Forest Ridge School District 142 Tech Team Receives ISBE Honor

Congratulations to our District Technology Integration Specialists - Amanda Graczyk, Noelle Horbaczewski and Julie Ryan for receiving the 2020 Illinois State Board of Education Those Who Excel Team Award of Meritorious Service.

Now more than ever this team played a larger role in supporting all our iPad devices, connectivity at home, and more importantly the personal connections made with parents and students support in-person and hybrid learning.

These high-performing individuals have taken the District from using technology almost like an encore to ingraining its use into daily curricular lessons across every grade level in five years. When they began in these roles, the District had less than 400 devices and now will be 1:1 in all grade levels with nearly 1,700 devices. This team embodies the ideals of a “lifelong learner” and constantly seeks new opportunities to learn from national leaders to local peers.

Amanda Graczyk is an Apple Distinguished Educator Class of 2019, Apple Education Trainer, Apple Teacher, Google Certified Educator Level 1, Augmented Reality Author, a Wixie, Osmo, Seesaw and Book Creator Ambassador.

Noelle Horbaczewski is an ISTE Certified Educator, Apple Education Trainer, Apple Teacher, Google Certified Educator Level 1 and 2, a Wixie, Seesaw and Book Creator Ambassador.

Julie Ryan is an ISTE Certified Educator, Apple Education Trainer, Apple Teacher, Google Certified Educator Level 1 and board member on the Illinois Digital Educators Alliance (IDEA) South Cook chapter.

They have presented at Illinois Digital Educators Alliance (IDEA) events statewide and in the south cook chapter. These additional certifications and duties show their commitment to going above and beyond to help other educators. This team has made it their life’s passion to be leaders in enhancing all student’s learning by utilizing technology and promoting using it with all teachers in all grade levels. They have worked with individual teachers helping them earn their individual Apple Teacher and Google Certified Educator certifications. They have created after school coding clubs and expanded them so no student would be turned away. These tasks show their commitment to going above so their students can go beyond.

Chief Information Officer, Brian Skibinski said "I could not think of a better team to work with daily than these three exceptional “Technology Wonder Women".”

Forest Ridge School District 142 is grateful for all their hard work, dedication and passion toward empowering our students’ learning with technology.