Diary of a Digital Learning Coach

Have you ever followed someone on Twitter that you wished you got to work with in person?  That is exactly how I have always felt about Sam Neal . Earlier this year, I was overjoyed to learn she was joining our team.  Read this week's post and you'll see why I #fangirl her so much!  This week, we link up with Sam's blog t o learn all about how the ease of  Apple's Clips App  makes it possible for our learners to focus on their creativity and thinking.  Clips  is similar to iMovie or MovieMaker but simpler, with built in music, animated transitions and more.  In her post, Sam writes,  "...when you spend time using digital tools with digital natives, it doesn’t take long to see that they don’t really need you to show them which buttons to click - they can figure out a lot of that on their own. What they need is to be guided in reflecting on their thinking and learning processes, creating quality content, and sharing their learning in powerful an

In this week’s post, we focus on Numbers.  New to Numbers?   Think Excel or Google Sheets, but with whiteboard capabilities, easy to use charts and more. “ With Numbers, you can create beautiful spreadsheets that include impressive charts, tables, and images. And with real-time collaboration, your team can work together on a Mac, iPad, or iPhone — even on a PC using iWork for iCloud."  - Apple As I prepared to write this post, I had to laugh at myself.  If you would have told me 3 years ago that I would have become a champion of the Numbers program, I would have never believed you. I had so many misconceptions of what Numbers was that I didn’t even give it a chance when designing learning.  So in the spirit of someone who has seen the light, I will use this post as my confession. I used to think Numbers was for “data geeks” but now I know it is for “creativity geeks” too. Numbers doesn’t have to have gridlines visible in a sheet - this makes for a clean

Hi friends! Are you having learners create thinking maps for processing their thinking?  Check out the template below made in Keynote by my teammate Kelly - open it on a Mac or iPad.  The template can be shared with learners to manipulate and create thinking maps using the Keynote app. Thinking Maps Keynote Template  Note: Open link on an iPad or Mac, tap download to view the file. Do you like this resource?  Check out An Apple a Week - each week, my team and I are highlighting some different Apple programs and how they can be used in the classroom.  I invite you to click on the Apple a Day link at the top of the blog to read OR listen to our accompanying podcast. Happy Learning!

Welcome back to the Apple A Week series!  This  week, we continue by linking up with my amazing teammate, Megan Kozar .  Megan is my kindred spirit - a former K and 1 educator, she too believes in and lives the mantra "little kids can". This week on her site, The Light Bulb Lab , she has posted all you need to design quality documents with Apple's easy to use program, Pages.   Megan writes, " Pages for the iPad or Mac can be used as more than just a word processor. The features in pages allow the software to become a digital scrapbooking tool that allows you to create beautiful products by easily moving and manipulating features on the page. " I wholeheartedly agree.  Click below to check out her post! An Apple A Week: Pages What ideas do you have for using Pages in the Classroom?  We are curating a list of ideas on Flipgrid right now - we'd love to hear your ideas! Share your ideas for using Pages in the Classroom here! New t

Y'all. I work with THE best team around.  Seriously.  Not only are they fully supporting my crazy experiment of the Apple A Week Blog Series , but today, my teammate, Trisha Goins talked me into, coached me through and invited me to join in the world of podcasting by starting a series podcast.  I'm excited that the first episode is now live!   I'll admit...I have NO prior podcasting experience so I leaned on Trisha to lead me through.  Learning can be uncomfortable sometimes but she patiently eased my nerves and encouraged me.  I am SO grateful...and proud!  We are nerdy, but hope that this will help others learn in a new way! Check out the first episode below!

   This week, our Apple A Week series continues with an awesome post from guest writer, Brian Timm .  Brian is a Digital Learning Coach in Coppell ISD and is an Apple Distinguished Educator.   Let's learn from him as he highlights some Keynote tips and tricks.   New to Keynote?  Check out Apple's user guide for iPad and for Mac . Keynote is Apple’s software for creating (potentially) beautiful presentations. I say potentially because you can take any presentation software and use it for evil deeds that’ll make you say, “What. The. Font”?  When building a keynote presentation, here are some quick wins, best practices, and creative uses that we have found helpful.   Quick Win: Resizing Objects Efficiently When resizing objects in Keynote for Mac, I used to drag from the corner, then have to move the object back to it’s original location. To keep the object in the same position and resize, simply hold down the “option” button, then click and drag.   With the

I'm so excited to share a resource that I was invited to contribute to by my teammates, Amanda Lanichek and Sam Neal .  We, along with several others gathered together some digital learning integration ideas to spark your design work this nine weeks. We created a menu of integration ideas for each grade level K-5 based on the skills of focus for the 3rd nine weeks in the district Scope and Sequence. Each idea is broken into three pieces: Learn, Do, and Reflect. You can use the pieces individually or as a complete series.  3rd Nine Weeks Integration Ideas Some of the integration ideas are more built out than others. If you see something you’d like to implement, please let me know so I can support you in designing and implementing the best possible experience for your learners! I'm so excited about this collaboration and want to know what you think.  Will this be helpful to you?  What would you like to see if we do this again for the 4th nine weeks?  Let me know in

Welcome to the new year!   2018 brings us new adventures and  it seems like the perfect time to share with you one of my goals.  As Coppell is 1:1 in grades 4-12 and iPad and MacBook heavy in all grades, I started thinking about why our district uses Apple programs and devices to support deeper learning.   What makes us use Apple in Education?  The facts say… We have 1:1 iPads. 3 of our schools are recognized as Apple Distinguished Schools. We have several Apple Distinguished Educators in our district. Many of our teachers have become Apple Teachers over the past year. But truthfully,  in order to truly impact our learners, it must go deeper than that.  Those of us that became Apple Teachers, what are we doing with that knowledge? How do we take what we know about the ease of use in Apple programs to design deeper learning experiences? This winter, you are invited to learn with me and some of my coaching team as we explore Apple’s foundational programs and how t

Welcome to the new year, readers!  I am looking forward to a fresh start and hope you are too!  This year, I am excited to start a new blog series where I dive deeper into Apple in Education (check back on the blog later this week for more details), but until then, I am focusing my resolutions on one thing...my one word for 2018.  This tradition is one that I cherish and I invite you to join in as well.    Learn more about the one word movement  here . My past one words  2016  2017  I hope you will hold me accountable to living for TODAY for this year.  In 2018, what do you want to be held accountable for?   Let me know your one word or resolutions in the comments!