Anthony Augustin

Anthony Augustin is an environmental and earth science teacher at Loretto High School in Loretto, Tennessee. He holds an M.A. in Biology Education from the University of North Alabama and has been teaching science students in his rural school district for twenty-five years. He has been recognized at local, state, and national levels for his excellence in teaching. In 2006, he was named a Joseph B. Whitehead Educator of Distinction by the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation and honored with the Foundation for Rural Education and Development’s Rural Teacher of the Year Award. He is currently a member of the PBS Teachers advisory group.

Visual Media in the Science Classroom

Leticia Barr

Leticia Barr is a Technology Magnet Coordinator for Montgomery County Public Schools where she uses her background in early childhood education and teacher development and leadership to integrate technology into classroom instruction and provide professional development to her staff. Leticia is also well-versed in the online environment as a distance learning instructor and blogger. She has taught online classes for University of Maryland, PBS TeacherLine, and Northampton Community College and serves as the Community Manager for PBS Teachers Connect. Leticia blends her professional career with motherhood through blogging. She founded Tech Savvy Mama, a site where she assists parents in locating quality technology resources for their children. She also writes about local resources and activities for children with an educational twist as the City Editor for Being Savvy Washington DC. Leticia graduated from Mount Holyoke College, holds an M.A.T from Tufts University, and an M.S. in Education with focuses in Administration and Supervision and Leadership in Technology Integration.

Reinforcing Reading Skills with Interactive Websites

Carla Beard

Carla Beard is currently serving as Teacher in Residence at the Indiana Department of Education, where she works with teachers around Indiana on how best to integrate technology into the classroom. Prior to that she was chair of the English Department at Connersville High School, where she helped secure grants enabling the entire department to be wired with 30 computers per classroom. She was named a Marcus Cable Star Educator and has served as a national Teacher Adviser for Cable in the Classroom and on the Educator Advisory Board for AOL@School. In 2003 she was awarded the SAS Creative Teacher Award. She is also webmaster for webenglishteacher.com. To learn more about Carla, visit her school web page.

Media, Technology and Jane Austen: Happy Endings

Donelle Blubaugh

Donelle Blubaugh is Director of Education at PBS. Her primary responsibilities relate to ensuring that educators have access to high quality, 21st Century teaching and learning resources from public broadcasting. Her team works with PBS producers and stations to build high quality resources that address critical curriculum needs and meet today’s instructional challenges. Blubaugh represents PBS Education on the PBS KIDS and General Audience cross disciplinary teams that are responsible for the online-and on air content proposal approval process at PBS. She manages a $1 million grant award from the Adobe Foundation that supports the inclusion of youth voices in public broadcasting. In addition, she works with the SVP of Education and senior education staff at PBS to develop and implement strategies that strengthen PBS’ commitment to the professional growth of educators and to the knowledge and skill of America’s children and youth.

Blubaugh earned B.S. and Master’s degrees in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She is a past president of the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training (NCTET) Board of Directors and is on the National Council of Teachers of English editorial review panel for The English Journal. She taught language arts, developmental reading, creative writing and interdisciplinary courses for a combined total of twelve years in Missouri and Vermont.

Jenny Bradbury

As the middle and high school content manager for PBS Teachers, Jenny Bradbury collaborates with the general audience content managers and Web producers to develop high-quality teaching and learning resources that meet the needs of educators and students. She also works to ensure that middle and high school educators are aware of and can access the curriculum content that is created as part of PBS’s key television programs and their companion websites. Jenny is also the producer of the PBS Teachers Live! Webinar series, which is designed to provide educators with resources and strategies to incorporate media and technology into their teaching practice. Jenny holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy from Brown University and a master’s degree in English Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Prior to joining PBS Education, she taught high school English and Humanities in Brooklyn, New York, New Delhi, India, and Hadley, Massachusetts.

Janet English

Janet English is currently a science teacher at El Toro High School in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District. She received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching in 2003, is an associate member of the National Research Council’s Teacher Advisory Committee and served as the founding vice-chair of the California Teacher Advisory Council. She was a keynote panelist at the International Science Summit in Monterrey, Mexico, a contributor to and a staff member for the National Science Education Standards, and a consultant with the Cal Tech Pre-College Science Initiative. From 2005-2009, Janet worked as the Senior Director of Education and New Media at KOCE-TV, Orange County, and oversaw an educational consortium of 415,000 students and 538 schools. Her work included educational outreach, teacher training, and media production.

Joseph Fatheree

Joseph Fatheree is a nationally recognized educator and filmmaker. He has received numerous educational awards and was recently named the Illinois Teacher of the Year. His television work has been seen nationally on PBS and the Documentary Channel. He is the recipient of three Mid-America Emmy Awards and a Telly. As an educator, he is best known for his work in the field of technology integration and curriculum development. His most recent initiative, the No Barriers Project: Creating Opportunity through Education, seeks to outline the damaging effects poverty has on society and show how its members can stand up and make a difference.

Sold Out: Celebrating Academic Achievement through Digital Storytelling

John Haskin

Over the last 29 years, Dr. John Haskin, Director of Education at IslandWood, has directed in-residence environmental education programs in North Carolina, Ohio, Wyoming and New York. His areas of program expertise include school programming, adult education, cultural history education and inquiry science. He has coordinated national and international conferences on environmental education and the role of education in environment and development issues. Dr. Haskin has a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education and Master of Science in Curriculum and Instruction, both from Minnesota State University. He completed his PhD in Environmental Studies at the Antioch New England. His research areas include novice teacher development and qualitative inquiry.

Exploring the Environment with Place-Based Education, Media & Technology

Carmenita Higginbotham

Carmenita Higginbotham is an assistant professor in the McIntire Department of Art and the Program in American Studies at the University of Virginia. Focusing on American art and culture of the late-nineteenth and the early-twentieth centuries, she teaches courses about visual culture that cover the history of American art from Reconstruction to World War II, African American art, Hollywood and cinema, and race and identity in popular and fine art. Her current research considers the ways in which artists of the 1920’s and 1930’s use representations of race and ethnicity to respond to pervasive cultural shifts in the United States.

The Identity Dilemma: Defining Americans

Kristin Hokanson

Kristin Hokanson’s background is as an elementary teacher. Her Hands Across PA project was recognized with distinguished honors for SIGTEL’s Online Learning Award in 2005. After 13 years of classroom teaching, and recognition as a state level Keystone Technology Integrator, she was selected as the Technology Integration Coach at Upper Merion Area High School in King of Prussia, PA for Pennsylvania’s Classrooms for the Future Initiative. Kristin serves on the district technology committee and is the South East Regional Director of the Pennsylvania Association for Educational Communication and Technology. Kristin is actively involved in technology integration at local, state, and national levels, giving numerous workshops and presentations on variety of topics. As Affiliated Faculty with the Media Education Lab at Temple University, one of Kristin’s primary goals is to help teachers to develop a greater understanding of media literacy and digital responsibility. A STAR Discovery Educator, Kristin maintains The Connected Classroom Blog and Wikispace and focuses her work on creating collaborative learning opportunities for teachers and students.

Promoting Civic Engagement in the MySpace Age

Elizabeth Ross Hubbell

Elizabeth Ross Hubbell is a Lead Consultant in the Curriculum and Instruction department at Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL). Elizabeth has nine years of classroom experience with a background in Montessori education. She holds an M.A. in Information and Learning Technologies from the University of Colorado-Denver and a B.S. in Early Childhood Education from the University of Georgia. Elizabeth was one of four national finalists in Technology & Learning’s Ed Tech Leader of the Year 2003 and has served on the advisory board for PBS TeacherSource (now PBS Teachers). She is co-author of Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (ASCD, 2007).

Meeting the Needs of Emergent Readers: Bert and Ernie to the Rescue

It’s 2007…Do You Know Where Your Super Duper Computer Is?

No Lab Coat Required: Science Resources for Engaging PreK-5 Students

Katie Jennings

Katie Jennings, Head of Educational Media at IslandWood, has produced and directed public television and new media projects for general and children’s audiences for over 25 years. At IslandWood she directs video and curriculum projects funded by the National Geographic Education foundation and the National Science Foundation. Katie has a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College and is pursuing a Masters in Media Psychology and Social Change through the Fielding Graduate Institute and UCLA.

Exploring the Environment with Place-Based Education, Media & Technology

Steve Kluge

Steve Kluge has spent the last 31 years in the high school classroom teaching the New York Regents Earth Science Curriculum to 9th graders and an advanced, undergraduate credit-bearing geology course to seniors. Throughout his career he’s participated in the greater geoscience education community. He’s partnered in or directed several small NSF projects, including the development of the New York Instructional Collection at the Digital Library for Earth System Education, and he’s contributed to several others as a curriculum writer/developer. He leads summer seminars for Earth Science teachers at SUNY Purchase and SUNY Oneonta and is the author of Pearson’s recently published “Encounter Earth,” an interactive lab manual intended for undergraduate geoscience classes. In 1992 and again in 2001, Steve received the National Association of Geoscience Teachers’ Outstanding Earth Science Teacher Award, and his work has been recognized in his school and community as well.

An Explosion of High Quality Video, Visualizations and Data for Teachers

Michael Lampert

Michael Lampert graduated from UC-Berkeley with a degree in Physics and pursued a Ph.D. in Atomic Physics at Oregon State University before settling on a wonderful career as a high school teacher. His students have been recognized nationally as three-time winners of the Toshiba-NSTA ExploraVision contest, gold medalists at the United States Academic Decathlon, champions of the Northwest FIRST robotics competition and at many other science events. Mr. Lampert is a recipient of the Disney Teacher Award and the Presidential Award, and he is a Tandy Technology Scholar. He has written numerous grants to fund innovative projects such as Airbag Physics, Sports Physics, and elementary school outreaches. He has also traveled to Antarctica to study Ozone and to Africa to study Infrasound. He bikes to work at West Salem High School in Salem, Oregon where he teaches MicroElectronics, Astronomy and Physics.

Electrifying Science and Tech Instruction with Wired Science

Eric Langhorst

Eric Langhorst teaches 8th grade American History at South Valley Junior High School in Liberty, Missouri and teaches a graduate course at Park University entitled “Technology for the Classroom.” He has been a classroom teacher for the past 15 years, in both small rural schools and a large suburban district. Eric serves as Social Studies department chair, sits on several district technology committees and is on the Board of Directors for the Clay County Historical Society. Recent recognitions include 2007/2008 Missouri Teacher of the Year, 2006 National Cable Leaders in Learning Award, 2005 Global Microsoft Innovative Teacher, 2007 Missouri Governor’s Humanities Award for Education and inclusion in the 2006 National School Board Association’s “20 to Watch” list for education leadership for technology integration. Since 2005, Eric has produced the “Speaking of History” podcast with over 185 episodes featuring visitors from 155 countries. He has had articles about educational technology published in a variety of publications including School Library Journal, Educational Leadership and School and Community. Eric has worked with PBS, the History Channel, Microsoft, the Smithsonian and Cable in the Classroom on various projects. He is the husband of Jayme, and they have two daughters, Addison and Scarlet. In his spare time, he enjoys watching baseball and football, supporting the Huskers, reading and travel.

Putting the Story in History

We Shall Remain: Teaching Native American Culture within American History

Rebecca Lawson

Rebecca Lawson, the computer applications teacher at Dutchman Creek Middle School in Rock Hill, South Carolina, is a National Board Certified Teacher as an Early Adolescence Generalist. While most of her 35 years as a teacher have been spent in the technology classroom, she has also taught band, math, advisory, health, gifted and talented, and excluded students in an alternative setting. In addition, Rebecca has served as a middle school technology coordinator and teacher of teachers in the areas of web page design and technology integration. She has presented at numerous technology conferences in South Carolina and at the National Education Computing Conference and state middle school conferences throughout the South Region. Rebecca served two terms as South Region trustee for National Middle School Association, as president of the South Carolina Middle School Association, and on the boards of SC-AECT and the South Carolina Association of Educational Technology. She also served as chair of the Curriculum, Instruction, and Administration committee of the South Carolina Educational Technology Initiative.

Meeting the Needs of Adolescent Learners with Media and Technology

Michael LoMonico

Michael LoMonico has taught Shakespeare courses and workshops for teachers and students in 36 states and in England. He currently serves as the Senior Consultant on National Education for the Folger Shakespeare Library. He has worked at the Teaching Shakespeare Institute at the Folger both as a Master Teacher and Institute Director. Recently, he has organized and directed week-long Folger Institutes for teachers at UCLA, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the University of Tulsa, the University of Nebraska, and Atlanta. He also leads professional development presentations around the country in teaching Shakespeare and integrating technology into the classroom. Michael taught a variety of courses at Farmingdale (NY) High School, including Shakespeare, Humanities, AP Language and Composition, Drama, and Journalism. He currently teaches in the English Department at Stony Brook University. His course, “Performance and Technology in Teaching Literature and Composition” is required for all pre-service English teachers. In September 2009, Mr. LoMonico will serve as the guest editor for the Teaching Shakespeare edition of NCTE’s English Journal.

Mashups, Remixes, and Web 2.0: Playing Fast and Loose with Shakespeare

Mat McClenahan

Mat McClenahan is a teacher at HighTechHigh-Los Angeles in Van Nuys, CA. He grew up in a Sigourney, Iowa and left to attend New York University where he majored in Political Science and Economics. He then received an MA in Political Science from Columbia University. In addition to being one of the original teachers at HTH-LA, Mat has taught at Birmingham HS in Van Nuys and Monsignor Farrell HS on Staten Island, NY. Over the years, he has taught: Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Integrated Math I, Statistics, Economics, Government, Philosophy, American History, World History, Study Skills, and Physics. He has also been a wrestling coach and even coached shot putters one year. In 2005 Mat was honored and humbled to receive one of the Milken Educator Awards. His patient wife of twelve years, Alaine Kashian, is a singer/dancer/actress. They live two miles from Mat’s school in Van Nuys with their two dogs, Pita and Yogi. In June they are expecting their first child, a boy, who they are planning on naming, appropriately enough for the son of a history teacher, Lincoln Tyler.

Connecting Kids with Content: Using Projects and Technology to Close the Achievement Gap

Dan McDowell

Dan McDowell has spent the last thirteen years teaching social studies at West Hills High School in Santee, CA. During that time, he has actively been involved in technology integration at local, state, and national levels, giving numerous workshops and presentations on a variety of topics including WebQuests, blogs, wikis, and digital video. In the last couple of years, Dan has worked with PBS affliates to develop online curricular materials to assist teachers in utilizing PBS resources in the classroom; these include resources for Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil & the Presidency, The Story of India, and World Without Oil. Dan has received numerous awards and grants for the integration of techology into the classroom. He received his MA in Educational Technology from San Diego State University and currently teaches a graduate level seminar in the department. He has published numerous education resources, most of which can be found at http://ahistoryteacher.com/. Dan is currently a member of the PBS Teachers advisory group.

A Great Time to Be a Teacher

Teaching World History in the Digital Age

Justin Minkel

Justin Minkel teaches 2nd grade at Jones Elementary, a school where 90% of the students are English Learners and 97% live in poverty. He has taught kindergarten through 7th grade in New York, California, Texas, and Arkansas, working with students who speak Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, Marshallese, Serbo-Croatian, and Tagalog. Justin’s students learn literacy, math, and 21st century skills through creative projects such as a monthly literary magazine, an engineering challenge to design a parachute for a gummy bear, and the creation of a 24-square-foot version of the Mona Lisa. Justin is the 2007 Arkansas Teacher of the Year, a 2006 Milken Educator, and a 2000 Teach for America corps member. He was one of four finalists for the 2007 National Teacher of the Year. When he’s not teaching, Justin plays drums in a rock and blues band, writes fantasy novels for young adults, and plays basketball. He and his wife are expecting their first child in December 2007.

To Triumph in This Country/Triunfar en Este País

Gina Montefusco

Gina Montefusco is the Assistant Director of PBS Parents and Teachers Interactive and works on developing PBS KIDS Island and its accompanying parent, teacher, and caregiver resources. Before joining PBS, Gina produced web content at Reading Is Fundamental, writing and creating online resources about instilling a love of reading in children. She has also taught creative writing to high school students.

Let the Games Begin: Promoting Early Reading Skills with PBS KIDS Island

Cindy Newton

Cindy Newton has taught for 13 years, eleven of which have been spent in a first grade classroom. She has been named Teacher of the Year by both her school corporation and the Indiana Computer Educators. Recently, she was named an Armstrong Educator at Indiana University, where she collaborates with pre-service teachers through a Virtual Lab School. Technology has always played an integral part in and out of Cindy’s classrooms. Her first graders and 4th-6th grade computer club have produced claymation videos, websites, and PowerPoint projects, and her first graders have blogged with Ron Hirschi, author/scientist, during an ocean unit. Cindy’s first grade journeys can be found at http://fayette.k12.in.us/eastview/class/newton.htm and her math resource page is available at http://fayette.k12.in.us/eastview/mathresources.htm.

Mathematical Problem Solving: A Journey toward Meaning

Ian Ruderman

While earning an MA in English at New York University, Ian Ruderman discovered teaching and never looked back. Eighteen years later — after stints at private schools and the Harvard Graduate School of Education — he is the relatively new kid on the block at Concord-Carlisle Region High School in Concord, Massachusetts. At Concord-Carlisle, a school committed to the use of media and technology in the classroom, he teaches Freshman English, American Literature, Contemporary Literature and an elective in Creative writing. In the past he has also run student coffee houses and advised numerous literary magazines. Outside of the classroom, Ian has coached tennis, soccer and basketball. He has also published his own poetry and fiction in small literary magazines and is currently at work on a novel.

Taking the Pain out of Poetry

Brett Smith

Brett Smith is an elementary music teacher in Mahtomedi, Minnesota. His twenty-three years of teaching have included each grade, from K-12, in rural and metropolitan settings, directing band, choir, and classroom music. Brett was the 1999 Minnesota Teacher of the Year and one of four National finalists in 2000. He has served as president of his state’s music educator association, president of his local teacher’s union, and a member of the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards Validation Panel. He currently presents seminars on elementary music throughout the country for the Bureau of Education & Research, performs on drum-set in Twin Cities jazz clubs, sings on a dinner train, and enjoys racing sailboats. Past involvement with PBS has included consulting on website development and creating lesson plans for the Ken Burns Jazz series and Continental Harmony.

Let the MP3 Set Your Free: Media, Technology and Elementary Music

Bob Sprankle

Bob Sprankle is a graduate of the University of Southern Maine. He has been a 3/4 Multi-age teacher in Wells, ME for 10 years and now serves as the school’s Technology Integrator. He was involved with the SEED group in Maine as a Technology Learning Leader and helped train the first wave of teachers using laptops for the 7th and 8th grader MLTI project. Bob was awarded Maine’s Technology Teacher of the Year in 2006 from ACTEM. His students have received world-wide recognition for their “Room 208 Podcast” and have appeared in numerous articles, including ones in The New York Times and on Apple’s Education Web site. Bob has his own podcast (”Bit by Bit”) to help teachers incorporate technology into their classrooms. Both podcasts can be found at www.bobsprankle.com.

Four Weeks to a Flatter You

Four Weeks to a Flatter Us

Wade Whitehead

Wade Whitehead (www.wadewhitehead.com), a product of Virginia’s public schools, teaches fifth graders at Crystal Spring School in Roanoke, Virginia. A National Board Certified Teacher, he holds degrees in Anthropology and Elementary Education from the College of William & Mary. He has received numerous professional recognitions and teaching awards, including the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award and the McGlothlin Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence. Over the years, Wade has advised the Virginia and United States Departments of Education in a number of roles and has spoken to school and family groups across the country about his approach to teaching and learning. As Chair of the Virginia Milken Educator Network, he worked to create and implement the Teachers of Promise Institute, which assembles and recognizes the top students from Virginia’s 37 college and university Schools of Education. He is coauthor of Be A Teacher, published earlier this year by Vandamere Press.

One Size Fits Few: A Look at Individualized Learning

Clancy Wolf

Clancy Wolf, Head of Educational Technology & Sustainability Education at IslandWood, has worked with students, teachers, and researchers from Forks, Washington to Key West, Florida, exploring how technology helps students learn and challenging students to think about their role in the world around them. He is the past President of the Northwest Council for Computer Education, the country’s oldest organization for teachers who use technology in the classroom. Clancy has a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics/Physics from Whitman College, a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction, Secondary Education, from Bowling Green State University, and a Doctor of Education in Science Education, University of Michigan.

Exploring the Environment with Place-Based Education, Media & Technology