Who are you?

[Jean]

It's great to see so many people joining EVICTS - lots of familiar faces - and some new ones too!
Can everyone make a quick post to let us know a little about you. If you have a blog or web site a link to it would be great.

I'll start the ball rolling...

I'm Jean. I worked as a secondary English teacher for about 20 years but I did lots of relief work too while having a family (3 Kids - now aged 20, 23 and 26). I have taught PEAC, Bridging courses, Ed Support ...and became a Teacher Librarian in 2001.( I completed my TL qualification online as an external student in 1995 - my first real online course). I currently work as a Curriculum Support Officer with DETWA helping to maintain the CMIS database and website. I also help with the CMIS blogs - theTech Focus blog is 'my baby'.

I'm looking forward to getting to know you all better.

Jean

[Peta Kapor]

Thanks Jean - I am Peta Kapor. I am a teacher at Riverside Primary in Mandurah, teaching Year 7 and have been there since 2001. I finished my teaching degree in 1998 after 20 years as a Registered Nurse. My first full time teaching position was Computer Teacher at another school in Mandurah. Since joining Riverside, I have combined class teaching with IT Support and Curriculum leadership. The SLICT experience was great although the demise was sad. In 2009 I have given up my days out of the classroom "doing IT" but will still be a curriculum leader in the school. I found the 2 roles difficult in 2008 with the lack of support for SLICT so am looking forward to putting in to practice ICT Integration with my class full time instead of token gestures.
I also look forware to sharing with others on this new site and am excited about where we go from here.

Cheers
Peta

[Tomaz Lasic]

Good idea Jean, thanks.

I'm a teacher at Belmont City College, a medium-size public school in Perth, Western Australia. I have taught many kinds of Humanities subjects and courses for eight years in various public schools in WA and have about 20 years experience of working with people, young and old(er), elite and beginners, as a coach, mentor and teacher.

My creed is “what if?” and I tinker with ICT, particularly with Moodle and Web2.0 tools. My passion is first and foremost my family. After that comes anything to do with questioning and changing of the current, 250 years old model of education.

I am deeply interested in the underlying ideas that shape us and play us, more than the technical aspects of ICT and/in education (busy work). The main reason I spend so much time with ICT is the enormous potential for changing these fundamentals. Why? Because I would like my children and their children not only go to a different school but have a different view of the purpose of education altogether. Call me idealist but I'd rather be that than the other side of the continuum.

Yeah, I talk too much and wear it on my sleeve :-)

Oh, I am also the guy who physically started this particular network but the idea had been collectively hatched many months ago among some of the first EVICTS present today. We are really modelling a functioning PLN (Professional Learning Network) - let's see where this thing takes us..

I run a 'Human' blog at http://human.edublogs.org and bare my soul there a tad. Feel free to drop by.

[Claire Adams]

Hi,
I'm Claire Adams, I'm 25, and finished my B.Ed. (UP/LS) in 2005. This year I took maternity leave to have, and look after, my son Ben (now 10 months old). Next year will be my 3rd year teaching at Cummins Area School (on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia). I'm looking forward to returning to work next year, and am pleasantly surprised at how far the school has gone with their IT without me. I'm a 'middle school' teacher so I've taught just about everything, but IT is my specialist subject. I'm still working out the 'basics' of teaching in a regular classroom, and struggling to gain the freedom to be flexible, creative, and progressive in my IT classes.
I have only just started my blog at http://ceadams.edublogs.org, feel free to check it out.

[Emma]

Hi everyone,

I am Emma - I work at Excelsior Primary School. For the past three years I have taught Pre Primary and been the schools ICT teacher - taking computing lessons and supporting teachers to use ICT in their classrooms. Our school was a SLICT school. Next year I am teaching year Year 3.

Looking forward to learning alot next year!

Emma

[Paul Robert Carroll]

Paul been flaoting around ICT for about 8 years in Primary. Luvvvvvv my job, get to play everyday with toys and the kids still want to come and learn, what more could you ask for.

[Dave Cowell]

Great idea.

I hated school and left after Yr10. Spent the next 20 years working in retail, service technician etc. Finished a Business degree 2000 (aged 36) then spent a few years in marketing. Completed Dip Ed 2005. Teaching 10 - 12 business, maths, science and loving it. I think the key issues in ICT are engagement with students and keeping up with students.

I am looking forward to sharing.

Dave

[Julie Ann Brown]

I'm Julie currently Deputy at Beeliar Primary School. Next year will be my 20th year in teaching. Passionate about ICT and influencing pedagogy change and practice in this area. Crazy about Frangenheim philosophy and love my job. I have three chidren (21, 20 and 10 ) I also love travelling. Spent my long service this year in Croatia with family. Dalmatian Coast is spectacular. Always looking for new ideas so if you have any please add to my discussion question. I need some inspiration for my SDD 2009.

[Jay]

Hi Everyone,

I'm Jay and I am working as Network admin at Melville Senior High School. I am 24 and have just completed a double degree in computing. I am looking forward to learning some interesting ideas about how to go about integrating ICT into the classroom, and how other schools and members of this forum are using ICT in their schools.

Cheers,
Jay.

[JWegg]

Hi Jean
I've worked at many jobs - primary teacher, computing teacher, Library Resource teacher, PEAC teacher, Coordinator of the SLICT Project, Uni lecturer, ICT Help Desk at PLC, Integrating ICT mentor and lastly as a Customer Relationship Officer in Central Office.
I'm passionate about helping more teachers and students turn on to ICT and for teachers to use it to motivate kids and help them learn. I think if the students and the teacher are having fun then they are most probably learning.
I love traveling and so does my husband Rags (ex teacher, computing teacher and Principal) so this year we bought a caravan and 4WD and in between other holidays and jobs we traveled to some remote schools to work with teachers. Rags helped relieve the teachers so I could work with them. When I worked with teachers in the classroom he gave extra DOTT as country teachers are often shortchanged here.We want to do more of this in 2009 and intend heading south for a while although we already have a few requests from the north of the state. If your school wants help message me offline - we charge relief days as we are fully registered WACOT teachers.
We had a great time and had all sorts of experiences, including mentoring teachers, setting up and using IWBs, setting up reports, setting up video conferencing equipment, modelling ICT use with kids, helping teachers and teacher assistants, doing techie things to get ICT to work etc etc.
We also got the Dalmation Coast last year Julie and would totally agree. It was great! For anyone interested we've set up a travelblog at www.mytb.org/weggs
Looking forward to some great networking in 2009

[Roger]

Hi Jean
I am Roger Allon
I have been casual teaching since term 4, 2008, and will be completing my Bach of Educ (Industrial Technology, Design & Technology) in June 2009.
Teaching is new to me as i am a Jeweller by trade. I have completed Diploma Bus Man, Cert IV in leadership and recently obtained Cert IV in work place training and assessment.
As someone new to Education I see ICT as a teaching tool the students expect, and the students expect teachers to be conversant and skilled with the technology in many areas, This is only natural considering the prevalence of technology in so many other parts of a students life.
I look forward to the new challenges ahead of me. I find teaching stimulating, rewarding and often exhausting. I am currently looking at creating a personal web site and also creating a wiki on the subject of the New scheme teachers program that runs in NSW for newly graduated teachers so they are able to demonstrate professional competence. At the present time i am trying to come to terms with Drupal wresting with it to get it on my server and understanding its functions, have just last week set up a face book page, and have started following people on twitter and joined the Malaysian e-learning group in face book to see what they are up too. My long term goal is to complete a Masters in Learning Science and Technology.
I look forward to making a contributing and learning from your members.

Roger

[Jane Lowe]

Thanks for the invite Jean.
I am a Year 4 teacher at Oberthur Primary in Bullcreek Western Australia. I have been teaching since 1980 with a few years off while my children were small. I have taught all grades from year 1 - 4 and also worked briefly as a music specialist. I am not the ICT leader or co-ordinator in my school but a teacher who believes that I nedd to keep pace with today's world and provide an interesting and stimulating environment for my class to be in. In mid 2007 I started a class blog which still continues and since then have also been involved in several collaborative online projects with classes in many different countries. I plan to continue these activities this yeqr and coninue to add more WEb 2.0 tools to my repetoire and try and give my students a wide variety of options for accessing and presenting information.
I also have a personal blog which has not been very well kept so far but I will be tring to keep track of my online PD and interesting tools for use in Education on my blog.

[Fleur Jones]

Hi. My name is Fleur Jones and this will be my 7th year of teaching. I am an Early Childhood teacher. Prior to teaching I had several jobs some of which included; Bank Officer, Shop Assistant and Student Nurse. Since completing my Degree I have had a range of teaching positions in Perth. I have taught in Preprimary, Year 1, 2 & 3, Education Support and Language Development Centre. Being unable to complete a country stint I am one of the many temporary teachers in Perth. This year I am returning the the Language Development Centre at Ridgewood where I won a 12 month contract in a year 1 class. While I was at Mount Hawthorn Junior Primary School I had the opportunity to take over the role of ICT Specialist and join the SLICT program. I would have to say that SLICT was fantastic. I learnt so much at the PD sessions and came away inspired and eager to use ICT in my classroom with the students & help others to do so as well. My research project was using Photostory in my class. Since then each of my classes have used photostory to present their Narratives. They create backgrounds and characters and write their stories, take photos and import pictures, music and movement. Last year my year 3s At West Balcatta also produced stop, start animations. This year I am hoping to be able to use the interactive whiteboard in my classroom at the LDC. I look forward to sharing and discussing ideas and getting to know everyone.