Adam Bellow, ISTE’s 2011 Outstanding Young Educator
The Outstanding Young Educator Award
honors an educator under age 35 who has
demonstrated vision, innovation, action,
and transformation while using technology
to improve learning and teaching.
Adam Bellow, Outstanding Young Educator
Director of educational technology for College Board Schools,
New York, New York, USA
Adam Bellow is a tireless advocate for sharing. He has
invested countless hours—and dollars—putting together
a comprehensive website chock full of resources for K– 12
teachers. His site, edu Techer.net, groups thousands of
websites according to grade level and subject matter. But
it’s not just a list of links. The site allows teachers to keep a
backpack of resources that they can categorize, annotate,
and share with friends. He also posts video tutorials.
But that’s technically just his hobby. His real job is
director of technology for the 17 low-income schools on
the East Coast of the United States that are designated
as College Board Schools. Although some district-level
technology directors seldom walk into a classroom, Bellow loves to meet with teachers, listen to their ideas, and
suggest ways that technology can improve their lessons.
His favorite thing, he says, is to find an educational use
for a technology that was not originally designed for
education.
What his supervisor says: “Adam is a key addition to our
team in so many ways. He is a true collaborator and solution seeker and has a highly developed sense of humor that
serves to better the dynamics and health of our team and
the College Board as well. Early on in his employment at
the College Board, Adam co-led a technology project with
our Advanced Placement division that has proven to be
highly successful and may lead to a new and interesting
project in support of AP students.” —Helen C. Santiago,
vice president of College Board Schools
What his colleague says: “Adam is like no other administrator I have met. He is a responsive, caring, dedicated
person and a most patient teacher. Adam is what I think
of when I hear the term lifelong learner. He puts students
and teachers first and helps thousands of people every day.
It is because of Adam, his website, and his hard work as
director of educational technology that I am able to do a
lot of the great projects I am doing with my students. He
has made a tremendous impact on my colleagues, myself,
and the culture of our school.” —Marie Cooper, teacher
What the judges say: “Adam is the ideal young educator for
ISTE to showcase—knowledgeable, helpful, eager to share
what he knows both through the hundreds of teachers he
supports each day in his job and with the thousands of
educators who access his edu Techer site.”
What he says: “Learning how to use all the wonderful technology available today opens up worlds to our students and
new avenues in which to reach and teach them. Learning
how to use the tools responsibly and safely is the key to
making it all work. I am never satisfied walking away from
the educational buffet of tools, resources, and content out
there because there is always something to learn and share
with others in order to help teachers reach their students
using successful integration of instructional technology.”
