Diary of a Digital Learning Coach

In honor of teacher appreciation week, I'd like to "gift" you with this tip for using Apple Classroom.  I'm not going to lie...it kind of blew my mind!  Check out how to share files and open apps by dragging and dropping! I know, right??? I learned this while checking out the NEW resources available for iPad in the Apple Teacher program.  There are 75 new learning resources available to help you better understand your and your learners' devices.  The tip above came from this video about Apple Classroom, but while you are logged in, you might want to check some of the other resources out too! Apple's Guide to Apple Classroom Note:  To view, log in with an Apple ID.  Read more about my experiences with Apple Teacher from the archives here . What is your experience with the Apple Teacher program? Let me know in the comments!

One of the questions I often get asked from parents is about the amount of time our learners spend on screens during the school day.  With the influx of research on young brains and screens, it is logical for parents to have questions about our 1:1 iPads and how they are being used in classrooms.   I typically take those moments to help parents understand: the difference between using an iPad for learning vs. as a home device that being 1:1 doesn't mean our learners are 1:1 or on screens in all learning activities how iPads are simply a vehicle for learning, not a curriculum But as a parent myself, I can see the struggle in navigating this digital world both at school and at home.  It is so different than what we experienced, many of us parents can feel ill equipped to truly understand and promote best practices with our children. I'll be the first to tell you that no one tool does everything (iPads included) but there is a feature of our iPads that...

This week, let's take a deeper look at some Apple Classroom strategies that can h elp your end of the year classroom management.   For more information on managing Apple Classroom, check out this post from the archives or my team's Guide to Using Apple Classroom site . How have you used Apple Classroom successfully in your classroom?  Let me know in the comments!

Many of you readers may know and listen to the Coppell Digital Learning Podcast broadcast by my team.  I don't always cross post, but last week's episode is one of my favorites because it highlights some of our learners' views on creativity.   If you asked me as a child what creativity was, I would have probably said creating beautiful art, a skill that I definitely did not have.  My access to creativity was more limited then and definitely not often found in my classroom. Often my adult view is heavily influenced by what I experienced.   That's the reason I am choosing to post the episode with our learners today - to remind us that the classrooms of our past are not the classrooms of their present or future.   Our learners each had different views...but all gave me hope.   Please enjoy episode 20: Creativity linked here. As an extra this week, in the spirit of the "popping in" segment of our show, enjoy this little screens...

A core belief my team has about digital learning is that little kids can and will do amazing things when given the opportunity.  If we are being truly honest, this also applies to even the biggest kids...us.   During the Apple a Week series last year, we learned not just how easy and functional the programs like Keynote, Pages and Numbers can be but also how Apple’s Education resources can help us when designing quality learning. It’s about to get even better. Apple just rolled out a collection of multi-touch books as part of their Everyone Can Create curriculum .  These resources provide a scaffold for fostering digital creativity in the classroom for any age of learner. Want to help learners understand the basics of creating quality videos ? Wondering how photography and drawing can be best used to make thinking visible? Thinking about spicing up a lesson by having learners compose original music or find patterns? Let’s learn more about the Eve...

Several years ago, I was lucky enough to coach one of our district's first elementary schools to pilot 1:1 in 4th and 5th grade. I've been thinking of that small group of educators a lot lately now that our district has gone 1:1 in all grades. As we learned together that year, we dreamed of an aligned way that learners could show their growth by self selecting items and reflecting digitally on them - a digital portfolio that could travel with them along their educational path beyond elementary school. That time has come.  After much thought and consideration, a focus group of our CISD educators worked together to adopt our districtwide portfolio tool, Bulb.  To help get you started, the DLCs have created a guide with resources that will help you introduce Bulb to your classroom using our district template.   Getting Started with Bulb Portfolios in CISD I  am excited to support you and your team on this journey.  Let me know if you'd like to set...

This week, I have been thinking a lot about workflow and how it can make or break a learning experience.  It is no educator's dream to have a beautifully designed lesson stall because the learners are unable to show their thinking digitally in an efficient way.  I've seen this time and again...many times because in my own rush and excitement of content, I take for granted helping my learners practice the process of work on their iPads. It makes me think of all the procedures and expectations I used to have my learners practice at the beginning of the year.  Though that practice was an investment in time, it consistently paid me back with prepared learners throughout the year. That's why taking time to help learners with digital workflow is so important.  I'll be visiting this topic frequently on this blog this year, but for today, let's consider my top 3 tips for helping learners with the process of work. Tip 1 - The more you use your iPad as an educat...

iPad rollout is finally complete and hopefully you are starting to dive into some digital learning. You might be asking yourself, "Ok, iPads are enrolled but NOW WHAT?"  My teammate, Megan Kozar recently compiled some awesome resources to help as we all begin working within digital classroom environments. Because we are #bettertogether, I wanted to share them with you too! 1. UTILIZE LEARNER EXPERTS Kinder "Ask an Expert" wall -Jennifer Pettit, @pettit73 As you have started working with your digital tools, I am sure a couple of students have stood out as "tech-perts". Take some of the load off of yourself and allow learners to lead when using a new app, troubleshooting a problem, or choosing a creative tool. To help learners see who to reach out to when they need help, you can build an Expert Wall like this one! 2. TAKE TIME TO TEACH TROUBLESHOOTING        Before your students have to miss class time to find help to fix minor ...