Apple Mentoring Program

This semester students have been piloting a program called A.M.P.   What is A.M.P. or Apple Mentor Program?  The Apple Mentor Program is designed to help bridge the gap between helpdesk and education.   There are issues and problems that can be addressed by properly trained mentors that are not truly related to technical issues but instead are related to user training and use of the device. The goal of the Apple Mentor Program is to assist these users in a timely and relevant fashion so that their devices are available more quickly.  Additionally, properly trained mentors can assist teachers both inside and outside of the classroom by better understanding functions related to education and instruction.

Students in A.M.P. are selected based on interest, ability, dedication to school and school community, and teacher recommendation.   A.M.P. students meet once per week with Mr. Hoskins their instructor and the rest of the week they are housed in the library with direct supervision and instruction from Rebecca Williams, the Librarian.     Jesse Atwater and the technology department also assists in their training.   Students who are in A.M.P. have to be self-directed and willing to serve as volunteers to assist students and staff with technology problems and projects.

This semester so far students have assisted with over 300 problems that students and staff have submitted.   Other than technical type content and fixes, the program will utilize two different Apple Curricula for the program, mainly Swift Playgrounds and the Apple Mentorship Program.  They have also learned the intricacies of programs such as Garageband, iMovie, and Stop Motion Studio. Most recently they have started coding on Swift Playgrounds which teaches Apple’s language, Swift, while also teaching programming concepts that can be easily transferred to other languages.  While in class, students are gaining confidence by talking in front of other students and assisting their peers with their devices.   A.M.P. is also helping students manage their time more wisely by teaching them about the pitfalls of procrastination because of the online content. Another goal of the program is to be of benefit to the student involved, the other students at school, and school district personnel.

As I.T.F’s, Dona Barnhill and I utilize the students to test items of interest to teachers that we later can present during Coffee Beans and Screens sessions.    Additionally, students have been instrumental in the preparation of large scale projects such as “A Day at the Museum” and the Deckromancy projects for Mythology and the Civil War.  From time to time, students have been called upon by various staff members for assistance.  For example, Chris Higginbotham was assisted recently by Serrina Paasch in learning Stop Motion Studio so that she could later utilize it with her class.

I have found doing the A.M.P. program to be very rewarding and the students who I have had the distinct pleasure to work with have also enjoyed the program.   I would like to state categorically that the program would not have been possible without the support of Rebecca Williams, the LIbrarian, as well as the T.M.S. administration, Dr. Kelly Briscoe, and the approval of Lori Horner and Dr. Todd Culbertson, who gave final approval for my time to be devoted to the project.