Central to Proctor’s mission and Profile of a Proctor Graduate is the belief that collaboration sits at the core of all we do. Knowing how to work alongside peers, to share expertise, to work toward a common goal, these skills will serve our students well beyond their high school years.
It is a refrain from a song written by my brother, Trent Wagler, and performed by his band The Steel Wheels. The song, based on stories from our grandfather, presents the challenges faced by a young person growing up in the Amish church. The Amish, famous for their buggies, bonnets, baking and furniture are a sect of anabaptists who broke off from the Mennonites in the late 17th century.
I was in Maine this week, in Freeport, for an appointment to see an old friend. We’d set up the meeting a couple of weeks ago. She was someone who I had worked with years ago, in the late 90s at LL Bean, and today is the Chief Human Resources Officer at the company. She is someone wise with a quick wit, ready to laugh or share a world of experience. I see her as a friend even though we hadn’t seen each other in over 15 years. No Facebook connections, no instagram feed.
Most of us go to the technology help desk because we dropped a phone, cracked a screen, forgot a password, or need help with an update. We need something. We go to the tech office humble and looking for help, and when we get to the first floor of the Fowler Learning Center, Anna, Jim, Spencer, Susan, or Seth wait with their store of infinite patient, deep knowledge, and good cheer. Those five manage and work with constant change, continual upgrades, and the persistent (and silly) “user error;” they live professional development. At Proctor, the repair space of grounded work stations, microscopes, and tiny tools is noteworthy and impressive, but the people are awe-inspiring: Anna, I am convinced, can field strip an iPhone (any model) and reassemble it in under ten minutes.
Members of Proctor’s AP Environmental Science, Engineering, Physics, and Entrepreneurship classes joined together for a celebration of innovation at Proctor Tuesday evening. More than a dozen student groups presented their research, business plans, solar oven constructions, and rocket designs to the community in the Wise Center and English classrooms of Maxwell Savage Hall. The evening’s presentations were a powerful reminder of the quality and depth of the project based learning taking place in Proctor’s classrooms.
Proctor's Technology Integration Specialist interviewed veteran science teacher Sue Houston as a case study in technology integration at Proctor. Adam shared his interview for his blog's podcast in this post. Listen to the full podcast HERE!
Proctor's Technology Integration Specialist, Adam Jones, shares the following excerpts from his blog on EdTech at Proctor after a recent professional development opportunity:
As a school that pioneered a 1:1 laptop program in 2001 and initiated a 1:1 iPad program last year, technology is certainly not new to Proctor's classrooms, nor is it going to leave our classrooms anytime soon. Central to our technology integration strategy is utilizing technology as “A” problem solving tool, not “THE” problem solving tool.
