Apple in Education

Photo credit: apple.com/education

We all know that Apple products are everywhere. They are increasingly making it into our schools as well. Along with iPads, other Apple products are easy and fun for students to learn in the classroom. 

As I was researching how Apple plays a part in education, I found a handy resources webpage with basically everything you need to know about how to use Apple products in the classroom. 

Apple's are expensive, but I've always been convinced that they are good-quality products. I have a MacBook Pro, and I honestly never leave home without it. I'm considering getting an iPad some day soon to be able to implement it into my lessons plans, so it will be nice to have an Apple that is a bit easier to cart around all the time. With how many schools are currently getting iPads for their classrooms, knowing how to effectively use them myself will make me more marketable when I'm applying against hundreds of teachers for the same job. A thorough knowledge of all of Apple's products will keep me up to date on the best of technology. 

NET Standards

 Photo Credit: degreedirectory.org

With students spending more time online in the classroom, it is important that they are successfully learning. The NET Standards ensure that students are learning, but they also give teachers a guideline of what they should be teaching when it comes to technology. On the iste.org, there are 5 things for teachers to be aware of:

1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning
2. Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
3. Model Digital Age Work and Learning
4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility*
5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership

(Found on the NETS-T (PDF))

I have a star by number 4, because we took a long time to discuss it in class. Lack of digital citizenship is increasingly becoming an issue. Kids are going online as young as late elementary or early middle school, and the internet seems to facilitate bullying. In general, people are much more comfortable saying things online that they would never say in person. It breaks my heart to think of the children who have taken their own lives to escape the bullying, because, due to the pervasiveness of the internet, they couldn't even escape it in the safety of their own home. Teaching my students how to be good citizens online, as well as offline, will be a huge priority in my classroom.

Finally, there are 6 things students should be learning while using technology:

1. Creativity and Innovation
2. Communication and Collaboration
3. Research and Information Fluency
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
5. Digital Citizenship
6. Technology Operations and Concepts

(Found on the NETS-S (PDF))

Making My Own Instragram Photostrips!

In class, we had to make our own instagram photo strips. The inspiration came from the website Photoboother, but since my class is called Educational Technology, we had to actually create them ourselves using Photoshop. (As I've said before, I am HORRIBLE at using Photoshop, but I try REALLY hard. I think this project took me well over an hour.)

Anyway, we had to use the photos we had been taking for our weekly Photo Assignment. I made one strip of my pictures of my favorite pair of shoes, my black converse. The other strip was made with random photos of my friends and family. Here's how they turned out:

Favorite Teacher Blogs/Websites

Here are some of my favorite teacher sites! Just so you know, I'm using some awesome things I've pinned to my Pinterest board.

The first is a blog called Classroom Collective. There are a ton of different areas of the classroom that this blog talks about, but I especially appreciate the classroom management tips. For example, this gem was posted and I pinned it to my "For the Classroom" board.

I like the fact that I wouldn't have to disrupt class to discipline someone. I can just set the little stop sign on a students desk and keep on teaching.

The next blog that I really like is called Classroom Freebies, a blog made by Charity Preston, the creator and founder of PEN Group Online. We actually learned a bit about her in my Ed Tech class, because she is a well-known blogger and teacher. (How she has the time for all that she does is beyond me.) Anyway, I pinned this little hot air balloon project, because I thought it was adorable. I love asking kids what they want to be when they grow up, so I plan on doing some kind of career activity with my students. Then, they can go back and see how their answer changed as they got older. When I was an elementary student, I was convinced I was going to be a veterinarian! I realized a few years later that anything medically related was NOT for me, and now here I am on my way to be a teacher. :)

iPads in the Classroom

Schools all over the country are now using iPads in the classroom. At first, I was very skeptical about it. iPads are expensive, and I was unsure of how schools would make the cost worth it. After getting to play on iPads in two of my education classes, I'm convinced that they are definitely a classroom enhancer. There are so many awesome apps that would make students excited to learn. Math games, vocabulary games, you name it! One of my favorite apps was called Piano Man - Piano Lessons. I'm not sure how I would incorporate that particular app into my classroom, but I just thought it was really fun. :) I ended up going home and downloading the app for my iPhone, so I could play it all the time!

Home-made Polaroids

In Ed Tech, we made our own cute little Polaroid photos. I just love these! We were given a template to use, then we just had to go into Photoshop and fit a picture onto each square. All of the pictures I used were Instagram photos, because they were already cropped into squares, and I love the fun filters you can use with Instagram.  It makes the finished product look like actual vintage polaroid photos. 

They turned out pretty cool, huh? I think I'm going to cut them out and use them to make little magnets for my fridge.

Paperless Educator/ iPads vs. Smartboards

"Going green" is a huge movement in the world at the moment. We try to go green at home and in our businesses, but is it possible to go green in the classroom? I think it might be.

I read "5 Web Applications for the Paperless Classroom," on QuickOnlineTips.com, and there were some very interesting ways to incorporate technology into the classroom to save paper (for FREE). The first application the article talks about is Evernote.
Evernote is a way to takes notes, organize web pages and pictures, and a bunch of other functions that could potentially take place of notebooks and binders.


The next application is GoogleDocs. We've been using is a bit in my Educational Technology class, and I'm convinced that this is definitely worth your time. Computers are sometimes unreliable. Several people in my classes had their computers crash, and the stuff saved to their computers was inaccessible for quite some time. With GoogleDocs, you can save all of your work to an online folder, so you can access it from any computer. I like knowing that the documents I have saved on GoogleDocs won't be lost with an unexpected computer crash. Not only can you save documents, but you can also create them online. The software though GoogleDocs is very similar to the Microsoft Office Suite.



The third program is called Zoho Challenge. It is a website that can be used to create quizzes and tests, so summative assessment can be done on the technology as well and no paper is needed. I think students would enjoy being able to take tests on computers or iPads.

Prezi is the fourth online application. I'm in the process of making a Prezi for one of my classes, and I found the process quite enjoyable. It is a nice variation on the basic PowerPoint presentation. A teacher can make a Prezi with information for the lesson, and students would love the way the presentation moves. They would also be able to access the presentation on their own computers or iPads.

Finally, the article talked about Wordle, a website we used in my Ed Tech class. I posted my Wordle creation to my blog way back in August. I like using Wordle, and I think kids would find it really interesting as well. If I used it in my class, I would have them make a Wordle with all of their spelling words for the week. It's a way to make learning vocabulary fun and colorful.

I like the idea of saving on paper in the classroom, but I don't think I'd want my classroom to be COMPLETELY paper free. I think students still need to learn how to write correctly with an actual pencil and paper verses learning completely with a stylus and an iPad. Technology is great, but there are still positives to keeping some of the old ways of teaching.


In Ed Tech, we learned about another way that iPads can be used in the classroom, and it actually SAVES money, believe it or not. I'm sure many of you have heard of the Smart Boards and the corresponding projectors that are being installed in many classrooms. They are really cool, and they have some neat functions, but they are expensive as well. If you have a regular projector and a wireless internet connection, AirDisplay is an awesome way to get your iPad mirrored onto the board. If i had my iPad connected through the projector, I would be able to walk around the classroom and teach with different apps and internet sites. There are whiteboard apps that can be used to write, just like I would with an actual whiteboard. I like the idea of the iPad keeping me free to walk around the classroom as I teach.