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Over the next few weeks, we’ll be delving into the amazing (and free) professional learning programme for teachers that Apple have created. Apple Teacher is a high quality, self-paced professional learning course and, having worked with schools integrating Apple Teacher, we find it gives staff the skills and confidence to be able to use iPad and Mac for amazing lessons using Apple apps.
Overview
There are two sets of guides in the iBooks Store that are free to download. Each guide has an online quiz to check your understanding of using iPad and Mac for teaching and learning. After completing the quiz successfully, you earn a badge for that element of Apple Teacher. When you complete all eight badges, you become an Apple Teacher.
Apple Teacher for iPad
The iPad starter guide is the best place to begin, as it shows you the basics of the iPad. From there, you can complete the other books in any order (I would recommend completing the app guides next). The guides focusing on apps cover iMovie, Numbers, Pages, Keynote and GarageBand. There are also two other guides that give practical ideas: Enhancing Productivity and Fostering Creativity. Each book looks at how to create resources, plan a lesson and use Apple apps in the classroom, and at the end of each guide there are ideas for other curriculum areas and links to more ideas and inspiration.
Apple Teacher for Mac
The Apple Teacher guides for Mac follow the same format as the iPad guides and give you the fundamental skills and knowledge of the Mac environment. Schools wanting to switch from Windows to Mac will find this series of guides and Apple Teacher badges really useful in learning the differences in (and advantages of) using Mac in the classroom.
Swift Playgrounds recognition
The Everyone Can Code series of iBooks from Apple are a free set of resources and lesson plans that teachers can work through and use, beginning with Get Started with Code 1 and 2, followed by Learn to Code 1, 2 and 3. It is based around the Swift Playgrounds app on the iPad and lets students (suitable for Key Stage 2 and early Key Stage 3) learn the fundamentals of coding with Swift, Apple’s coding language. We recommend you complete Learn to Code 1 and 2 before you do the Swift Playgrounds badge on Apple Teacher.
Why we recommend it
At Jigsaw24, we look at the best solutions to make your journey with Mac and iPad a success. We love Apple Teacher as it is a great launch pad to give teaching and support staff the foundation skills they need for their first lessons with iPad and Mac.
This means that when we work with and support your staff, we can build on this early success and help to transform learning at your school. We’re then able to jump into some of our more advanced courses earlier than we were previously able to. For teachers, being an Apple Teacher is widely being recognised by schools using Apple technology, and tells them that you have the skills to be successful with iPad and Mac.
- Check in next week for our next Apple Teacher article on Pages and Apple’s iPad and Mac starter guides.
Want to know more about Apple Teacher and iPad in the classroom? Get in touch with the team on 03332 409 290 or email education@Jigsaw24.com. For all the latest news, follow @Jigsaw24Edu on Twitter, or ‘Like’ us on Facebook.