We’re pleased to be recognized as an Apple Distinguished School for XXXX–XXXX for our <brief description of school’s unique implementation of Apple technology>.
Vision
Using a foundation of academic knowledge and global-mindedness each student will create a life of possibility andcontribute to a more peaceful and just society. Each year our 8th-grade class of 54 students participates in a global service learning trip to Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Florida and Chicago.
Learning
Through the IB Curriculum, students use Apple devices at all points of their learning. Students use our Apple technology to assist in their culminating Inquiry projects 6 times a year.
Success
Upon graduation, all students have the option to keep their device as they transition to high school. Twenty-five percent of students continue onto a selective enrollment or honors program at CPS.
What's Next
Students have individual needs which are supported by providing our students with iPad devices or MacBooks to assist their learning. 1:1 student to iPad or Macbook Air ratio.
Apple Products & Services
1:1 iPad devices for
Kinder through 3rd
Grade
1:1 laptops for 4th and
5th Grade
1:1 iPads with keyboards
for 6th - 8th Grade
Teachers are equipped
with a MacBook Air and
iPad
All classrooms include a
projector and Apple TV
Our vision for learning and technology starts outside the classroom. We recognize that students come to school with a wealth of knowledge, skills and experience. Our job is to integrate these skills and knowledge into their classroom learning, but also to fine-tune and enhance them. Our goal is to foster critical thinking and creative problem solving that prepare our students for 21st century learning. From early grades, students begin to understand that technology is a tool for learning and sharing ideas and information across the world. Through their transitions into each grade level, students build upon their skills and add new experiences to their portfolio. By the time they reach 8th grade, students are filming and editing videos, creating blogs, and picking their own elective projects.
We measure the success of our vision and technology program by analyzing the variety of ways in which students and teachers utilize technology and the products created. Our teachers are provided with the right tools and trained on how to use them. Sharing and scaffolding is a significant part of developing our school curriculum and we include technology standards in that planning. Each year, teachers build upon the skills the students learned in the previous year to help them advance, and new apps and tools are introduced and utilized. Many of our students and teachers credit our successful transition to remote and hybrid learning during the 2020-2022 school years to this scaffolded process. When students enter middle school, they begin a three-year Technology Design course, in which they learn valuable skills such as coding and digital design and are routinely assessed on their progress. By the time students reach the 8th grade, they have a wealth of skills and knowledge that they take with them into the many selective enrollment and honors programs they enter in high school. Over 25% of students are admitted into a selective enrollment, IB, or Honors Program at CPS, while others opt in to CTE programs. Our students have credited their perspectives on the world and their will to make changes, specifically compared to those of their classmates at new schools, to our program and the tools we have provided
At AGC, educators work hard to foster a balanced learning environment for their students. Our approach is hands-on and project based. In Kindergarten, students learn about weather patterns and look up weather simulations online, and then video chat with friends on the other side of the globe to get a chance to see weather patterns in real time. They are able to walk up to the laptop camera and ask their question directly to someone a thousand miles away. In 4th grade, students studying simple machines and electrical circuits used their classroom Macbooks to simulate circuits before taking components and programming a flashlight. In 7th grade, students take their storytelling narratives and program a public service announcement on their laptops to educate their peers on a topic of their choice. Our teachers also use many iPad apps to help keep track of student growth and to facilitate small group learning. Through Apple Classroom on the iPad, teachers assign individual books to students catered to their own reading level, assign projects for students looking for an extra push, and are capable of monitoring all devices being used in their classrooms at once.
With a new eco-friendly and net-positive energy campus being constructed, we envision that students will have an even more integral part in helping us achieve our learning as well as energy goals. Students currently lead projects that help measure the amount of waste we produce in the classroom and make recommendations on how to improve our recycling and composting programs. Students are currently measuring how much energy is needed to charge unused devices that are left on overnight and the impact this can have on energy consumption in the long-run. With Apple’s low-energy modes on laptops and iPad devices, this will help drive down the need for high energy usage in devices students use every day.