New Media Teacher at Lake Forest High School Becomes an Apple Distinguished Educator

Being presented the prestigious “Apple Distinguished Educator” award is a culmination of a decade of sharing innovative storytelling concepts with students at Lake Forest High School for new media teacher Steve Douglass.

Douglass, who was presented with the distinction last month, joins more than 2,000 other visionary K-12 educators nationwide who use a variety of Apple products to transform teaching and learning in powerful ways.

“I applied for the Apple Distinguished Educator program because I want to learn from the most practiced innovators on how I can best equip as many students as possible with the power to tell their story to their specific audience,” Douglass said. “ I’ve seen the process transform student’s lives and experiences. From students sending their 2-minute personal narratives to colleges and receiving Presidential scholarships in return, to those who simply differentiated themselves from the stack of papers or resumes.”

Among his accomplishments since he was hired at LFHS in 2005 are creating an app, showNtellmystory, with Jonathan Kelly of Lake Bluff that helps people through the process of writing, recording and shooting their personal story using their iPhone or iPad.

“It has helped hundreds of people, all over the country tell their story in a fun way,” Douglass said. “Many have used it to say thank you to donors, others to learn the storytelling process in an engaging and intuitive way and still others to supplement their college essay with an authentic and compelling visual stories.”

It’s that passion for storytelling Douglass has had since he was very young.

“I loved listening to grandparents tell stories, in different styles (from Tennessee and Minnesota) but with equal intrigue and passion,” he remembers.

That’s what inspired him to want to work at ESPN, the “Worldwide Leader in Sports,” someday. That someday came pretty early for Douglass, who was hired by the network at age 23.

“I always wanted to work at ESPN as a kid, because they told the best, most entertaining stories to make every sporting event interesting,” he said.

There, he became the first Studio Production Assistant to be unanimously selected for promotion. But he wanted to do a little bit more with the storytelling process he learned there.

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Enter Lake Forest High School, where he set to “invest in the next generation” by integrating a Masters in Media Literacy program into his classroom. Some 5,000 student projects and ten years later, he has “refined video storytelling into a simple, intuitive process.”

Recently, Douglass’ New Media students swept the top three places in the Personal Story category at the Chicagoland Television Education Council Festival. The unprecedented success demonstrated the diversity of personal stories that can be told, he said.

“Junior Michael McAfee won the category by telling the story of a jazz musician who ‘inspires’ people as they walk from the parking garage of O’Hare to the main terminal. Senior Belle Smith won 2nd place for her Chapman University personal story and Junior Keegan McCaskey won 3rd place as he told the story of why his family’s football franchise stayed in Lake Forest all of these years.”

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Chicago’s North Shore is a hot bed for innovation, but especially in Lake Forest. The outstanding faculty, community, APT and LFHS Foundation are some of the essential reasons Douglass opted to work at LFHS over offers at Evanston Township and New Trier high schools.

“Their tremendous support over the years has enabled me to push the curriculum and program forward,” he said. “There are so many exciting developments happening at Lake Forest High School under the leadership of (Principal) Barry Rodgers. New ideas and innovation are being encouraged like never before and the students in the community are the greatest benefactor.”

But he said it’s the student that make him the most proud.

Now officially as an Apple Distinguished Educator, Douglass has an entirely new set of minds to bounce good ideas off.

“I’m really enjoying connecting with other ADE’s around the world who are helping me teach the next generation how to tell their story in a meaningful way,” he said.

View Mr. Douglass’ video submission.