WATERLOO — Rolland Chidiac holds a title no other teacher does in Waterloo Region.

He's a Google-certified teacher.

Last week, Chidiac, a Grade 2 teacher at St. Anne's Catholic School in Kitchener, was among 64 teachers from North America who participated in a two-day program at the Google Teacher Academy in Mountain View, Calif.

"I'm still glowing about being at Google," said Chidiac, 37, of Waterloo, who was mesmerized by Google headquarters.

"They walk the talk. It's vibrant and looks like all kinds of fun," said Chidiac, referring to employees working outside or in groups inside lying down rather than sitting at desks.

"It's Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory."

Chidiac has three weeks before heading to the classroom, where he hopes to introduce many of the Google applications to his Grade 2 students.

But before using technology to help students learn, Chidiac says he must get to know his students, their interests and where they are at academically.

"It has to benefit their learning. It's not just fun," he said. "I'm always thinking, how can I use this with a seven-year-old?"

Chidiac applied to the Google Teacher Academy last spring and the process took him about two weeks, involving the production of a one-minute video on innovation in the classroom, written reflections on dealing with difficult situations and his experience with social media networks.

The course and meals were covered by Google and the school board paid for his flight to California. He paid for his accommodations.

Chidiac, a father of two young boys, has been dabbling in new technologies for about five years, using technology in the classroom to help students learn.

It all started when he purchased a Palm Pilot and recorded student assessment data on the hand-held device.

Then he heard students in his classroom talking about the iPod Touch, which he later bought. He used the Touch in his class to help high-needs students who were not learning with traditional methods.

While at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School in Cambridge, Chidiac received ministry funding and was able to use technology to help autistic students learn.

Last year, Chidiac came to St. Anne's and received $12,000 in ministry funding, which went toward purchasing Chrome notebooks for his classroom.

While at Google, Chidiac worked in teams with other teachers — only a handful were Canadian — exploring various Google applications.

Chidiac said the intensive two days encouraged him "to think outside the box" and to pursue ideas even those that might seem far-fetched or too cumbersome to attack.

"We need to create a generation of problem solvers who can solve problems that haven't even been created yet," he said.

An example was a science lesson he conducted last year on snakes. Chidiac used the Google Hangouts application, similar to video conferencing, in which his class was able to watch a Colorado man in a field showing snakes to the students via the internet.

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"The students loved it. They were engaged," he said.

Chidiac said he wants his students to learn how to discover and use technology as tools to help them learn.

"It's not about perfection, but explaining what you can do," he said. "They need to think and express themselves. I'm looking for reflective thinking."