For the past 5+ years, Leyden High School District 212 teachers and students have been using Google Apps for Education. In 2012-2013, when the district went 1:1 by issuing Chromebooks to all 3,400 students, the Google Apps tools quickly took center stage and started a transformation that permeated the district's teaching and learning environment. Recently, I learned that a number of educators at the West Leyden campus decided to take their knowledge of the powerful suite to the next level. Led by librarian Janine Asmus and instructional tech coach Todd Veltman, 34 certified staff and 1 administrator started meeting in mid-November and formed a study/support group to take on the challenge of becoming certified
Google Educators. They met a number of times during their lunch periods to learn together and quiz each other on the information needed to pass the series of tests to become certified. The
requirements for becoming a Google Educator include passing the four core exams (Gmail, Calendar, Sites, and Docs and Drive) and one elective exam (Chrome Browser, Chromebooks, Google Play for Education, or Android Tablets for Education). Together, the motivated and courageous teachers put in their time, did the studying, and worked toward their goal. After passing the four core exams, they invited me to their last meetings to help them learn more about the Chromebook management configurations and settings before tackling the last exam that stood between them and their certifications. I am thrilled to announce that they completed that exam yesterday and have fulfilled the requirements to become certified
Google Educators. It is with some serious #leydenpride that I'd like to congratulate the following Leyden teachers on becoming documented experts of the tools they use everyday with their students to transform education and hope this begins a trend for other teachers to follow. I’d really enjoy hearing from these teachers in the comments as to why they embarked on this journey and what they learned from it.
| Admininstration | Modern Languages | Special Education |
| Andrew Sharos | Kojo Clarke | Marianna DeFillppis |
| Anne Gruettner | Sonja Kosanovic |
| Business Education | Catherine O' Rourke | Ryan McSherry |
| Michael Haworth | | Kristen Navar |
| Shannon O'Connor | Music | Katie Talsma |
| Bryan Miller | Rick Van Roeyen |
| Family & Consumer Sciences | | |
| Valarie Berger | Physical Education | Student Services |
| Laurie Foss | Byron Benion | Karin Dewey |
| Kevin Brockway | Marijana Uremovic |
| Literacy | William Cordts | Javier Vasquez |
| Jane Hyink | Joe Fezzuoglio | |
| Kara Kennedy | | Student Supports |
| Jennifer Lazar | Science | Janine Asmus |
| Jamie Litzhoff | Julie Krueger |
| Math | | Todd Veltman |
| Jeremy Babel | Social Studies | |
| Marian Volenec | Frank Diebold | |
| Matt Young | Christopher Lange | |
| Sandie Leonard | |
| Kevin Pluchar | |
| Lisa Ripley | |