By Cristina Cabrera Jarro -
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
Using their iPads in class, students from St. Brendan High School raise their hands to answer questions during a lesson. St. Brendan High was named an Apple Distinguished School in August 2024 for their innovation, leadership and educational excellence. They join five other Archdiocese of Miami Catholic Schools that hold the distinction.
MIAMI| When Maria Victoria Chacon began teaching anatomy and AP Biology at St. Brendan High School in Miami, the main classroom lesson sharing tools were an overhead projector and a chalkboard. It was the late 1990s, and accessibility to computers and the internet were just starting to become mainstream.
“Back then, it was Y2K [2000], and we didn’t know what was going to happen with technology,” Chacon said.
As a kid, she remembers watching the futuristic cartoon “The Jetsons” and dreaming about advanced technology that included flying cars, robots, smart watches, holograms, phones with videochat capabilities, and more.
“We thought of it as so far ahead in the future, but it wasn’t. It was right around the corner,” Chacon said.
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
St. Brendan High students high-five as they work together on a class assignment with the aid of their iPads. St. Brendan High was named an Apple Distinguished School in August 2024 for their innovation, leadership and educational excellence. They join five other Archdiocese of Miami Catholic Schools that hold the distinction.
Twelve years after the fear of computers and the internet crashing, technology had taken a significant step forward. It was 2012, and Chacon was part of a pilot group of teachers at St. Brendan teaching with an Apple iPad in the classroom.
“As an educator, you want to know what’s right around the corner so that you’re ready for it, so that you’re not behind, or your students are not behind, or your fellow teachers are not behind. You want to be ahead, and forge ahead, and be prepared,” she said.
Fast forward another 12 years, and through much growth, investing, and collaboration as a community, St. Brendan High School earned the honor of becoming an Apple Distinguished School. St. Brendan announced the recognition August 28, 2024. It joins five other schools in the Archdiocese of Miami that have received the Apple recognition for innovation, leadership and educational excellence, including St. Anthony Parish School in Fort Lauderdale, St. Mark the Evangelist Parish School in Southwest Ranches, Cardinal Gibbons High School in Fort Lauderdale, Immaculata La-Salle High in Miami, and Archbishop Edward McCarthy High in Southwest Ranches.
“Technology plays a very big part, not just in college, but the future. Responsible use of technology with our 1:1 iPad program is essential,” said Ivette Alvarez, principal of St. Brendan, in a video the school produced for Apple.
She explained that the beauty of using technology at her school is not confined to the classroom, but instead allows students and teachers to get outside.
“We can learn anywhere. And this is the culture that we want to maintain and support in our school. A culture of innovation and a culture of fluidity in our learning environments,” Alvarez added.
Chacon, now serving as St. Brendan’s vice principal of curriculum and instruction, pointed out that in the video produced for the Apple certification they didn’t just want to highlight the obvious use of technology.
Photographer: COURTESY
St. Brendan High students pose with their Apple Distinguished School banner after being named an Apple Distinguished School in August 2024 for their innovation, leadership and educational excellence. They join five other Archdiocese of Miami Catholic Schools that hold the distinction.
“We didn’t want it to just be about science or computers because that’s easy. We wanted it to be about art, music, social sciences. Even P.E. was important. We wanted to include as many of our departments as possible,” she said.
Footage in the video showcases iPads used by students and teachers as notation devices, graph creators, in document sharing, presentation preparation, in conversational foreign languages, and more.
“Having the iPad in class, teaching them how to use the resources that the iPad can give them, and for them to go home and really use that on their own, and to take ownership of that learning is, I think, a beautiful thing to see as a teacher,” said Victoria Sicre, an English teacher at St. Brendan.
Chacon was grateful to teachers during the Apple certification process, calling them “brave and bold” for opening their classrooms to the film crew. Over several weeks, they shot and edited footage of all kinds of creative projects. To exhibit modern use of technology in theology classes, students were tasked to chronicle the life of Jesus Christ “social media” style with mock Instagram accounts. For coaches and student-athletes, iPads were used to film training techniques in the weight room that needed improvement, as well as stunts in cheer practice and other activities.
“Everybody was all in, and they came up with some really good stuff,” said Chacon.
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
St. Brendan High students assist one another in solving problems with the use of their Apple devices. St. Brendan High was named an Apple Distinguished School in August 2024 for their innovation, leadership and educational excellence. They join five other Archdiocese of Miami Catholic Schools that hold the distinction.
The professional development journey of St. Brendan’s teachers is also commendable. As part of the Apple certification, the administration selected faculty who would be willing to take the lead and be resources for other teachers. Several received professional development from Apple’s professional development programs. Two math teachers, Franchesca Arrocha and Krizia Arango, became in-house Apple certified coaches.
“Our experience as Apple coaches has not only helped us grow as teachers, but as a community overall,” said Arango.
“Especially when we were able to go into the classroom and support our fellow faculty and staff with the knowledge that we acquired through the Apple coach program and the Apple Professional Learning program,” said Arrocha.
Arango was a freshman at St. Brendan when the Apple program was piloted in 2012.
“It was interesting for her to see the evolution. She was already used to it from the student perspective, so, as a teacher, it was natural to use the technology in the classroom,” Chacon said.
When asked about the future of Apple and education, Chacon believes that artificial intelligence is up next. In a professional development training, she heard that AI will be to education what the calculator was to mathematics.
“I’m sure when the calculators first came out, math teachers were up in arms because the solutions were right there for students since they no longer had to calculate anything. Now, it’s an integral part of their learning and testing,” said Chacon.
At times, she has heard concerns about technology in the classroom being a distraction, as students have easy access to wander off and entertain themselves with other apps on their devices. While that still echoes in some cases, Chacon says it is distant from the initial use of technology implemented at St Brendan’s, which aims to prepare their students for college.
“It’s about looking to the future to see what’s ahead so that we can be prepared for it. If we don’t prepare our students and we don’t prepare our teachers for the future, we become obsolete, and we become irrelevant. And nobody wants to be irrelevant,” Chacon said.
Especially not an educator. At St. Brendan, the message is clear: Look ahead.
“We are an Apple Distinguished School,” Chacon said. “We can’t forget about it. But what’s next?”
