SSIS named an Apple Distinguished School

Dear Faculty,

I am very pleased to announce that you have been recognized for your creativity and excellence in teaching as SSIS has been named one of only four hundred Apple Distinguished Schools worldwide and the very first in Vietnam. This designation will begin in 2017-2018 and continue for two years, renewable thereafter with continued attention to innovation in teaching and learning.

Only three short years ago we committed ourselves to a new path and a new understanding of technology. Building on the foundational work of colleagues before us, we began with an expanded definition of “literacy” which envision students fluent in the traditional areas of reading, writing, and arithmetic but also as creators of the emerging areas of communication such as video, audio, software programming, design, gestures and language.

Early this year, as we learned more about the Apple Distinguished School program and its emphasis on continued innovation, we found a tremendous resonance with the work you are doing every day in your classroom and the exemplar schools Apple celebrates around the world. We set out to tell the story of just a fraction of all the things which go on in SSIS classrooms in a iBook® (SSIS – Leading the Way in Innovation), documenting our commitment to the five best practices of an Apple Distinguished School: visionary leadership, innovative learning and teaching, ongoing professional learning, compelling evidence of success and a flexible learning environment.

Tremendous thanks goes first to you, our classroom teachers. This recognition by Apple is a direct results of your work with our students. I would also like to thank those who helped put the story together in such a compelling publication: David Perkin for first realizing how the work at SSIS exemplified the attributes of Apple’s ADSs, Jeff Nesmith for his videography and storytelling, our ICTs (Alfredo, Robert, and Thomas) for contributing so many great exemplars from their interactions with our faculty, Katie and our marketing group, and the rest of the admin team (Dan, Molly, Jacob, Tina, Wai Mun, Roxanne, Barbara and Shelley) for editing and helping to organize the story line. It was an exciting collaborative effort and we’re very proud of our school, our students , our teachers, and our mission.

Sincerely yours,

Mark Sylte, Head of School
For more information on Apple Distinguished Schools, click here.