Second Baptist School

APPLE DISTINGUISHED SCHOOL APPLICATION

APPLE DISTINGUISHED SCHOOL APPLICATION

Second Baptist School

LocationHouston, Texas

IntroductionThe mission of Second Baptist School is to train students in areas of knowledge that will allow them to understand clearly, to think deeply, to judge wisely, and to have the courage to live their lives on the great principles and convictions of biblical truth as they engage an innovative and digitally-based global community.

VISIONARY LEADERSHIP

1. Shared Leadership—School leaders take collective ownership of the initiative.

2. Individual Leadership—A credible and inspirational thought leader sets and articulates the vision.

3. Community Engagement—Broad community sponsorship supports the institution’s initiatives.

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Visionary LeadershipShared Leadership

In fall 2009, Second Baptist School formed a technology committee to implement a 1:1 laptop program. After extensive research, the committee decided the Apple MacBook best fit the school’s mission to train students to engage an increasingly digitally based global society. In spring 2010, 172 faculty and staff members received iMacs and MacBooks.

In August 2011, every student in grades 5-12 received a MacBook for year-round use in the classroom and at home, and each Early Childhood Program - Grade 4 classroom received iPads for project collaboration, centers and reading comprehension activities. Lower School was also given a mobile laptop cart and a MacBook lab. In fall 2012, every fourth-grader received an iPad and many classrooms throughout the school received Apple TVs. To enhance their curriculum with these tools, teachers attended summer technology trainings.

Innovative classroom integration is discussed in weekly administrative meetings, weekly academic team meetings, and with each Head of School. Also, a technology integration specialist for each school level works with teachers on implementation.

Second Baptist School is also an authorized Apple Service Center with certified technicians, Chris Yam and Blake Skidmore, available to students daily.  

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In November and December 2012, all laptops will be updated to the MacBook Air. This upgrade will provide our school with the best technology tools for engaging students.

Individual Leadership

Within months of his becoming Head of School, Dr. Jeff D. Williams took action to ensure that Second Baptist School was on the cutting edge of integrating technology into education. He envisioned that the school would move toward preparing students to engage in a society where technology is not simply a reference but a daily use tool.

Dr. Williams initiated the formation of the Technology Department in 2009 by hiring Second Baptist School graduates Mr. Blake Skidmore ’03 and Ms. Hannah Noble ’03.  They joined Chris Yam, Technology Support Manager.  The creation of a wireless campus began and with the implementation of the 1:1 program, students and teachers at every level now have immediate access to the best technology.

Community Engagement

Since the inception of the technology initiative, the Second Baptist School community has rallied around the vision of training our students to think innovatively using 21st century skills. The changes have led to increased student engagement, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking skills.

The success of the technology initiative relies on cooperation between students, parents and the school. When the Advancement, Communications and Technology Departments partnered together for the unveiling of the faculty laptops, teachers were excited to implement

new ideas for greater student engagement. Throughout the year, the Technology Team communicates with parents and students through parent workshops and education about laptop use, safe Internet practices and use of our WhippleHill Communications student information system. The Technology and Communications Departments worked together to publish two publications for faculty, parents and students explaining the 1:1 program. In addition, SBS has hosted several area schools as they observe our implementation of the 1:1 program.

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Fourth Grade using iPads for researching quick facts about topics they cover throughout the year.

Community Engagement

INNOVATIVE LEARNING AND TEACHING

1. Student Learning—Learning is a personal experience for every student.

2. Instructional Practices—Faculty are master learners who expertly guide their students through difficult and complex tasks.

3. Curriculum Design—Innovative and rigorous curriculum is designed to leverage technology.

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Innovative Learning and Teaching

Student Learning

Through daily technology use, Second Baptist School students have increasing opportunities for individualized learning. Even Pre-Kindergarten students use iPad apps like Letter of the Day to gain stronger understanding of the curriculum.

Also in Lower School, students use technology to showcase knowledge; first graders created ePubs to share collaborative writing projects and third graders used Google presentations to show understanding of the solar system. With iPads, fourth graders use Popplet to create webs in history, DrawApp to diagram sentences and complete math problems, Explain Everything to show thinking in math, and Wolfram Alpha for vocabulary development.

Middle School teachers regularly challenge students to go beyond basic comprehension and exhibit synthesis and evaluation through technology. For example, sixth grade Global Studies students created iMovies taking a position for or against globalization. Also, eighth grade students used Excel/Numbers for a personal budget project. Across the curriculum, Middle School

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A middle school student shows an Administrator what she has been creating.

students use technology for testing, presentations, publication and skills practice.

Through technology, Upper School students are on the cutting edge of education. Teachers are moving beyond the traditional classroom to train students to utilize 21st century skills and think deeply about curriculum concepts. In physics, motion and force sensors connect to computers for data collection and analysis. In foreign language, students use Rosetta Stone to practice both in class and at home. In Hebrew, the Airplay app and Apple TV allow students to interact with the Hebrew text. In Advanced Programming, students choose a programming language and then build their own curriculum under the guidance of the Director of Technology. These students make and meet their own goals as in a business environment.

Also in Upper School are two iOS programming courses during which students create iPhone and iPad Applications. A recent graduate’s app has been published in the App Store and he received other job opportunities based on this schoolwork.

Instructional Practices

Apple TVs, Interactive Whiteboards, Mimio and SMART products assist teachers in modeling best practices. In the classroom, teachers use Mimio clickers to ask questions or to review and take tests. Math and English teachers use SMART Slates to model problem-solving and grammar. Also, every classroom has a projector for interactive instruction. Outside class, teachers use the School’s website to post links, assignments and documents. Students are also required to turn in projects and papers via the website’s dropbox.

With these tools, teachers provide their students with technology-enhanced lessons that are current and purposeful. Every teacher has the opportunity and resources available to use technology effectively in the classroom.

Curriculum Design

Second Baptist School is continually seeking to integrate technology into the classroom in practical, effective ways. Technology Integration Specialists regularly meet with school-level curriculum administrators and classroom teachers to shape the technology scope and sequence at each grade level. Many Middle and Upper School textbooks are available online, and with the use of Google Drive and Rosetta Stone, students can access their work virtually anywhere. Teachers also share their ideas via Google Drive and more easily plan team meetings through Google Calendar.

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iOS Programming presentation.

ONGOING PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

1. Relevant and Timely Professional Development—Faculty engage in a cycle of inquiry that promotes reflection, experimentation, and sharing.

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Ongoing Professional Learning

Relevant and Timely Professional Development

Since 2009, technology has become deeply ingrained into the culture of Second Baptist School: teachers are constantly challenged to think of creative ways to integrate the newest tools and students are interacting with the curriculum like never before. In order to continually equip and support our faculty, the SBS Technology Team actively stays on top of the most current pedagogical practices and invests time year-round in helping the teachers implement new and innovative ways to incorporate technology into the classroom.

As Second Baptist School began its 1:1 program, Director of Technology Blake Skidmore and Instructional Technology Coordinator Hannah Noble attended the Florida Education Technology Conference and the Apple Education Seminar to learn how to most effectively implement the new technology initiative. Among other things, our Technology Team continues to participate in online webinars and most recently attended the 2012 International Society for Technology in Education Conference where they took workshops about digital storytelling, animation and multimedia. Also, Ms. Noble and Lower School Integration Technology Specialist

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Apple “Out of the Box” event for teachers.

Melissa Herring attended the five-day TCEA 2012 Conference in Austin, which provided extensive learning opportunities to support the 1:1 iPad program and use of classroom interactive whiteboards. They also made connections with other Texas schools so as to further collaborate and share best practices.

At the TCEA 2013 Conference, our own Melissa Herring will be speaking about publishing iBooks. Ms. Herring has written two iBooks on the subject of 1:1 iPad programs, one of which is being used as required reading at the University of Wisconsin. Both iBooks have been in the top 20 free education downloads for the past six months. Ms. Herring is currently working on her third iBook, getting published using ePubs and iBooks Author, which will be available in winter of 2012.

Melissa Herring also collaborated with intern Nick Madole on an app called KWHL, which provides a graphic organizer for students. KWHL stands for: “K” What I know, “W” What I want to know, “H” How I will find out, “L” What I’ve learned. The app is available for free in iTunes.

From their expertise, the Technology Team energizes the SBS faculty to use technology innovatively and effectively in the classroom. In fall 2010, the Technology Team hosted a Tech Talent show. All teachers partnered up to exhibit tech tools to their colleagues. Prizes such as iPod shuffles, mini speakers and iTunes gift cards were given for the best presentations. In May 2011, teachers participated in a 2-day Apple Professional

Development during which they learned how to design technology infused lessons and gained ideas for engaging students with digital tools. During the summers, faculty are encouraged to connect with Technology Integration Specialists to help design curriculum.

In June 2012, the administration underwent a Technology Boot Camp. The administration met with the Technology Team to ensure that each administrator is familiar with all of the technological tools the School has to offer and to review and assess the vision and expectation for each level.

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COMPELLING EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS

1. Quantitative—Data is routinely collected and analyzed to inform progress and success.

2. Qualitative—Narrative, reflective, or anecdotal evidence is collected and shared.

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Compelling Evidence of Success

Quantitative

With the addition of 220 iPads, 1,000 MacBooks, and 40 iMacs to the Second Baptist School campus, the School has seen tremendous improvement not only in curriculum creativity, but also in our students’ academic momentum. In the Lower School, 2012 was a record-setting year for our Accelerated Reader program. Forty-two of our Lower School students read over one million words in their AR books and scored high on their book quizzes. Additionally, 10 of our students were named multimillionaires as they each read over two million words, and the top millionaire this year read a record-setting six million words. With the addition of iPads to the Lower School classroom, students are able to access a variety of nonfiction text through websites such as National Geographic Kids and GoGo News. This digital text has renewed excitement about reading, and even our youngest readers are excelling; two of our AR millionaires were first graders.

In 2012, the Upper School piloted ERB standardized testing online. Due to its great success, Lower and Middle School will be implementing online standardized testing in the spring of 2013. In addition, ACT and SAT test scores for Second Baptist students were 20 percent higher than the national scores for 2012.

One hundred percent of Second Baptist graduates pursue an undergraduate degree at a four-year institution. The success

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of the 1:1 program provides them the ability to engage in a digitally based global community.

Qualitative

“The ability to use technology has vastly changed the quality of my students’ learning. Instead of being limited to what students can do, they are instead able to be fully creative and imaginative. This is especially true when using iPads to record

silent films and when using Keynote for a Latin project. In my classroom, we’re now able to do robotics, and students program their robots with the use of laptops. Without those, the project would be mediocre-now it is great!”

-Lana Kates- Lower School Enrichment Class

“The MacBook has revolutionized the way I teach. Anything I do that involves the computer instantly becomes more interesting to this digital generation. I can make a video of my screen showing the students exactly what I want from them, or take a poll to get an instant snapshot of how well they understand information. This technology also enables me to combine playing and learning seamlessly. Most importantly, the MacBooks have allowed my students to be continuous learners and constant researchers, which creates a climate of innovation and academic growth.”

-Loren Hopf- Fifth Grade English

“Technology has greatly changed the dynamic in my classroom. I can engage students in the same manner they choose to engage themselves during free time. By watching videos, listening to songs, or reading articles from a website, the classroom

is no longer static, but has become a multidimensional dynamic environment where ideas can be formulated, exchanged, engaged, embraced, rejected and re-formulated.”

-Brandon Alred – US Teacher (Hebrew and Bible)

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FLEXIBLE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

1. School Design and Facilities—Facilities and schedules are designed to maximize learning opportunities that technology provides.

2. Information Technology (IT)—IT infrastructure supports innovation in teaching and learning.

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Flexible Learning Environment

School Design and Facilities

At Second Baptist, three schools are spread across a 42-acre campus. Because of the size of the campus and the fact that the school shares buildings with Second Baptist Church, we had many unique challenges to overcome when building a WiFi infrastructure over the campus. Over the course of 2010, however, we implemented a wireless campus; with the help of Xirrus devices, we were able to do this quickly and avoid many problems that other schools have come across when managing a new infrastructure.

In 2012, we restructured our schedule to maximize learning. Under our new bin schedule, Upper and Middle School student schedules vary from day to day and Upper School students have open bins during which they spend the period in the library or in any of the School’s study lounge areas. Especially during these open bins, students are rarely without their laptops, accessing teacher websites or online textbooks. With a combination of the new schedule and the 1:1 program, students are learning self-direction and time management skills.

SBS also employs the Harkness method, a pedagogy that demands students to think critically and take ownership of ideas. Between wireless technology, bin scheduling and the

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Harkness method, Second Baptist School is preparing students to enter the ever-evolving digital workforce, which will require creative, self-motivated, digitally literate people.

Information Technology (IT)

As we adopted Apple laptops, we also switched over to 2 Xserves and MacPro servers to utilize the Apple Wikis and Blogs. The infrastructure was designed to maximize efficiency for speed and low energy cost. With the addition of wireless internet and connectivity, teachers have been able to easily and seamlessly integrate technology into the curriculum.  The upgrade in 2009 to gigabit speed and a 10-gigabit backbone has helped speed up internal networking and our storage.  We use DROBO for redundancy and have a video server for file storage as well as a backup for teachers to sync their files locally on our servers.  For dealing with any issues, we use tools such as the CASPER suite from JAMF and WebHelpDesk, which also help us to manage the school’s computers remotely and provide the faculty and staff with the most efficient means of help.  Utilizing several cloud-based apps from iCloud, Google Drive, WhippleHill and other web 2.0 tools has helped keep our data redundancy high as well as secure. The cloud-based apps have expanded the walls of the classroom so that it is accessible anywhere, anytime.

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Contribution and CreditsThe school liaison and the following people are willing and able to address these areas.

1. Visionary Leadership

Dr. Jeff D. WilliamsHead of SchoolEmail: jwilliams@secondbaptistschool.org

2. Innovative Learning and Teaching

Ms. Hannah NobleInstructional Technology CoordinatorEmail: hnoble@secondbaptistschool.org

3. Relevant and Timely Professional Development

Mrs. Melissa HerringLower School Integration Technology SpecialistMaster Technology TeacherEmail: mherring@secondbaptistschool.org

4. Compelling Evidence of Success

Mr. Javier SaavedraMiddle School Math TeacherEmail: jsaavedra@secondbaptistschool.org

5. Flexible Learning Environment

Mrs. Beverly BradleyFirst Grade TeacherEmail: bbradley@secondbaptistschool.org

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The administration and a majority of the faculty possess the ability and are willing to articulate how they use Apple products in alignment with the five best practices as it applies to our school’s technology implementation program.

CONTRIBUTION AND CREDITS

1. List of people willing to address 5 areas of best practices.

School Liaison

Mr. Blake SkidmoreDirector of TechnologyEmail:bskidmore@secondbaptistschool.org