April 24, 2008

St. Agnes-St. Dominic Named Apple Distinguished School

St. Agnes Academy-St. Dominic School has been named an Apple Distinguished School, a designation that is reserved for schools that have implemented a 21st century vision of education using Apple technology, Only 18 schools throughout the United States received this prestigious honor for 2007-2008. Executives from Apple recently traveled to Memphis to present the School its award.

In 2002, St. Agnes-St. Dominic became the first K-12 school in the country to adopt 1:1 laptop technology on its campus. The selection of St. Agnes-St. Dominic as an Apple Distinguished School highlights its successes in enhancing and extending teaching and learning with thoughtful and innovative implementations of technology.

"This award represents the tremendous amount of work that our faculty and staff undertook six years ago when we embraced what we knew then about technology integration in the classroom," said Barbara Daush, President, St. Agnes Academy-St. Dominic School. " Our faculty has vigorously pursued a myriad of professional growth opportunities so they could be masters of their craft. I am thrilled for them and salute them for their teaching excellence as they modeled life-long learning for their students."

Guided by a desire to fully equip students with the tools they need to succeed in the future, the SAA-SDS made the decision for every student to have a laptop.

Building on the knowledge of how boys and girls learn differently, the faculty has embraced the integration of laptop technology into the curriculum. With a staff of three curriculum integration specialists who assist all teachers with the research and development of interactive units of study, the fabric of the classroom has begun to change. The classrooms have become more engaged, student-centered and collaborative. Teachers are more excited about teaching, and students are more exited about learning as they explore new areas of creativity.

As the School moves forward, its goal is to continue to weave technology into the fabric of campus life. A key component in achieving this goal is the new Research Center which is currently under construction. An anchor in this new facility is the Cybrary which will be devoted to integrating library and technology services for all students in PreK-12. The Research Center will also include a theater-style distance learning center as well as eight new classrooms, a tech center, a multi-media lab and a cyber café. The Research Center is scheduled to open in June of 2008.