Greetings to all Teachers!
We’re delighted to share that Apple has just launched their Apple Teacher Portfolio, a nifty and incredibly useful tool in the form of a new Learning Badge that we can earn through the Apple Teacher Learning Centre. Apple hopes to spearhead the flowing of creative juices in any type of learning setting with this new initiative, which is something which we should all leverage on.
Tying in to iPad For Learning, the Apple Teacher Portfolio will allow teachers to make the most of the iPad, and Apple technology as a whole when imparting knowledge onto students. Through each phase of their lesson planning, we can help students activate prior knowledge, explore a topic more deeply, and apply their understanding into solving a problem.
It essentially comprises of 21 unique templates and lesson ideas which are inspired by Apple’s Everyone Can Create project guides. These enable teachers to effortlessly incorporate Apple apps like Keynote and GarageBand in creating more immersive and fun lessons for students. As the name suggests, the Apple Teacher Portfolio serves also as a compilation of work and lessons that we can share with our colleagues.
This journal-like platform allows teachers to reflect on what works and what does not, in order to better customise their lessons to suit their students’ needs in future. This facilitates better planning and structuring of lessons, which then helps inspire us to reimagine our lessons, and in turn inspire our students as well!
Apple has also made updates to the helpful and reliable educational apps and curriculum that we utilise for our lessons such as Everyone Can Create, Schoolwork and Classroom. This also ties in with iPad For Learning by building upon the strengths and versatility of the iPad and Apple apps as a multifaceted platform for learning.
Everyone Can Create has been improved with many user-friendly features, which is a huge plus for us teachers! Apple has updated the Drawing guide to include motion graphics and animation in Keynote, and the Photos guide to cover GIF creation using Keynote, Camera, and Photos. The Video guide now includes green screen filmmaking, and last but not least the Music guide has been updated to allow adding of new podcasting features using GarageBand.
Schoolwork will soon allow teachers to gain further insight into their students’ activities, with an update which allows us to monitor students’ progress data, along with time spent on respective the documents, videos, and links assigned to them. The sidebar has been updated with improved navigation, plus we can now conveniently share projects with colleagues or import projects from them.
Classroom has also been updated to further support and facilitate learning within the classroom and beyond. New features include remote student support, and a revamped, refreshing new design which gives teachers a snapshot of all their students at a glance. The best part is, the Classroom app has been completely rebuilt using Mac Catalyst, providing a seamless experience on iPad and the Mac.
Apple Teacher Portfolio is now available through the Apple Teacher Learning Centre while the Everyone Can Create guides are updated and available as a free download on Apple Books.
What are you waiting for teachers? Get them today to make a greater impact in your classroom, and the learning processes of your students!