From July 8-11, 2024 I had the great pleasure of joining with other Apple Distinguished Educators in Montebello, QC for the Canadian ADE Academy 2024.
Being an ADE2023 I had not had the chance to meet many of my Canadian colleagues until this time aside from virtual gatherings, so what I was most excited about was the intention of the academy to “create a space for ADEs to connect and create a sense of community”. And this I did indeed!
I was pleased to be invited to both open and close the Academy in the tradition of my people the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) on whose lands, shared with the Algonquin, the conference was held. This is always a special moment for me as it gives me the chance to honour the past, present, and future of Indigenous people in education and the unique contributions we have and can make when we are included in the conversations. This also opened the door for me to have a number of courageous conversations with other ADEs where honesty and humility enabled some truly wonderful growth and new partnerships on projects that I’m sure you’ll see posted here once we have something more concrete to present. In the meantime, I invite you to check out some of the amazing work being done at our school as posted by myself, @jennifermw, and @jessicamc.
I was further honoured to be a part of a panel discussion with Petra Willemse (@PetraW), Cyprien Lomas (@cyprien), and Chad Mowbray on our experiences of being an Apple Educator leading communities of change. All three of these individuals are incredibly inspirational and I highly recommend reaching out to them if you have questions about creating and inspiring others in their journey.
I also chose to attend three separate workshops:
Leading a Culture of Innovation led by Rob Policicchio and Brad Carter where we discussed what conditions leaders need to create to inspire and support educational change. I appreciated the thoughtfully crafted well supported prompts as well as the opportunity to have real conversations about actual steps that could be taken to encourage the development of cultures of innovation in education.
Becoming the Architect: The Art of Crafting Stories of Impact where I sat with Chad Mowbray and learned how to tell stories through the art of photography. He has many great tips and tricks that he is more than happy to share along with a great step by step guide for “Turning Snapshots into Hero Shots”.
Les arts & la réalité augmentée: la coexistence du réel et de l’illusion - ART POSTAL ÉCOLO led by Andrée-Caroline Boucher (@AC_Boucher_Phd). At this session we learned how to combine multimedia hands on art and collage with AR (Augmented Reality) using apps such as Halo AR and Motionleap to create interactive digital postcards. The potential I see for this in classrooms is endless! I have included a photo of my collage bird as well as one of the interactive files we created, but you should check out her resources for this activity to see more detail: https://education.apple.com/resource/250013012
I also learned more about Astrophotography with Andre Kapitan (@AKcessibility) and Paul Yip, an optional session that was so neat to learn. And all you needed was a tripod and your iPhone. @Dr_Pat has done an excellent write up with more detail here: https://education.apple.com/resource/250013017
And all of this was just the tip of the wonderful experience that was ADE Academy 2024. Add in so many new friendships and meaningful conversations and this was a truly fantastic experience that I feel privileged to have been a part of. The Apple Education community is one of support and inspiration and I look forward to being a part of it for years to come!
Kaleena
Attach up to 5 files which will be available for other members to download.