This past summer, my colleague and I attended the Apple Distinguished Educator Global Institute. ADE’s from all over the world congregated in the gorgeous city of Austin to dream, connect, and create. The ADE team pushed our thinking on what can be and challenge us to create something with the newly redesigned iWork suite and iPad–a video, a book, a lesson plan–with the purpose of championing creativity. We played with a plethora of ideas, but it wasn’t until we were back home in our familiar learning environment that one of those idea seeds took root. We wrote a book about creativity in the garden, inspired by our amazing EPiC learners (and teachers!) who harvest organic vegetables from our many raised beds, maintain our butterfly garden filled with perennials, and plant colorful annuals each spring to make EPiC beautiful. We believe walls should never define a learning environment. With the world as our classroom, Apple technologies connect us to people, places, and ideas, transforming teaching and learning. Our book is organized into several garden-based learning investigations designed for upper elementary learners. Each investigation is designed around general content standards utilizing the Apple Pencil and Apple tools on the iPad.

Leave a Reply