Looking for "Compelling Evidence of Success"

As I recently described here last week, several of us at Mercy High have set about the business of updating iMercy, a book available through iTunes that describes the technology program at Mercy. 

A special committee of six* is handling a section of the book called "Compelling Evidence of Success".  In 2013 we comprehensively surveyed ninth graders and staff about their use of technology. These surveys were based on the ISTE Standards. 

We intend to revisit these populations two years lated and give them the identical surveys. It will be really interesting to see how attitudes and practices have changed.  We will also will survey our current ninth graders.  It will be interesting to see how their experiences and impressions might differ from the ninth graders of two years ago.

We will express most of the results through charts and multimedia.

page 19 of iMercy

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Committee Members include Larry Baker, Christopher Blitz, Alison Kline-Kator. Dr. Cheryl Kreger, Ann Lusch, Cindy Richter.

iWizards = Leadership

Katie, center; Principal Carolyn Witte, right

It was my pleasure introduce Katie Birecki for her 2015 Optimist Leadership Award in Farmington, MI. Each of the four local high schools had one 11th grade recipient. Katie is a charter member of the Mercy iWizards, a group which was formed when Mercy adopted the iPad for all freshmen in 2012.  Consequently I had the benefit of  observing Katie in authentic leadership roles her entire time at Mercy High School. Here is a shortened version of what I said about her:

During her ninth grade she helped plan and execute a three hour iPad orientation for our new students.  She was vitally involved in this project and took and even higher profile last year when, again, we planned the new student orientation.  Last year, after we were named an Apple Distinguished School, we were visited by many school leaders and members of the media.  Invariably I asked Katie to participate in these sessions as an iWizard representative. . . . She was a team leader for our iCreate workshop for Middle School students. 

Recently she and I were among five co-editors who published a collection to iTunes called iPad Tips and Tricks by MHS iWizards. If you visit http://tinyurl.com/mcmcard you will see her picture gracing the cover.  Furthermore, she was one of three iWizards who accompanied me to Cobo Center to deliver a break-out session about iWizards at MACUL, the state’s largest educational technology conference. 

Katie is intelligent, sincere and utterly responsible.  She is incredibly generous with her time and sets the very best example for other students when she serves as an iWizard leader. She is entirely deserving of this award from the Optimists.

Students Teaching Students iPad Technology at the MHS iCreate Workshop

Art Rage/ Animator HD Group in Foreground / Photo by M. Weiss

The MHS iWizards conducted a free* iCreate Workshop for seventh and eighth graders on Saturday, January 17.  The iWizards consist of 9th-11th grade students who share an enthusiasm for the iPad.  Through a collaboration with the MHS Art Department**, they designed two one-hour sessions for the participants:

1) Students took photos, and became acquainted with how to employ some of Photogene's many editing effects. They then dropped them into iMovie, learning how to quickly add sound and add features.

2) Students created drawings with ArtRage. They then they discovered how to animate the sketches with Animation Creator HD.

Both groups experienced using AirDrop* and enjoyed each other's productions on LED projectors via Apple TVs.

The sessions were entirely taught by the iWizards who turned out in force in order to give lots of 1:1 help to our guests.  The iWizards created their curriculum through several weeks of before-school meetings.  The following sequence of extremely short videos outlines a portion of the animation group's instruction.

The session began with an iWizard demonstration of what could be achieved with ArtRage/Animation Creator HD

After the projects were completed the iWizards worked hard to collect the files through AirDrop and then mirror them onto the projector.

The Animation group gave a Mercy souvenir to projects that stood out. Below I have videoed one winner's creation.  Pretty impressive considering the kids only had an hour to learn two apps and create their masterpieces!

This final brief video shows photographs from the day's fun.

Photos by L. Baker and M. Weiss

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*Mr. James and Mr. Bank from Mercy I.T. set up 20 loaner iPads for girls who did not bring their own. They also created a special wifi for our guests and prepped the projectors (with Ms. Corte's assistance).

**Thank you, Ms. Smith, Ms. Rife, Mr. Poris (Art teachers) and Maureen Weiss, Jen Stark (Admissions) for all of your help.

August Tech Activities at MHS

At Mercy, tech serves instruction.  But for everyone to be able to leverage extraordinary tools like the iPad and Schoology, some "summer school" is necessary.  For the past two weeks we have been busy serving our teachers and new students with some tech support before school officially begins.

For ten consecutive days. Tom James (Director of I.T.) and Mr. Gary Bank (Systems Administrator)  deployed iPads to new students through an hour's set-up session where students . . . . 1) set-up their iPads   2) established passwords for the iPads and our computer labs  3) set-up Google Accounts and mail app  4) created their Apple I.D.s  5) installed their apps  6) signed into Schoology

New students become acquainted with their iPad Airs.

Schoology is the new learning management system for Mercy.  Most of our assignments and resources are pushed to the students online through this system.  Since it is new, many teachers dropped in for work sessions on Schoology and 1:1 help offered by colleagues  Angela Harris, Eleasha Tarplin, Lauren Marquard, Joe Gerardi, Larry Baker, Tom James, Lisa Robinet, Susan Smith, Alison Kline-Kator, and Jan Wampuszyc.

Several iWizards assisted with the iPad deployment, but twenty-five of them will be leading the two and a half hour iPad orientation on Friday, August 15. The sessions will include....

Schoology / Dropbox

Pages / Printing

iAnnotate PDF

iMovie + Keynote

Digital Citizenship (done by Ms. Brown, guidance counselor) 

The iWizards chose the topics, designed the instruction, and created the materials for this session.  They are eager for Friday to come!

All of these activities exhibit the generosity of spirit one finds each day at Mercy High.

Three helpful iWizards wait in the wings at iPad deployment.