Reflection

Technology is becoming a big part of the classroom, so it is important that we as educators learn as much as we can so we can help teach our students about technology. Through becoming an apple teacher, I was able to learn a lot of things about different apps on my iPad that I can use in my classroom. One app that was interesting to learn more about was Keynote because I could see my students doing projects on this app in class. They could do group work together to come up with presentations to show the class. There are a lot of different features on the app that my students could explore and use to present information that they learn. 

This is relevant to my future future classroom because it shows the mastery of specific skills, thus making me more capable to teach them/use them. With these quizzes came a lot of knowledge about applications I thought I knew how to use. Specifically, going through these quizzes made me into a learner, the ISTE standard I chose for this particular assignment. As teachers, I think we should always be willing to learn and grow; the Apple Teacher program helps with the continuation of learning, but with technology in mind. Through the iPad quizzes, I learned more than I thought I already knew about iPad applications.

I think this is relevant to my future classroom as I am now aware on how to use certain apple apps that can help my future students. It has let me discover how to use my tablet to where I am able to demonstrate to someone how to use. I think that being able to have the opportunity to use a tablet will let students who need materials such as a tablet have the necessary materials to learn. 

Being an Apple Teacher is relevant to my future classroom because I am now able to do more in my classroom with iPads.  I am able to teach my future students skills on the iPad that they can use as ways to express themselves, as well as turn projects in.  The students can do various projects with Keynote, GarageBand, and Pages.  I also really like how you are able to collaborate on these apps, so the students are able to work together.  With technology constantly changing, I think it is important for teachers to work on the Learner standard from ISTE to keep on top of the interesting thing that can be done to help children learn.  

This is relevant to my future class when differentiating a lesson or center activity. ISTE standard 5 discusses utilizing technology to accommodate the different learners in your classroom. For example, if a student was not grasping how to construct a bar graph, numbers on iPad would provide for a different visual. Simple integrations of technology would be beneficial for certain learning activities for music, math, and social-emotional skills.

I believe this certification could be relevant not just for my resume and not just for Apple products. Over the course of this Apple Teacher program, I have had to use my general knowledge of how technology usually works, but this has had to be supplemented with the Apple-specific functions that are still... counterintuitive at times. Yet the true value of these Apple methods for technology is honestly hard to quantify simply because there are so many possibilities to incorporate these technologies in my future classroom. As a social studies educator, I think the premier function of this tech would be in capturing the romance of history and the social studies, which can often be dry topics if taught without pizzazz. Apps like Keynote and iMovie would allow students to take ownership and express their understanding and passion with different parts of history through creative projects.

Being Apple Teacher certified allows me to be open to new projects and ideas and innovate my curriculum into technology. Using Pages, Keynote, Numbers, iMovie, and even GarageBand can be used in many different lesson plans and all give students a way to express themselves creatively. It’s relevant to my future classroom because these tools can easily fit into your classroom. Pages is a great tool to write notes, essays, and more. As a future history teacher, I think using iMovie would be a good tool for students to use. I would like to have them use it to create a project showcasing a particular time in history and set it up to music that corresponds to that time period. All of these tools are great to use in class and being certified allows me to know what I’m doing and help my students use these to the best of their abilities. Being informed with technology is very important today and for my future classroom. More and more schools are innovating tech in the classroom and it’s especially great for students to know how to use technology as they will use it more if they go to college or certain jobs. As for ISTE standards for educators I believe the Designer standard best correlates to the Apple certification. The Designer standard proves that educators are to design learner-driven activities and use technology to create and adapt to learning. I think that using these tools from Apple allow students to be creative and work toward a certain goal with the intent of learning. Having the Apple Teacher badges are going to be a great way for my to integrate technology in my classroom while still being focused on teaching my students the curriculum they need. 

I think that some of the things I learned on apple teacher will be very relevant and useful in my future classroom. One thing that I could picture being very useful is the split screen feature. This would be really great for assigning an online reading and having students take notes in the notes app simultaneously. Some of the accessibility features would also be useful in a reading assignment such as the feature that reads selected text out loud. This would be great for a student with exceptionalities such as dyslexia who may struggle to read without assistance. The accessibility features would make it ten times easier to accommodate exceptional students. Lastly, some of the things like adding additional apps to the control center or adding a link to a frequently used website to the home page would make using the iPad more efficient and easier in general. I was very impressed that apple offered so many features that I did not already know about. I think that learning more a out my iPad’s capabilities will encourage me to use it more often.

This will help me in my classroom to be able to help students to use their technology better. Because I know how these different programs work, I can step in for students who may struggle with these programs. By having this knowledge, I can make different assignments that allow students to display their understanding of content material in a variety of ways. This will allow my students to learn different technologies that will help to better prepare them for the future. These tools can all become a part of the workplace in the future so students who learn to use them in high school will have an advantage on others. To be a better facilitator, it is important for me to have an understanding of the programs myself. 

I discovered so many new things that I can use when getting my Apple Teacher badge! Firstly, I had no clue that Pages was so useful. This would be an amazing tool for students to use to write engaging papers or infographics with lots of images and fun text. Keynote is perfect for all kinds of unique presentations, and garage band could be an awesome tool for kids to use with poetry (or if they want to take their projects towards the more musical side and compose a song, or create a melody for an existing poem for the class to properly hear its rhythm). Personally, I plan on using pages for writing a novel. I have always wanted to have a novel template of some sort, but could never find it. Pages has an amazing template that allows you to basically create a digital novel.

This assignment was actually extremely beneficial. I feel that I learned a lot about different systems and apps my iPad had and genuinely how to use them. I think some of these apps are specifically useful as a teacher and having multiple ways to portray information. As a future kindergarten teacher using these apps may not be as useful for individual work but could be fun for group. I was brainstorming how we could use the I-movie app and make a class movie. This would be super interactive and the students would get to actively participate. Overall I think having apple certification is useful for every teacher to do and will be a great addition to a resume.