Those ten minutes before class are genuinely precious. You've got a lesson to run, resources to pull together, a reminder you promised yourself you wouldn't forget, and probably at least one notification you'd rather students didn't see. Getting your Mac working efficiently in that window - and right through the lesson itself - makes a bigger difference than most people realise.
This video in the series follows me from the moment I unlock my Mac to the end of a live lesson, showing how a handful of tools help me move from planning to delivery without the usual scramble.
It starts with Touch ID. No password to type, no waiting - just a single touch and I'm straight into my workflow. When every minute counts before the bell, that kind of frictionless start matters.
From there, I open Calendar to see what the day looks like. One of the things I really appreciate about Calendar on Mac is that it can hold multiple calendars at once - work and personal - all in a single view. You can see in the video that my personal calendar shows a post office pickup I'd nearly forgotten about. Handy for me, but not something I need visible during class, so I simply toggle that calendar off before students arrive. It takes two seconds and keeps things professional.
Once I know what's coming, I use Siri to set a timed reminder without breaking stride - just "Hey Siri, remind me to share that chemistry assignment at 1:58pm”, and it's done. It lands straight in my calendar, and I'll get a notification at exactly the right moment. For the tasks I'd rather type out, the Reminders app is right there too - I add "Submit PD request at 3pm" manually in just a few taps. Whether I'm in a hurry and want to use my voice or prefer to type it in myself, both work seamlessly.
Then it's into the lesson. Apple Classroom is the tool that really ties everything together here. From my Mac, I can AirDrop a Keynote presentation and a website directly to all my students in seconds - no uploading, no printing, no "can you send me that link" moments. I can see thumbnails of what students are working on, check they've received the right files, mute devices if I need their attention, and lock screens when I want to give the next set of instructions. At the end of the lesson, Classroom gives me a quick summary of how students spent their time. It's the kind of tool that makes classroom management feel calm rather than chaotic.
Running across all of this is Stage Manager, which keeps my workspace organised when I've got multiple apps open at once. The active app sits front and centre, while everything else is neatly stacked on the left, ready to switch into. I can also drag two windows side by side when I need to see them together - without going into full screen mode. You can turn it on and off from Control Centre in the menu bar. If you haven’t tried it, give it a go for a few days -it takes a bit of time to get used to it.
The video wraps up with a look at one of my students' screens. See how it all flows together in the video below.
Up next - the Mac doesn't work alone. In the next video, I'll be showing what happens when you bring iPhone into the mix - check it out here.
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