Nurture – Challenge – Inspire Munich International School Schloss Buchhof 82319 Starnberg Germany Press Release For immediate release 12 December 2017 Contact: Lydia Siebler MIS Advancement Office +49 (0) 8151 366 156 [email protected] Munich International School named Apple Distinguished School Starnberg, Bavaria – 12 December 2017 – Munich International School (MIS) is pleased to announce that it has been recognised as an Apple Distinguished School for 2017–2019 for its commitment to transforming learning through technology. Apple Distinguished Schools are centres of innovation, leadership, and educational excellence that use Apple products to inspire creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. They showcase innovative uses of technology in learning, teaching, and the school environment and have documented results of academic accomplishment. “We are thrilled to receive this distinction”, commented MIS Director of Learning Technologies David Pritchard. “With the School’s commitment to digital technology, teachers are able to challenge our students with realworld problems set in meaningful and authentic contexts rather than the often contrived problems of school text books”. The selection of MIS as an Apple Distinguished School highlights the School’s success as an innovative and compelling learning environment that engages students and provides tangible evidence of academic accomplishment. MIS values the skills and talents of each student and chooses to use technology as a way for students to express their ideas, share their understanding and demonstrate their learning. From younger students creating animations on iPads to older students composing music using GarageBand, creating films in iMovie, authoring books in iBooks Author, and designing apps using Swift, students at MIS are empowered by technology to think, create, make, and design. Key factors are the School’s ‘1:1’ MacBook programme for students in Grades 712, and the availability of MacBook carts and iPads for students in the Junior and Middle Schools. MIS classrooms reflect the School’s vision to develop worldclass skills within a culture of creative innovation and ubiquitous access to technology, and the Apple products and approaches used at MIS provide students with tools to unleash their creativity. MIS is committed to embracing advances in digital technology to enhance teaching and learning and believes that this access not only enables the School to transform the learning of students, but also provides experiences that would otherwise not be possible. Aware that such transformations require support and expertise, the Director of Learning Technologies, a team of Learning Technologies teachers and a number of Apple certified technicians support faculty in redefining teaching and learning as they review, evaluate and incorporate new technologies into the activities they design for students. According to MIS Head of School Timothy Thomas in the Munich International School iBook, the expertise of the faculty and staff at MIS is just as valuable and important as the devices and technology themselves. “We’re really thinking about how to network expertise around campus to ensure that we don’t just have idle devices or kids who are simply playing, but rather that we are implementing [technology] in a way that is truly transforming learning for students”. Munich International School has been pioneering international education since 1966 and celebrated 50 years of motivating and inspiring students in 2016. Authorised for the IB Diploma Programme in 1980, MIS possesses decades of experience as a mature, highly successful IB World School. Aside from the IB Diploma Programme, MIS was among the first schools to achieve authorisation for the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) and the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) in 1998. MIS intentionally designs and delivers curriculum to bring forward essential learnings and experiences for all 1250+ students, ages four through 18, who comprise 65 nationalities. Ends MIS classrooms reflect the School’s vision to develop worldclass skills within a culture of creative innovation and ubiquitous access to technology, and the Apple products and approaches used at MIS provide students with tools to unleash their creativity.