Healthy Classrooms, Healthy Minds

Content from the ‘Healthy classrooms, healthy minds’ session will be available to view until March 31 on the Back to School Series 2023 site, accessible at: http://apple.co/b2s23  

Teaching in a 1-1 iPad classroom for almost 10 years, I have been delighted at the continual introduction of built-in tools and functionalities that inspire students to connect with their physical health and digital wellbeing. During the ‘Back to School 2023’ session I share a range of Apple tools to help students connect with the idea of health and wellness throughout the day. Here are some of my favourites.

Managing time and focus with Apple technology

Focus: The built-in functionality of ‘Focus’ assists your students to concentrate by enabling them to customise notifications, alerts and home screens access.

• Watch this tutorial to learn how to set up a custom Focus on your iPad

Reminders: The ‘Reminders’ app gives your students peace of mind in terms of what they need to remember. You can create reminders with subtasks, attachments and set alerts based on time and location.

• Access instructions on setting up lists and settings in the Reminders app

Screen Time Data: Apple devices give us access to real-time reports on how much time we spend on our devices. This information can help students to consider changes that may help them to better care for their digital wellbeing.

• Discover how to view your Screen Time data on your iPad

Creating mindful minutes in you classroom

Tayasui Sketches School: This app has a simple user interface and some beautiful drawing tools, making it perfect for creative moments. A couple of my favourite tools are the symmetry ruler and the fill tool.

• Get the ‘Everyone Can Create Drawing’ guide to learn more about using Tayasui Sketches School

Clips: Using the movie making app Clips provides a quick and easy way to combine a recording of your drawing with music. By splitting the recording and adding stickers you can really make a mindful minute come alive. 

• Learn more about Clips by checking out these Education Forum posts
• Mindful Minute Clips file (Share to the Clips app on your iPhone or iPad)

Music: Apple Music has over a million songs and 30,000 playlists. Many of these playlists are perfect for creating a positive, productive mood in the classroom.

• Tap to explore some of my favourite classroom playlists

Getting active in and out of the classroom 

Slow-mo: iPad is flexible and mobile, making it the perfect tool to support students as they get active. The camera app has a variety of features (such as Slow-mo) that are great for recording and observing student movement.

• Explore ‘In Action: Build Skills with Video’ to discover how PE teacher Simon Messer builds skills with slow-motion video

Burst photos: The camera is a quick easy tool for actively capturing learning and I love the collaborative nature of it as students take photos (such as a burst of photos) of each other and work together.

• Check out Chapter 4 in the ‘Everyone Can Create Photo’ guide to discover how to capture movement with Burst camera mode

Keynote GIF: Students absolutely love playing with perspective and creating GIFs - the combination of the two provides an engaging movement break. Arranging a burst of photos into an animated GIF with Keynote is a fun way to be creative with the images.

• Learn to create an animated GIF with this ‘Everyone Can Create Project’

How do you utilise the tools and functionality of Apple technology to foster a healthy classroom environment? I’d love to hear your ideas so please add a comment and feel free to share any resources you may have created.