My Apple Teacher Portfolio Journey

I’m now an Apple Teacher with Portfolio Recognition!

Over the past year, this has been a fantastic professional learning experience, as I reflected on & developed how I integrate iPad in my classroom.

I am so glad that I took my time with this and very deliberately reflected on my teaching and what learning looked like in my classroom with students.

Here is my journey…

With Apple Teacher Portfolio, a teacher creates a digital portfolio of 9 different lessons at three levels: Activate, Explore & Apply.

Teachers include aspirational examples, resources and — most importantly — reflections on each lesson. 

Here is a brief summary of all of the lessons in my portfolio:

Activate Lessons

Activate Lesson 1: Where do the animals live? Introduction to Global Climates

Students created a simple map showing the native habitat of animals using Keynote on iPad.  

Activate Lesson 2: Climate Change Chants

Students created chants including beats, voiceover and loops using GarageBand for iPad.  

Activate Lesson 3: Globalisation Word Art

Students created Word Art using Keynote based on the word ‘globalisation’ as they reflected on the pros and cons of our globalised world.

Explore Lessons

Explore Lesson 1: Backbeat

Students created a backbeat drum pattern using GarageBand to learn more about rhythm and rhythmic notation.

And, you can download the journal to use with your students.  

Explore Lesson 2: Volcanoes: Good Grief!

This was based on the awesome ‘Today at Apple, At Home” video:

Students created Peanuts-style cartoon drawings of the 3 stages of a volcano’s life cycle.

Explore Lesson 3: Effects

Students created an audio recording project using GarageBand on iPad to learn more about different audio effects.

And, you can download the journal to use with your students.

Apply Lessons

Apply Lesson 1: Memoji Coding

Students created Animated Memoji GIFs using Keynote on iPad in a Coding class to demonstrate understanding of coding concepts such as commands, functions, and loops.

You can download Memoji Coding 1 and Memoji Coding 2.

Apply Lesson 2: Blackout Recording

Students created an original poetry recording through ‘creative editing’ using GargeBand on iPad.

And, you can download the journal to use with your students.  

Apply Lesson 3: Animated Earth

Students demonstrated an understanding of continental drift in Geography class by creating an animated video using Keynote on iPad.

Some additional thoughts… 

• Apple Teacher Portfolio isn’t just the 9 lessons that make the ‘final cut’.
• Many other lessons & ideas are a critical part of this process too, with constant iteration, design & reflection. Your Portfolio should be your BEST work at the various levels, but not your ONLY work.
• The 3 levels of lesson design are flexible. This will vary depending on your teaching experience, context, confidence with integrating tech in the classroom, age of students, and/or student skills. An Activate lesson for one Teacher could be an Explore lessons for another…

Here is my final reflection video for my Apple Teacher Portfolio:

You can download a copy of my final Apple Teacher Portfolio as either a Pages document or a PDF.

Feel free to use any lessons ideas or download the resources within it. I hope it’s helpful in some way to others!

👉🏻 Learn more about Apple Teacher Portfolio and get started in the Learning Center.