Apple TV Morning Announcements

One thing I have found quite happy with the installation of the Apple TV in the classroom, is using a photo stream to project morning announcements. One of our technology directors informed me a principal in our district was using this method to deliver her announcements in the hallway. I had honestly never experimented with photo streams to much, but thought I would give it a go. Well... I absolutely love it and so do my students.

I have started a photo stream for each day of the week. Most of my announcements stay the same, just the morning tasks may change. In that case, a new picture is added when needed. Here is how I do it....

1. Use Keynote or another presentation program to create as many slides as you would need for your announcements. Mine are pretty basic.... one welcome slide, one morning routine slide, one morning work direction slide.

2. Then, export the slides as images and save them into iPhoto.

3. Create the album and give it a name...example: Tuesday Announcements

4. Share it with your photo stream and you are ready to go on the Apple TV as long as your iCloud account is connected and shared between the devices.

I just love the themes that you can pick for the steam and most of all, my students love listening to music. It has really engaged them and made our mornings more productive!