Contributors
admin October 1st, 2008
Contributors are independent of and not employed by or affiliated with Professional Learning Board.
Derrick Hayes
http://DerrickHayes.com
It was before she passed from her battle with cancer that Derrick Hayes’ mother used to say to him, “Don’t worry how things look because everything is going to be ok.” Her wisdom stayed with him and helped change how he saw that four letter word, l-o-o-k. While others may have forgotten the phrase or dismissed it just as a dying mother trying to comfort her son, Derrick saw something different. Writing the word “look” on a piece of paper, he realized that it contains the word “ok.” His mother wasn’t lying! It actually is ok.
Ever since it has been one of his favorite words, which means a lot coming from a man who has shaped an entire life around words and the hidden truths they contain. Inspired little nuggets of language keep Derrick going in the tough times and have helped him stimulate and encourage others to see the beyond printed letters into the deeper meanings in life. Where one person may see only their woes, Derrick sees only W.O.E.s—words of encouragement.
Marlene Caroselli, Ed.D.
http://Caroselli.Biz
Marlene Caroselli, Ed.D., is a former high school English teacher who became an adjunct professor at UCLA and National University. She is an international keynote speaker and corporate trainer for Fortune 100 companies, government agencies, educational institutions, and professional organizations. Along the way, she added corporate clients to her “student” base and produced sixty books, the most recent of which is 500 Creative Concepts for Teachers and Trainers. Dr. Caroselli contributes frequently to a number of well-known publications (among them Stephen Covey’s Excellence publications and the National Business Employment Weekly).
Gail Hanevold
Gail Hanevold, a veteran teacher of 20 years, lives in Bloomington, MN and teaches Developmental Cognitively Disabled special education students of transitional ages (18- 21 years old) in inner city Minneapolis, MN. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Elementary and Special Education, a Masters Degree in the area of Emotional Behavioral Disorders, and an Educational Specialist Degree in Elementary and Secondary Administration.
She is a wife, a mother of three grown children, and she has four grandchildren. Gail teaches full time, and is a recent entrepreneur. She spent last school year on a sabbatical, researching a behavior intervention she created. This resulted in getting a patent pending status on the visual cuing device, the Wrist-O-Pic. The visual cues are paired with metaphorical cues, to transform student behavior. With the help of her supportive husband, Tom, she started her own business and became CEO of Creative Behavior Interventions, LLC. They are proud to share that they strictly hire young adults with disabilities to assemble and package the Wrist-O-Pic. This endeavor has lead her to additional career opportunities such as online teaching of teachers, and professional development presentations on local, state, and national levels. She serves on the Staff Development Committee at her school, as a Team Leader, where she assists staff in utilizing technology in their teaching.
Gail’s passions include staying connected with, and making an impression on her grandchildren and their parents, staying in touch with her six sisters, doing supportive behavioral research, assisting others in developing their new ideas, obtaining constructive feedback from local writers groups, networking with conference attendees and promoting her Wrist-O-Pic through conference exhibits and her e-commerce web site, www.wrist-o-pic.com.
She has a strong belief when it comes to the challenges presented to her, her children, grandchildren, students, or teacher colleagues: “It is not that we can’t do it, but rather, how can we do it?” She is thankful to have a husband who supports her every inch of the way!
Patty Arnold
Patty Arnold is a middle school science teacher in Central Florida. She has been teaching Middle School for 22 years, with one year out of the classroom as an administrator (Curriculum Coordinator) and says that teaching is much more fun!
Patty has a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and National Board certification in Science. In addition, she has a couple of degrees in Comparative Religion. She was named teacher of the year at her school and had the opportunity to ride on the back of a Corvette in the community Christmas parade!
In her spare time, she reads murder mysteries, gardens, and stays up to all hours of the night playing with Web 2.0 stuff on her computer. She has set up a classroom web page and a wiki to share information with her students and their parents. She also set up a family wiki for her very large extended family. She also does a lot of “number crunching” with her school’s standardized test scores to gather as much useful information and data about the students.
Patty’s daughter, Jenny, is an English teacher in Texas. Patty’s husband, Tom, is a law librarian.
Jason Bengs
Jason Bengs lives and works in Clinton, Oklahoma where he is a husband, father and teacher, in that order. His family always comes before work, but each year his students get adopted into his family. He teaches 6th grade and is the honorary technology mentor/integration specialist for his building. He is the president of the Clinton Association of Professional Educators and a member of the Professional Oklahoma Educators. His teaching duties have included Math, Science and Social Studies.
Jason is the coordinator for the school recycling program and is responsible for maintaining the school website. He has spent the last two years co-directing “Technology 2 Teach”, a local PLC aimed at integrating interactive whiteboards effectively in the classroom.
His passions include his faith, family and profession. He is a devout Christian, the husband of a wonderful special education teacher, and the father of one fiery red headed girl. In his spare time he is spending time with family, reading and learning more.
Jason can also be found at his classroom blog, Math & Science with Mr. Bengs , his personal blog,Teaching in Room 111, on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Ben Bleckley
benbleckley@gmail.com
Ben Bleckley is a teacher living in Denver, Colorado. He has been married almost three years to his wife Jennie, and they have a three year old cat named Bridget. Ben started blogging as an English education student at Colorado State University in 2005. His initial goals were to learn more about educational technology and its use in the classroom. However, it has evolved to become his own form of professional development. Ben believes writing and reading education blogs make him a better teacher.
In spring 2006, Ben taught 8th English and 7th Study Skills at Boltz Junior High School in Fort Collins, Colorado as a student teacher under Nancy Beauprez. He returned to school in the fall to complete a linguistics class. In the Spring of 2007, Ben was a substitute teacher in grades K-12 for Poudre School District.
In July 2007, he and his wife departed for South Africa where he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Schools and Community Resources Project. His primary task was to help teachers to implement the government’s Outcomes Based Education and Revised National Curriculum Statement, to improve classroom management and instruction. On a cultural nbote, they were able to share American culture with South Africans. Ben has now relocated to the United States, in Portland, Oregon. Feel free to send him an e-mail, to follow him on Twitter,or to be his friend on Facebook and on Plurk.
Brian Creasman
briankcreasman@gmail.com
Brian Creasman became the new principal at a failing school. Within six months the school met all 25 AYP targets and drastically increased student performance on state testing as well as classroom performance. He is the creator ofSynergy™ School Improvement Program.
Mr. Creasman and his staff repeated this turnaround with a second school during Synergy’s second year. This school program increases student performance, especially on standardized tests. The Synergy™ program was designed specifically for middle and high schools and is proven to work. Click here for a Synergy™ case study. Mr. Creasman, as well as other PLB experienced instructors and subject matter experts, work with district and school level administration across the country to create sustainable school improvement programs that are student-centered, teacher-driven and parent-involved.
Jill Hare
jhare@affinitylabs.com
Jill Hare is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and received her Masters in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Before becoming the editor of TheApple.com, Jill was a elementary music teacher for eight years. Most recently, Jill taught in Atlanta Public Schools, where she was named Teacher of the Year in 2003.
Ken Allan
allandear@paradise.net.nz
Ken Allan is a distance educator at The Correspondence School in Wellington, New Zealand. Father of six, with the youngest being 15, Ken has a busy timetable as a family man. He finds time to play guitar and fiddle, write poetry, keep a more-often-than-weekly blog, teach over 200 kids Science and keep in touch with his children, some who now live overseas. Ken also likes to spend the odd Friday with the lads at the pub, write articles for web sites and enjoy quiet Sundays strolling on the beach.
You can drop in on Ken’s blog at or read some of his articles on Futurelab such as this one on Working With Online communities or this one on elearning.
Nichole Smith
Nichole Smith is a professional freelance writer and blogger, living in North East Ohio. After 10 years in the administrative field and telecommuting, Nichole brought her writing talents back home where she can build her career while caring for her children. When she isn’t fighting for a quality education for her children, she blogs at her own sites, Chaos in the Country, The Guilty Parent and Mommy Know How.
For three years Nichole has been a stringer for her local newspaper as a feature writer, covering education and local human interest stories. She also writes for various online venues, blog networks, and provides private clients with content for their websites and businesses.
Clive Dawes
Clive Dawes works in a very well resourced international school in Hong Kong. Clive’s role,in the school’s ICT suite, involves teaching students (K-8) in a traditional weekly class. His ongoing task is to try to bring about curriculum changes by recognizing the essential role of technology in education. Like many, he’s trying to influence others to grasp ideas of 21st Century Learning whilst at the same time attempting to keep up with it himself!
Prior to his current role, he worked in the UK. He was initially a teacher, then Deputy Principal, and then as a local authority advisory teacher. He also worked for two years on a project looking at how schools, universities and government partnered together to provide teacher training. Clive has also been involved in a number of other projects concenring Engineering in schools.
Clive is particularly interested in the use of digital video and in the hot topic of game-based learning in the classroom. He hopes to continue to explore these areas in the future.
Bill Genereux
Bill Genereux is an Assistant Professor of Computer Systems Technology at Kansas State University at Salina. Over the last twenty years, Bill has been a computer technician in the US Navy, a graphic designer, a software developer, and a system administrator. He has been teaching in higher education since 2001. He teaches courses in web development, networking, computer programming, and digital media technologies.
Bill is a graduate student working towards a Ph.D. in Education at Kansas State University. With many eclectic interests, he especially enjoys exploring the relationships between the sciences and the humanities. Bill has earned an AA degree from Cloud County Community College, a BS degree in Computer Science with English and Art minors from Kansas Wesleyan University, and a Master’s degree in Internetworking and Telecommunications from Fort Hays State University.
A native Kansan, Bill currently resides in a small, rural community in north central Kansas. He is always looking for ways to bring his love of learning to the rural areas of his home state. He believes that technology offers many exciting possibilities never before possible in these remote locations. Bill and his wife Wendy have two young children, Emily (age 6) and Thomas (age 4). Wendy is the owner/operator of a home based business Wendy’s Party Treats. In his spare time, Bill helps out as webmaster and graphic artist for her business.
Ric Murry
Ric Murry is a 14-year veteran teacher. He has taught Social Studies, Science, Health, Computer Applications. He also served as a Media Specialist. Ric has discovered in all his roles that, above all, he is a teacher of young people, a mentor for teachers, and a protagonist for ubiquitous technology in the schoolhouse.
Ric has been married for 25 years to his wife, Shelley, a nurse. They have two boys. Brant, 22, is a future math teacher and Jordan, 20, is a graphic designer. Ric has coached fastpitch softball (1 year), basketball (10 years), and track & field (12 years).
Steve Kirkpatrick
Steve Kirkpatrick is a Deputy Head Teacher of a small inner city school in Salford UK. He has a passion for using ICT and new technologies in the classroom to engage learners and has worked in this area of education for over a decade.
Steve lives in Manchester UK with his wife Kerry and two year old daughter Maisie near the stadium of the mighty Manchester United, the team he loves. Steve admits that he once took a job at a school because of the stadium view from his classroom!
Kymberli Mulford
Kymberli Mulford has been teaching for over 20 years. She has taught in New Hampshire, California, Illinois, and in the green countryside outside of London, England. She taught every grade K-8 for the first half of her teaching career. However, since then, most of her work in education has been as an in-house consultant, teacher coach and technology integration specialist. After a year as a technology director for a large suburban special education cooperative, she is happily entrenched in the world of students again as an “Engaged Learning Specialist”. She offers her services in integrating technology, consulting with teachers and grade level teams, while doing some teaching in the computer lab.
You can follow her educational technology musings at Onionskin.
Kymberli and her husband make their home with two incredible sons in the suburbs of Chicago. Kymberli offers up her thoughts on parenting by contributing periodically to This Mommy Gig.
Louise Maine
Louise Maine lives in Rochester Mills, PA with her husband, Mike, and two teenage children, Rebecca and Ryan. She lives on a small sheep and chicken farm on 110 acres of fields and woods. She is a science teacher at Punxsutawney Area High School and has been a teacher for a total of 20 years in the areas of VA Beach and St. Joseph, MI. Her family’s 4 dogs, 2 ferrets, and other animals keep life busy and entertaining. Louise has been busy as a learner, blogger and educational technology leader in her district. Her goal is to find more opportunities for professional growth online.
Louise is an environmentalist at heart. She enjoys gardening, hiking and being in nature. She likes informal get-togethers with friends and family that include cooking out and having fun relaxing. She reads frequently until football season interrupts. Her creative passions include crafting as well as scrapbooking in traditional and digital formats. She owns Scrapaholix USA which focuses on the education of scrapbooking and cardmaking techniques. Her kits are distributed to clubs across the US.
Tiffany Winbush
Tiffany Winbush currently serves as a Public Relations Specialist for Katz Media Group, the largest media representation company in the United States. A subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, Katz provides services for more than 3,000 radio stations and 400 television stations. Tiffany began her public relations career as an intern for University Court, the premier student housing complex for the campus of Louisiana State University in Shreveport.
As the PR Specialist for Katz Media, Tiffany coordinates and implements public relations activities, which include pitching media and securing news coverage, developing press materials and arranging media interviews and press tours. Tiffany prides herself on establishing solid relationships with various media outlets and her colleagues in the PR field.
Tiffany attended Louisiana State University Shreveport and graduated with a B.A in Mass Communications with a concentration in Public Relations. In addition to her professional interests, Tiffany is active in a number of community organizations including Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, founded in 1913. She also serves as a board member on Manhattan’s Community Board 1. Tiffany mentors high-school girls and is a member of the Public Relations Society of NY’s New Professionals committee. You can get to know Tiffany even better by visiting her blog.
Angela Maiers
angela@angelamaiers.com
Angela Maiers is proud of her 20-year career in education, especially the years she spent as a classroom teacher. Angela is currently working as an independent consultant dedicated and committed to helping DOE’s, schools, districts and teachers reach their goals in literacy and literacy education.
For the past six years, Angela has created, developed, and organized multiple literacy institutes reaching thousands of educators across the United States. These summer institutes provide an innovative and unique venue for educators, administrators, and curriculum developers. Every student reaches their highest literacy and learning potential when they are lead by such knowledgeable and passionate leaders.
Angela received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa and did her graduate and post graduate work at Drake University. She currently lives in Clive, Iowa with her husband, their two children, Ryan and Abigail and their dog, Buttons.
