It's time for MERIT 2016

At this time last year, I was filling out my application for MERIT 2015. As a former MERIT teacher herself, Lisa Highfill (PUSD Instructional Tech, YouTube Guru, and all around Fabulous Person) helped me become a part of the 2015 MERIT program. Little did I know that I was about to become part of something that would completely change the way I think about my teaching. 

For anyone interested in applying this year, you need to know that MERIT is a yearlong professional learning program taught by dynamic classroom instructional leaders who know the insides and outsides of EdTech integration for every grade level and content area. I am half way through the program and have found this to be the most transformative professional development program I have encountered in my career. 

MERIT takes place at Foothill College in Los Altos. People used to tease me about the commute. They find it weird when I tell them that on the days of my MERIT classes, I wake up early, I get myself ready, and I find I am so excited for class that the long commute never even crosses my mind. We are typically there for 6 hours, but it feels like 2. It's the first training I've ever been to where I actually get depressed when we get to the end. I want it to keep going on!

Since I spent almost 10 years in the Tech Sector before I started teaching, I have always believed that technology and education should be intertwined to create the most productive classroom experience. I began MERIT hoping for training in educational technology so that I could be a better teacher for my students, but what I found was a program that also promoted diversity and multi-cultural competency as part of everyday teaching. MERIT is all about making education relevant and interactive through technology, but the true beauty of the program is the way that it promotes learning for everyone. MERIT teaches teachers how to use technology to promote learning for all, indiscriminate of a student’s age, gender, sexual orientation, race, class, etc. 


I get to go and work with the most amazing teachersI have ever met. The lessons we create focus on empathy, creativity, and critical thinking. Using the MERIT methodology, I have found that the lessons I create now promote diversity and multi-cultural competency in a way that truly prepares my students for the 21^st century. 

If you are courageous enough to take a risk by becoming a MERIT Teacher or if you believe you can increase your confidence with using educational technologies and student-centered pedagogy, then I know your teaching and learning practices will be transformed.  Applications are open until Monday, January 18, 2016. Get started today.

To learn more, visit the program website: http://tinyurl.com/KCI-MERIT . If next summer, doesn't work for you, then put it on your bucket list for 2017. This is not an opportunity you want to miss.