I wrote about learning about the Apple Teacher program here and it was on my list to get back to. So I had some time at my son’s swim meet this afternoon, and I was burned out on grading, and I needed something mindless to do, so I figured I’d try out some of the Apple Teacher Program Badge-Quizzes (if you remember, badges are what you earn on your way to becoming an Apple Teacher).

There are eight quizzes for Mac and eight for iPad and you can become ‘certified’ in both. The quizzes are each 5 questions long and you need to answer 4 of the 5 questions correctly to pass.

The badge-categories are Mac / iPad, Pages, Keynote, Numbers, iMovie, Garage Band, Productivity, and Creativity. Pass all eight in either category and you are a Certified Apple Teacher (note that this is very different from being an Apple Distinguished Educator, which is a much more elaborate and difficult process).

Going into this, I was assuming that the process would be akin to becoming a Google Certified Educator, which I completed I think two years ago (but I also think has since lapsed, as it does expire). I was thus surprised by how few questions were on each quiz and, to some extent, how easy they were (much easier overall than the Google assessments). That’s not to say that you didn’t have to know your (Apple) stuff, but you didn’t have to know it inside and out. The combination of the low number of questions and the way the questions were written (many questions included contextual clues that helped with the answers and some of the questions were either the same for both Mac and iPad or covered the same material in different ways) made it a pretty easy process. I was a ‘certified’ Apple (Mac) Teacher within maybe a half hour.

My wife of course was hoping this would mean some massive pay raise or bonus but, alas, no such luck. You get a downloadable signature (along with a 15 page document on when, where, and how you can and can’t use that signature) and that’s about it.

But if you’re looking for some affirmation at the extent of your Apple knowledge and have some (but not a ton) of time on your hands, check out the Apple Teacher Program and enjoy (in limited ways) your new signature (visible at upper right).