As far as being a great teacher, business teacher Adam DeCaluwe received an award called the Mobile Makers Award.

Mobile Makers Edu honors teachers in the area who have done outstanding work with the Mobile Makers app.

“Mobile Makers Edu is where I have been taught, and continue to be taught, how to not only develop mobile apps for Apple devices, but also how to teach it to our students.  Mobile Makers Edu is a company which works with Apple to develop curriculum, educate teachers on the curriculum and the best ways to teach it.  As a result, there is a growing network of teachers who are constantly collaborating to advance our knowledge and experience, while helping each other to find the best ways to deliver the content to our students,” DeCaluwe said. We attend week-long summits each summer and have virtual meetups with Mobile Makers and other teachers teaching the curriculum throughout the year and are in constant communication with each other through the use of an app called Slack, all with the purpose of teachers learning mobile app development and the best possible ways to teach it.  As a result of all of this, I get to teach one of the greatest classes I have ever been a part of.  This is the first class I teach that students complain when the bell rings. Both students and myself just want to stay in the room and continue to collaborate, design and develop mobile apps!” 

To DeCaluwe, it was really exciting to win this award among the community that he is a part of.

“Mobile Makers is great at recognizing the teachers in the community for what they are doing at the stage they might be in, within the timeline of getting trained by them and teaching it to our students.  At this point, I have been teaching the curriculum for three years, and I try to share my experiences, lessons learned, and tips and tricks when I find them, with the community we have at Mobile Makers, and as a result of that, they recognized me for my efforts, which certainly makes me feel good, as I really enjoy my experiences with everyone involved in the Mobile Makers community, and I am grateful to be a part of it,” DeCaluwe said.

Teachers are always looking for ways to improve, and this is one thing that has helped DeCaluwe in his class with improving the Mobile Makers app.

“Above and beyond everything is the knowledge and confidence I continue to be building to help me be the best teacher possible for our students in mobile app,” DeCaluwe said.

Mobile Makers is a class that will help all students as jobs in the computer area are increasing in numbers.

”I think the CTE department is an amazing department, but when I think of an award like this, my thought does not go to the department. My thoughts go to better awareness of a class that I think more students should take. If you think about the number of apps we use daily and how technology jobs are so high in demand, my hope is that this award allows more curious students to connect with Mr. DeCalwue to learn more about him and from him. Mr. DeCaluwe and I have spent many hours together on how to best make more students aware of this needed class,” said CTE department chair Gina Schuyler. “As Mr. DeCaluwe’s department chair, I try to provide support to him in a variety of ways to enable him to do his job. Mr. DeCaluwe has outstanding ideas as to how the mobile app class is run and how to engage all students in his class. Supports I provided were not ones that anyone could see but occurred more behind the scenes (supporting better technology, supporting better collaborative workspace). Mr. DeCaluwe won this award all on his own. My job is to support the infrastructure in the classroom to allow him to do amazing things in the classroom. In my opinion, the less he needs to worry about equipment working or space for his students to collate, the further along he can get with teaching each student.”

DeCaluwe works with the teacher at Central and helps to bring outside experiences to the students.

”Mr. DeCaluwe (and his teaching partner at Central who also won the award) took their students to Chicago to see Apple and Veo Ride. This allowed the students in his class to be able to not only see career opportunities in this field, but it allowed students to interact first hand with professionals in the field,” Schuyler said.  “During the spring when the stay-at-home order was in effect, Mr. DeCaluwe really thought outside the box to allow his students to still learn about app development. He connected his students with an app development company in Ireland that was developing apps to get meals to first responders during the COVID outbreak. He goes above and beyond. During a live class, he pushed his students in a good way. He teaches not only the subject matter but teaches students skills they will need for life. I have observed him many times walking in his class going from student to student, but I also see his students seeking the help and opinions of each other. An environment like this is a result of the teacher making the classroom a safe place to ask questions and learn from each other (not only the teacher). More learning takes place in an environment like this.”

Outside of working with the students, teachers collaborate together to share ideas.

“My hope is that this award brings more students to Mr. DeCalwue’s class but also bring more teachers to collaborate with Mr. DeCaluwe. I think others can learn from his teaching style. It shows the hard work and dedication he has to his students. He truly puts his students first. My benefit is that I have Mr. DeCaluwe as a member of my CTE department. I truly find him to be a very valuable member of our team,” Schuyler said.