can participate while in their pajamas at home! Teachers can decide if they want to focus their learning for the Mac or the iPad and choose the path that works best for them. Once teachers complete a module, they will be given a quiz. No pressure if you don’t get the questions correct, as you can test again. The purpose of the test is so that educators can truly get the most out of these modules and the tests force you to master the concepts rather than skimming through.

THE BADGES

Once you earn a badge in each one of the categories and learn not only to use the app to get the best results, but you also learn how to infuse this into the classroom as a powerful teaching tool. Each module is full of ideas that relate to classroom content and help bring its use to life in meaningful ways teachers will appreciate. Click here to get started.

You will use your Apple ID to get started.

I am a huge supporter of this program.  Apple’s commitment to education is evident and I appreciate the way Apple continues to give teachers quality tools to enhance learning and teaching. My favorite tools as a creative professional will always Keynote and iMovie. I couldn’t live without those two apps and neither could my students. If you choose to accept the challenge of becoming an Apple Teacher, I promise you that you will learn something to take back to your classroom TOMORROW as a result and perhaps you will have a new favorite tool.

TEACHER RECOGNITION

Since I am the instructional technology teacher and leader of the technology program, I am encouraging teachers at my school to join the program and earn their badges. I put together some fun rewards to recognize the commitment and time teachers put aside to further their learning in this area. We are an Apple school and we have access to all of these applications and tools, so I can’t think of a better way for teachers to learn on their own time, and I do think they should be recognized for their commitment!

• Upon completion of the Apple Teacher program, teachers will earn a spot on the “Wall of Fame” located in the hallway of our school.
• Teachers will also receive a certificate showcasing their skills at this will be hung outside their classroom.
• Teachers will receive a “shout out” on our school Facebook page to congratulate them on their extended professional learning.
• Teachers will receive the official logo from Apple to use in their professional email signature.
• Most importantly, teachers will gain knowledge in unlocking the  potential with these great productivity and creative apps that are already on their iPad and Mac. These are the native apps and most people don’t realize the potential in these applications and how they can be used as tremendous tools in the classroom.

The “Wall of Fame” located in the hallway of our school.

Wall of Fame photo and school Facebook page recognition.

OTHER WAYS TO OFFER INCENTIVES

I have seen other schools and teachers provide a variety of incentives for teachers to earn their badges and expand their professional learning. Here’s two examples:

• http://bsd220tech.blogspot.com/2016/09/apple-teacher-professional-learning-for.html
• http://www.edtechyall.com/apple-teacher.html

Do you have another idea? Please share it! #AppleTeacher

 

Here’s the link for further information: http://www.apple.com/education/teachers/

 

Here’s the link to get started: https://appleteacher.apple.com/auth/#/signin/

Good luck and happy learning!

Create “Home Row Pumpkins” in Pages

Want a fun way to get kids inspired to practice their typing skills? This activity allows students to learn some of the formatting features in Pages (you could modify this to use Microsoft Word, as well) and gives students the opportunity to practice typing using the home row keys. I encourage students to practice without taking their eyes off of the paper and to practice looking at the screen and paper rather than down at their keyboard. When they are finished following the directions, they will love to see what all of the letters have created!

Click on Home Row Pumpkin to download the instructions.

Here is an example of what the pumpkin will look like once finished.

Happy Halloween!!

Happy

Dot Day 2015 with Technology Tools

Dot Day in Mrs. Requard’s Classes

International Dot Day is always something I look forward to. Since I teach technology classes, I knew I had to plan special activities where my students could learn a technology skill while also interacting with the book. First, my students listened to the story using TumbleBooks on our SmartBoard. Next, we had a great discussion about what makes this book special and how each of us contribute unique gifts to this world. Here’s the activities with samples from each grade level:

Fifth Grade:

Students used the Adobe Voice app to retell the story in their own words. They used the app Drawing Pad to insert a drawing into their Adobe Voice project. This added a touch of personalization to their projects. Students practiced the art of retelling a story and also put creative touches on icons, music, themes, and appearance. I loved how these turned out. Here’s a few samples in one short movie:

Fourth Grade:

I had my fourth grade students create art gallery advertisements using Pages. Students added text, changed font, color, and size, and inserted shapes using the shape tool. Once the shapes were inserted, they played with the many features to format their circles. They played with the fill tool, added lines, added rectangles to create a picture frame, explored the arrange tool by sending objects to the front or the back. Students loved figuring out how to add depth to their shapes by adding shadows, reflections, and exploring the opacity of the object. Here are a few samples of my student’s creating their art gallery advertisement:

Dot Day Art Gallery Advertisements in Pages

Third Grade:

I had my students create art galleries in Keynote. Like using Pages, using the shape tool in Keynote was very fun for these students. My students explored similar features in Pages and created their very own art galleries followed by a tour of their galleries before class was over. Students practiced so many technological skills when doing this activity. Here are some of the pictures from our “art gallery” in class.

Dot Day Inspired Art Galleries using Keynote

Dot Day Inspired Art Galleries!

Art Gallery Tour

Art Gallery Tour

Art Gallery Tour

Second Grade:

Second graders used Drawing Pad to create their own unique dots. Once finished, I wanted to give them the opportunity to bring their dots to life and give their dots a voice by using Chatterbox Kids. This was a fun app smash project. Here are a few samples of their animated dots with voice:

Hope you enjoyed seeing how we’ve MADE OUR MARK this year! #DotDay2015