Hall-Dale High School Awarded Apple Distinguished School 2009-2010
At the school assembly today February 12, 2010 Apple’s Tara Maker and Doug Snow awarded Hall-Dale High School the Apple Distinguished School award. Hall-Dale High School is very proud to accept the award as it has worked very hard to integrate technology and 21st century skills into the curriculum. This commitment has included a 1:1 laptop program and dedicated technology integration staff (thanks Mrs. Leimbach!) to support staff and classroom curriculum development.
Doug Snow and Tara Maker display the banner that will hang in the halls at Hall-Dale High School.
Apple Distinguished Schools are schools that have ubiquitously integrated Apple products and solutions and have become centers of educational excellence and leadership.
Schools nominated by Apple for designation as an Apple Distinguished School must demonstrate Apple’s highest vision of a successful 21st century learning environment, a strong relationship with Apple, and a willingness to do outreach activities. The specific manifestations of these qualities include:
Hall-Dale High School demonstrates “best practice” qualities of 21st century learning environment:
- Visionary leadership;
- An infrastructure (IT) that supports a learning workflow of “create-distribute-access-collaborate;”
- Engaging teaching and learning methods that capitalize on the qualities of today’s students who are mobile, collaborative and creative;
- One-to-one access to portable computers and/or mobile access devices (iPod) for all teachers and students;
- Evidence of ongoing professional development;
- A systematic approach and ongoing process for evaluation and assessment of results for education improvement and sustainability.
For 2009-10, 53 only schools across the United States were selected as Apple Distinguished Schools, so this is quite an honor.
Congratulations to our administration and staff!
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Hall-Dale received a grant to participate in the the SciTec project’s solar building challenge. The terms of the challenge called for students to design and build a 4 foot by 8 foot structure that could be transported to the Capitol Area Technical Center. A maximum budget of $500 was allowed. Entries were sealed for 24 hours and left in the sun. They were then monitored and judged based on two criteria - Solar Gain (how much the temperature increased during the day) and Heat Retention - (how little the temperature dropped during the night). Hall-Dale’s entry was designed primarily for Solar Gain, which category it won easily, reaching a temperature of 254 Degrees F - a gain of nearly 200 degrees and hot enough to boil water. The challenge was undertaken by the Period H Physics First class and spearheaded by 9th grader Samantha Lewis.
