Time

Each and every day is comprised of 86,400 seconds, 1,440 minutes and 24 hours. Regardless of how you choose to break down your day, we all have exact same amount of time at our disposal making time the great equalizer. In working with a wide variety of individuals over the years, I have met people who seem to magically add an extra hour to their day and others who simply waste an amazing amount of time each day. You can probably guess who the more successful individuals were.

In looking back at my experiences as a teacher, coach and administrator, one of my biggest pet peeves is when I hear the proverbial "I don't have time" excuse. Whether it is taking on a new commitment, trying something new or simply completing a needed task, the "I don't have time" excuse is one that comes up often. With that being said, I will be the first to admit that I too have been guilty of making this excuse on numerous occasions. As an example, I have wanted to start this blog for a long time but have procrastinated due to a "lack of time." Although I find myself making this excuse less and less as I have grown and matured over the years, it is still an easy trap to fall into when demands for our time seem overwhelming.

The fact of the matter is that we all ultimately make time for what is truly important to us. No matter how busy I am or how little time I seem to have, I always find a way to make time for the things I REALLY want to do. If we are truly being honest with ourselves, we all do this. The real issue then is not so much that we do not have the time to do something, it is that the activity or commitment in question is not a priority to us.

Coming to this realization can make a profound difference in the way we prioritize our time and take on new commitments. Taking an honest look at how our time is spent each day will typically reveal that we have more time available than previously thought. The fact that I am finally starting this blog is not due to having more time available, it because it is a priority to me and I am making the time to get it done. Moving forward, I encourage you to be honest with yourself and others in regards to what you really have time for in your personal and professional life. Remember, we always have time for what is truly important to us.

By Sun Ladder (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Important Lesson Learned From Fatherhood

On July 4, 2014, I was blessed with the privilege of becoming a new father to a precious little four year old girl whom my wife and I welcomed into our home through the process of adoption. Our daughter, Chassity, is our first child so we are both very new to the role of a parent and all that this tremendous responsibility involves.

In the four months since Chassity came into our home, I have learned a great deal personally and have a new found appreciation for all that a parent goes through with a child. One specific thing I have been most surprised with is how observant children are of everything that their parents do. It is amazing how fast our daughter has picked up on habits and mannerisms my wife and I have and is repeating them regularly. It really makes you think twice about the things you say and do in front of your children.  

This experience has prompted me to rethink the powerful influence teachers and coaches have over children each and every day. With the amount of time that children spend at school and extracurricular activities, it is certain that they are carefully observing their adult role models at school just as much or more than their parents. If you are like me, I am sure you have found yourself (at least once) engaging in the very thing you hate to see your own children/students doing. With this in mind, it is incredibly important for all of us in education to consider the example we are setting on a daily basis. 

In my opinion, the greatest blessing of being an educator and coach is the opportunity to make a positive and lasting difference in the life of a child. The example we set is instrumental in determining whether this difference is positive or negative. This prompts us all (myself included) to ask some important questions such as...

What kind of example am I REALLY setting for the kids under my care and leadership?

Are my daily behaviors and actions ones that I would be proud of my students/athletes repeating?

Am I modeling, on a daily basis, the character traits I would want to see from the young people I lead?

Do I demonstrate a consistent and genuine love for each of the kids under my care regardless of their behavior or background? 

God has blessed all of us in education with a powerful platform to influence kids. Ultimately, what we do will be far more powerful than anything we say in determining how effective this influence is. As the old saying goes..."Actions speak louder than words." I wish you all the best in this ongoing challenge of making a positive difference in the life of a child. God Bless!

My Top 5 iPad Apps for the Classroom Series: Explain Everything

Image Credit: http://www.morriscooke.com/

The use of iPads in schools has grown tremendously over the past few years. It seems like every week you hear of a new school or district starting a new to 1 to 1 iPad program. With that in mind, I thought it would be a helpful to share some of the insights I have gained since the launch of my school's 1 to 1 iPad program two years ago. One question that constantly comes up when discussing iPads in schools involves what apps are best for the classroom. With the endless number of apps available, this can be a very daunting question.

A key point that helps sort through this mess involves a focus on apps that allow creation. Oftentimes, teachers get bogged down with trying to find apps that support and deliver content; however, these apps seldom require much in the way of higher order thinking skills as they typically involve simple drill and practice tasks. Education Week has an excellent blog post from February 2013 that sums up this issue very nicely... All the Good Apps Fit on One Screen. As mentioned by the author, a focus on creation apps can be very liberating for a teacher as it eliminates the need to stay up-to-date with the endless number of content focused apps available. Additionally, creation apps possess much greater potential to positively impact learning and the development of 21st Century Skills such as creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking.

With all that being said, I have put together a list of the top 5 apps I would recommend for anyone using iPads in the classroom. The fifth and final app on my list is Explain Everything. Of the five apps on my list, Explain Everything is definitely my favorite. The developer of this app, MorrisCooke, describes it as a "unique interactive whiteboard and screencasting tool" but this is a rather humble description. If you are someone who is looking for a versatile tool for creating and editing multimedia presentations and screencasting videos, Explain Everything is the tool for you. The following are some of the key features that make Explain Everything a dynamite tool for the classroom:

• Capability to insert any type of file, video or image into a project
• Versatile drawing features that allows you to draw or annotate on anything within a project including video
• Easy to use video editing tools including the ability to redo specific portions of a recording (this is a unique feature that most screencasting apps for the iPad do not offer)
• Ability to zoom and pan to display as much or little that you need on the screen
• Integration with almost every major cloud storage service making it super easy to export and share projects

To learn more on how to use Explain Everything, check out the following tutorials I created for students new to the app at my school.

For what Explain Everything offers in terms of functionality, its $2.99 cost is an absolute steal. In my opinion, this is the most useful overall app on the iPad for both teachers and students and I highly recommend it. Purchasing Explain Everything will be the best $2.99 you ever spend for your iPad. You can purchase the app and read more info about it here: Explain Everything. 

If you missed Parts 1 through 4 of this series, you can view them at the following links: 

Notability

Pages

Keynote

iMovie 

Although the five apps I have shared in this series are certainly not the only great apps available for the iPad, they are ones that I have found to be particularly useful for the classroom. Please feel free to share any other apps that you have found to be especially good or simply share your own top 5 list. 

My Top 5 iPad Apps for the Classroom Series: iMovie

Image Credit: https://www.apple.com/ios/imovie/ 

The use of iPads in schools has grown tremendously over the past few years. It seems like every week you hear of a new school or district starting a new to 1 to 1 iPad program. With that in mind, I thought it would be a helpful to share some of the insights I have gained since the launch of my school's 1 to 1 iPad program two years ago. One question that constantly comes up when discussing iPads in schools involves what apps are best for the classroom. With the endless number of apps available, this can be a very daunting question.

A key point that helps sort through this mess involves a focus on apps that allow creation. Oftentimes, teachers get bogged down with trying to find apps that support and deliver content; however, these apps seldom require much in the way of higher order thinking skills as they typically involve simple drill and practice tasks. Education Week has an excellent blog post from February 2013 that sums up this issue very nicely... All the Good Apps Fit on One Screen. As mentioned by the author, a focus on creation apps can be very liberating for a teacher as it eliminates the need to stay up-to-date with the endless number of content focused apps available. Additionally, creation apps possess much greater potential to positively impact learning and the development of 21st Century Skills such as creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking.

With all that being said, I have put together a list of the top 5 apps I would recommend for anyone using iPads in the classroom. The fourth app on my list is the video production/editing app, iMovie, created by Apple. If you are looking for a simple but highly effective tool that you or your students can use for creating and editing movies on the iPad, iMovie is an outstanding option. One of the major advantages of the iPad for school, as opposed to a traditional laptop, is the ability to easily take pictures and record video. This makes an app such as iMovie highly important as it allows users to take any content stored on the camera roll and use it for producing more creative and professional looking videos. Below are some the most notable features that make iMovie an outstanding video creation/editing tool: 

• Simple and intuitive user interface 
• Extremely easy to insert existing pictures and video from camera roll into movie project
• New pictures, video and audio recordings can be captured and inserted directly into a movie project from within the app
• Includes a variety of built in themes and special effects that can be added to any movie
• Allows any song in your iTunes library to be inserted into a video 
• Offers a robust set of features for editing each audio and video clip within a movie project
• Easy upload options to YouTube and Vimeo
• Includes a movie trailer option that allows users to create Hollywood style movie previews (check out this great example from one of our 6th grade teachers)

*Video courtesy of @ShellRGrant

If you are completely new to iMovie, check out this tutorial I created for users unfamiliar with the app. In case you are wondering while watching the tutorial video, I am also an Olympic weightlifting coach which is why I used video footage of my athletes. Typically, I use iMovie on my iPad to create highlight videos of our team following major competitions so I can personally attest to iMovie's effectiveness for producing high quality videos. 

It is important to know that iMovie, along with every app in the iWork suite for iOS, is free with the purchase of a new iPad. If you are not eligible to download it for free, the normal cost is $4.99 but it is well worth it if you would like to have a quality video creation/editing app for your iPad. If you would like to download Keynote or view more detailed info on it, visit the following link: iMovie

If you are familiar with another video creation/editing app for the iPad that is comparable or even better than iMovie, feel to comment and share your recommendation. It is always helpful to know about the different options available. In the next post, we will review the final app in my top 5 list....Explain Everything.

If you missed Parts 1 through 3 of this series, you can view them at the following links: 

Notability
Pages
Keynote

Have a blessed week! 

My Top 5 iPad Apps for the Classroom Series: Keynote

Image Credit: https://www.apple.com/ios/keynote/ 

The use of iPads in schools has grown tremendously over the past few years. It seems like every week you hear of a new school or district starting a new to 1 to 1 iPad program. With that in mind, I thought it would be a helpful to share some of the insights I have gained since the launch of my school's 1 to 1 iPad program two years ago. One question that constantly comes up when discussing iPads in schools involves what apps are best for the classroom. With the endless number of apps available, this can be a very daunting question.

A key point that helps sort through this mess involves a focus on apps that allow creation. Oftentimes, teachers get bogged down with trying to find apps that support and deliver content; however, these apps seldom require much in the way of higher order thinking skills as they typically involve simple drill and practice tasks. Education Week has an excellent blog post from February 2013 that sums up this issue very nicely... All the Good Apps Fit on One Screen. As mentioned by the author, a focus on creation apps can be very liberating for a teacher as it eliminates the need to stay up-to-date with the endless number of content focused apps available. Additionally, creation apps possess much greater potential to positively impact learning and the development of 21st Century Skills such as creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking.

With all that being said, I have put together a list of the top 5 apps I would recommend for anyone using iPads in the classroom. The third app on my list is the presentation app, Keynote, created by Apple. Anyone who has used Keynote for the Mac knows it is a fantastic program for creating presentations and the iPad app is no exception. Like the other apps in the iWork suite for the iPad, Keynote is very easy and intuitive for users of all ages to navigate.  In my opinion, it offers the most robust set of features for creating and editing presentations on the iPad. Below are some of the key features to be aware of: 

• Simple and intuitive user interface
• Automatic iCloud back-up 
• Great selection of slide animations and transitions
• Built-in image enhancement capability
• Ability to insert professional charts and graphs 
• Helpful presentation tools including a highlighter which allows the presenter to highlight specific areas of a slide during a live presentation in addition to a laser pointer tool
• Variety of easy to use sharing options including AirDrop for iOS users
• Microsoft Office compatibility allows users to import PowerPoint presentations for further editing or export new presentations out as PowerPoint files
• Ability to collaborate with other users on the same presentation through shared iCloud links

If you have never used Keynote on the iPad before, check out this brief tutorial I created for students new to the app at our school. 

The best news of all is that Keynote, along with every app in the iWork suite, is free with the purchase of a new iPad. If you are not eligible to download it for free, the normal cost is $9.99 but it is well worth it if you would like to have a quality presentation app for your iPad. If you would like to download Keynote or view more detailed info on it, visit the following link: Keynote

If you are familiar with another presentation app for the iPad that is comparable or even better than Pages, feel to comment and share your recommendation. It is always helpful to know about the different options available. In the next post, we will review the next app in my top 5 list....iMovie.

If you missed Part 1 or 2 of this series, you can view them at the following links: 

Notability
Pages

Have a great week!