Diary of a Digital Learning Coach

As I pulled into the campus parking lot last Thursday, which also happened to be Digital Learning Day, I received a text.  It went something like this: Create at Imgflip The internet is down is not something ANY of us wants to hear.  It is inconvenient and most of the time throws our best laid plans out the window. But as the time ticked on and I kept hearing the half-hearted laughs of a no internet Digital Learning Day (many from myself), I began to think...why does everything have to stop?  Digital learning is not about tools.  It's about creating. It's about processing thinking.  It's about more than just connecting via the web. You might remember that I am on a mission this year to really explore how to better provide deeper learning experiences through Apple devices. So I challenged myself to make a list of all the things that worked on my iPad, even with no internet.   What I found was...well, awesome.   Many...

Hi friends! My recap post of my top learning moments from TCEA is coming soon...until then, here's this week's installment of the #appleaweek series! Once upon a time, a young 3rd grader proudly wrote a book for a Young Author’s competition.  The book, like all the others was displayed in the library for parents and families to read.  How special that girl felt to know she was an “author” and that her work was being read.   Imagine if that girl had access to publishing to the world...where would she be?  What would she have dreamed up?  Would her passion for writing extend to more than just this blog?   For this week’s Apple a Week, we take a look at Book Creator for Chrome, an online multi-touch book creation tool that is easy enough for our littlest of kids to create content.  It is one way our kids now can write for the world. Let’s take a look at Book Creator for Chrome in this 5 min vlog: With Book Creator for Chr...

I’m so excited to be blogging from the TCEA (Texas Computer Education Association) conference in Austin, Texas this week! My team and I will be presenting several different sessions and I am so excited to be co-presenting “Apple in Education, We Say Yes!” on Thursday at 1:30! My Awesome Co-Presenters! In our session, we will celebrate the use of Apple in our district and encourage others to see the amazing educational value of Keynote, Pages, Numbers and Everyone Can Code.  Even if you are #notattcea, I encourage you to learn with us for this week’s installment of #anappleaweek. Simply go to www.flipgrid.com/AppleEDUyes , select a learning topic and click on the attached resource to begin exploring.   Attending TCEA and interested in more learning from the Coppell DLCs? Check out all of our session offerings below! Follow #TCEA and #TCEA18 for more great learning opportunities!   Check out other posts from this series here.

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 ...

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 -...

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! ...