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

[Tamara]

Thanks Jean and Hi All.

I'm Tamara and am currently enjoying maternity leave with my gorgeous 3 month old son and helping my 12 year old get ready for her first year in high school! I'm wrapped I have the chance to catch the bus with her and get her settled in before I head back to work.

I'm back at Hilton PS in March in my role as GiRL (Literacy) Specialist Teacher 2 days a week in 2009. Last year was a busy one with 3 hats: GiRL, SLICT and classroom teacher, however I enjoyed the opportunity to work with classes and teachers trying out new ideas based on all the great sharing we had done through SLICT networking. I've enjoyed doing a few of the workshops in PDPoint (now PD21) in my time off and intend to use these resources in my literacy role this year.

I have worked in remote and urban schools in my 6 short years as a teacher, have a preference for upper primary and an interest in Aboriginal Education and Aboriginal Studies.

I'm excited about this group, appreciative to Tomaz and others involved in setting this up and look forward to sharing!

[petam]

Hello everyone
I'm Peta. I am a secondary teacher and have worked in various areas. I am a Teacher Librarian and a Learning Technologies Coordinator. I have been at Thornlie SHS for a long time both as Teacher Librarian and LT Coordinator and worked as Canning District Library Support person. I am recently at Lesmurdie SHS.

For many years I have been working with teachers to integrate ICT into their pedagogy as I see it plays a significant role in education for the future and to engage our students.

Most of my learning about ICT over the years has been from workshops and from colleagues (many in this network)so I greatly appreciate being part of this network. I tend to be a watcher (nicer than lurker) and occasionally comment so in advance I would like to say thankyou to everyone for all your ideas and support.


My Blog

[eneyland]

Hi I'm a computing teacher at James Cook Boys Technology High School, in Kogarah Sydney. This year I've received a period allowance to help other teachers use technology effectively in their classrooms and I'm concerned about their level of awareness about "web 2.0" tools. I'm also interested in students receiving their educational revolution laptops ASAP. We'll be installing some Smartboards soon - can't wait!

[Helene Markmann]

Hi all,

I'm Helene Markmann and I've been teaching for eight years. Before that I've been a professional musician, run a performance art events coordination business and worked in community cultural development.

I work at Melville SHS in Perth where I was an ICT Curriculum Coordinator last year after undergoing Students Learning with ICT (SLICT) training in 2007. I am a specialist ESL teacher working in an Intensive English Centre. I'm particularly interested in digital technologies to develop social networks and to improve the literacy outcomes of students. I'm also fascinated by the anytime, anywhere learning opportunities digital technologies offer.

Along with fellow ex-SLICTians, we have continued to get together and communicate because we didn't want to let go all of the great networking, support opportunities and friendships we'd made in 2007 so we decided to set up this ning which our esteemed colleague, Tomaz, kindly got up and running.

Oh yes. I am a Mac user too, so you're gonna love me or hate me, but I love my Mac (why don't you try it sometime...?)

Helene

[George Lieux]

Hello to all!
I'm George. I am a technology specialist for Fort Smith Public Schools located in Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA. Fort Smith is in Northwest Arkansas on the Oklahoma border. Our student population is approximately 14,000.
I was a high school classroom teacher for 24 years and taught a wide-variety of subjects: math, English, German and even sex education when in a private Catholic school. Since I was at that time one of the few non-monk teachers in this school, I was one of the few who had some creditability on the sex-ed topic. Thus the promotion to sex-ed teacher.
For the last 9 years (24 + 9 = old), I have worked in our district's Professional Development Department, primarily coordinating technology training in what we call our Technology Academy. The Academy is a multi-tiered training model designed by district teachers for teachers to promote and support technology-infused teaching and learning methods in K-12 settings.
As an early-adopter of technology use in the classroom, I was on the design team for the Academy and selected to leave the classroom nine years ago to coordinate and facilitate training sessions in integrating technology into curricula.
Since the state of Arkansas requires K-12 teachers to participate in 6 hours of technology training each year, our district wanted to provide a well-planned approach to technology training.
Each year my job has become more and more enjoyable and challenging. This year we started our 1:1 Laptop Program by providing 20 teachers with classroom sets of the ASUS EEE PC 1000HA laptops. This initiative has resulted in a huge increase in teacher interest in the use of technology. We are presently reading the applications of almost 50 teachers who want to be part of the next group of teachers selected to participate in this program. We hope to add 20 teachers to the program each fall and spring, if sufficient funds are available. Obama's Stimulus Money for education is exactly what we need!
As promoters of the use of technology, you probably understand why I love my job more and more each day even as it becomes more and more challenging and demanding. I can finally see "real movement" in improving teaching and learning. Instead of trying to find the silver bullet to create this movement, I spend almost all of my energy in meeting the demands of teachers in this movement and am loving every minute of it --- almost every minute.
Involvement in two state-wide programs has sustained me and educated me so that I have not had to "walk alone" on this journey: TICAL (http://www.portical.org) and TIE (http://www.tie.k12.ar.us). Since I know how important support in promoting technology in education is, I was immediately attracted to your group that promises that, "You'll never walk alone".
Thanks for the opportunity to be part of EVICTS.

[JWegg]

Hi George
Welcome to our group. How did you find us?
I'm sure everyone is interested to hear more about your school programs, their successes and challenges.

cheers
Judy
George Lieux said:

Hello to all!
I'm George. I am a technology specialist for Fort Smith Public Schools located in Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA. Fort Smith is in Northwest Arkansas on the Oklahoma border. Our student population is approximately 14,000.

[Nicolas Zozol]

Hi,
I was a Physic & Chemistry and Computer Science Teacher in Paris and in the International School of Boston. With my friend Fabrice Gely (www.gely.info), we tryied to find cheap and efficient IT tools for the education.

I have worked on Edupassion.com for a online grade report software, and I'm very curious about IT use in the world of education.

[Charlie O'Sullivan]

Charlie O'Sullivan here. I have been a teacher for 25 years. I have worked mainly in primary schools but I have also worked as Head of IT in a secondary school and as a Uni lecturer in a BEd secondary and Bachelor of Technology program. I have been running www.primaryschool.com.au as a hobby since 2002. At the moment I am working for the CEO in Lismore, NSW. This year one of my projects is a netbook trial in a school where all stage 5 kids (63) have a Netbook computer each running Ubuntu OS. We are using Moodle often and really having fun with our learning.

[Sara Downs]

Hello Jean,

I signed up while participating in CCK09, and hearing teachers such as Sue Waters and Tomaz Lasic discuss the merits of the Web 2.0/PLEs and the like. Also, I'm a grad student taking a course called "ICTs & L2 Learning" at Laval University in Canada. We use the Elluminate platform, and I must say it's quite a novel experience. I teach Advanced Writing to student teachers, who are mainly French native speakers. I decided to kick start my Web 2.0 training when one of my student's reflected that "a discussion forum is not writing". I believe, on the contrary, that it is. This is one of the places where I'm convinced that I'll find the tools and resources to guide all my students (past, present and future) to the use of ICTs in higher ed.

Cheers,
Sara