New Ideas, Badges, and More from Apple Education

On March 23, 2021, Apple released a major refresh to the popular Apple Teacher program. The updates include Apple Teacher Portfolio—a brand new Apple Teacher feature—updates to the Everyone Can Create books, and some upcoming app updates including the Apple Classroom app. 

The Apple Teacher updates likely have something that any Barrington 220 educator can use.

Apple Teacher Portfolio

The new Apple Teacher Portfolio helps guide teachers through using Apple apps in meaningful ways in their own teaching, regardless of grade level or subject area. The projects include 21 templates and lesson ideas in apps such as Keynote, GarageBand, and iMovie. The framework allows teachers to begin with existing lessons and enhance them using a three-step process. Apple's process includes:

• Activate—Introduce ideas, activate prior knowledge, and get students excited about learning with simple warm-ups that help them think about content in creative new ways.
• Explore—Help students explore new information, connect ideas, and deepen their understanding of new material.
• Apply—Assess learning with projects that help students demonstrate mastery of new material and apply what they've learned in different contexts.

The process also offers several opportunities to reflect on each phase, and eventually leads you to earn a new Apple Teacher Portfolio recognition to add to your previous badges. 

Of course, if you have not yet started the Apple Teacher program, it’s never too late to begin—just visit appleteacher.apple.com and log in with your Apple ID.

Everyone Can Create

The Everyone Can Create books have also been updated with new content. As Apple apps add new features, new instructional possibilities emerge. Open your Books app on iPad and tap the cloud icon to download the new versions of the books. Some new content includes:

• Drawing—adds motion graphics and animation in Keynote.
• Photos—adds creating animated GIFs using Keynote, Camera, and Photos apps.
• Video—adds green screen and other special effects in iMovie.
• Music—adds podcasting features in GarageBand.

Classroom App Update (Coming Soon)

Apple also reports that they will soon update the Classroom app to allow its features to extend outside of the classroom to our remote learners. According to Apple:

“For the first time, the Classroom app will support learning beyond the walls of a school. Classroom has always connected students in the same physical space with their teachers, and soon teachers will be able to invite remote students to join a Classroom session.”

The Classroom update is coming soon, but the Apple Teacher Portfolio is available now in the Apple Teacher Learning Center (log in at appleteacher.apple.com), and the Everyone Can Create updates are waiting for you as free downloads in the Apple Books app. 

To read more about these updates from Apple, please check out the Apple Newsroom article.