Tag: Numbers

Digital Labs in Numbers

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One of the most powerful pieces about Twitter, is the connection that you can make amongst educators. The power of PLN!

Earlier this year, I was working with a jr. high science teacher, who was excited to try something new. I brought up the idea of using Numbers, because of how flexible the layout is. Knowing this could be a great possibility for observations and reflections, I inquired to a former colleague about their experience with Numbers in their middle school/jr. high science classrooms. My contact quickly put me in touch with Jodie Deinhammer!

Jodie, is a science teacher and Apple Distinguished educator, who graciously shared some of her examples and lesson experiences with me via email. One in particular, that we just put into action today with 7th grade, the Microscope Lab!

This Microscope Lab template in Numbers was combined with the use of Bio Metric’s digital Microscope app. The teachers I was supporting were very easily able to modify the template to fit their objective and curriculum standards, and students loved the self-pace style of learning. Teachers are already brainstorming where Numbers will take them next, and how we can improve our microscope introduction lesson for next year.

If you haven’t tried the Numbers app yet, I encourage you to do so. It is one of my favorites and often looked over.





Apple Vanguard 4.0 Day 2

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“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”

Confucious

I work with an amazing team. I recommend following Lindsay Zilly (@iCoachLindsay) and Kara McFarlin (@mrstechfarlin) on Twitter. We just finished wrapping up Day 2 of our Apple Vanguard 4.0 group. If you have missed previous posts, Apple Vanguard is a series of professional development workshops held in our district for teachers that applied. We have 3 groups; primary, intermediate and jr. high. Each group consists of about 16-20 teachers from multiple buildings.

Today’s focus was emphasizing Apple’s “For the love of learning” motto. A day set around our teaching passions and for some, rekindling an old romance with curriculum resources or starting a new journey together.

While we provide plenty of opportunities for teachers to share and be hands on with various learning practices, there was something that set this particular vanguard day apart from others. I mean, who wouldn’t want to take a staff field trip to the local Apple Store and participate in a scavenger hunt around the mall? This is exactly what we did, even though it felt a bit rebellious for some!

We were lucky enough to partner with our local Apple Store, which is within very close proximity to our district office. They welcomed each of our Apple Vanguard groups into the store before opening hours, where they received a personalized lesson on a resource that was selected by the instructional coaches form their Today at Apple Sessions. We primarily decided to focus on story telling with the use of Apple Clips and Keynote. Staff loved the change of scenery, and I highly recommend this if you have the opportunity.

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Following the Today at Apple session, we wanted our teachers to collect evidence that could be used in a story, so that they could bring it back to our session after lunch. We sent them on a scavenger hunt through the mall! Yes, you read that right! In advance, we shared a template with our teachers that utilized Numbers. Teachers had a choice to work with a partner, in small groups or individually on a topic of their choice. Later on, they would then incorporate this evidence into a story using Book Creator.

This was an extremely fun day full of love for learning.

Templates in Numbers & Book Creator

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If there are two apps that I have completely fallen in love with for templates, it has to be Numbers and Book Creator. While I also love giving students the freedom to create, both of these resources enhance the organizational process for students when a template is needed.

Numbers, I often feel is overlooked for its data stereotype. However, once you erase the tables if they aren’t needed, it provides a wide, blank canvas, that can be transformed into whatever your imagination creates.

For this particular example, I had a 3rd grade teacher who approached me with a goal of having her students research a variety of countries around the world. She wanted to eliminate paper packets and keep the project digital. Knowing her goals through our discussion, I suggested Numbers. The students loved the picture placeholders and the text box placement. We discussed researching ethics and copyrights. The students even used Numbers as their presentation tool when sharing their research with their class.

As I mentioned above, another great resource to build templates in is using Book Creator. One trick that I recently learned as well, is that images from Keynote copy and paste well to Book Creator. It’s a great way to give students another library of shapes to use!

This particular template I’m referencing was for 3rd grade as well. They had been learning about the continents in social studies and planned to jigsaw them in the classroom. During our prelesson conversation, I brought up the idea of a rotation schedule. There happened to be 7, 3rd grade classrooms, so this worked out perfectly. My team was very open to trying this idea, so on the day of an early release, each 3rd grade teacher was responsible for a continent specific activity in their classrooms. The students rotated into each classroom, taking notes and photographs to document their learning. All of this was completed inside of their digital passport.

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