Technology. It’s everywhere. It’s in homes, schools, at jobs, in cars. It’s become an integral part of the daily life.

Many educators of Hershey High School are becoming Apple Teachers, so the school may soon be considered an Apple Distinguished School.

Principal Jeffrey Smith and Assistant Principal Laurie Wade said Apple Products in the high school are to be used as a resource for teachers to provide innovative, flexible, and personal instruction so that students can be innovative and creative in their work.

Throughout the duration of the 2018-2019 school year, many students took notice that an abundance of teachers were asking them to use Apple applications such as Pages for certain projects or assignments.

Since the app Pages specifically is not very popular among the student body, the implementation of the app in the curriculum raised questions. “This is not about using Numbers instead of Excel,” said Wade, “It’s not.”

Smith and Wade said that to them, the purpose of using Apple products and Apple applications is solely for the advancement of the students’ learning, and it is not for financial or personal gain.

“I’m not aware of any discount,” said Smith, “It’s simply best practice to integrate what’s available technologically into our classrooms so that students will be better prepared in the 21st century. “

Both Wade and Smith intend to provide students with the best instruction possible by using the electronic resources available to the high school.

According to Wade, “The point of attaining the Apple Distinguished School certification in my view is that just like our students are committed to doing excellent work, we have an obligation to demonstrate that we are excellent at using the resources that the community and school board has provided to us to deliver instruction.”

Lindsey Nester, an English teacher at Hershey High School, became a certified Apple teacher during the 2018-2019 school year, and she also sees the importance of students learning the skills necessary to use their technology for their academic gain.

“I do think it is very important for students and teachers to understand how they can use those resources and tools,” said Nester.

Wade does not recall the meeting in which the school chose Apple products for Hershey schools initially. She thinks any company could have been sufficient for the students’ education, but she appreciates that Apple’s intentions align with hers and the rest of the faculty.

“One of the things that I like about Apple,” said Wade, “is that their focus is also on innovation and creativity.”

To get to the point in which Hershey High School is considered an Apple Distinguished School, there are some steps that have to be completed, such as all the teachers becoming certified Apple teachers.

Other requirements include all of the faculty in Hershey being proficient at using the iPad or the Mac, all students using an Apple device as the primary learning device, and teachers and students alike using the technology in an innovative manner.

Smith and Wade believe that Hershey High School is certainly capable of becoming an Apple Distinguished School in the near future. According to Smith,  “Apple makes the final decision, but I think we’re pretty confident that we’ve done enough that we will be qualified and meet the criteria to be considered an Apple Distinguished School.”

Smith recognized the uniqueness of the quality of Hershey High School’s educational program, and he hopes that being an Apple Distinguished School will add to that quality.

We have a lot of teachers doing amazing work in their classrooms each and everyday,” said Smith, “So this is a way to recognize what they do and be able to tell some of the instructional story. That doesn’t often happen at high schools or at schools in general.”