Introduce yourself here

[Nuria Cogollos Alonso]

Hi,

I'm Nuria Cogollos, from Spain. I've teaching Foreign Language Spanish in the United States and First Language Spanish in Spain. I'm currently teaching Spanish at the International School of Toulouse in France.

[Paul McWhorter]

edit

Edited July 28, 2008 by Paul McWhorter

[Alison Chapman]

I am Head of Sixth Form and Careers at Dartford Technology College and am the moderator of the PE section of the forum.

[john birchall]

John Birchall

I have taught for many years the two subjects that feature in this section of the forum. For a number of years I was a Principal and Chief Examiner at A level. Over the years I have written a number of books and various artciles etc. More recently I developed a large part of bized into what was, at the time, the largest Business Education site within the EU. I sit on the panel of the Virtual Schools Economic and Business section and write a number of the features. I also present INSET Days and speak at student conferences. Within the EU I am working on developing co-operation and collaboration between teachers of my two subjects and I regularly address colleagues within member countries.

To stimulate debate within my subjects I write a weekly Letter from an Economist, which appears on my own site, the EU Virtual School and across Africa. It is also to appear on several national portals within the EU and elsewhere in the world.

My recent writing engagements have centred on Triplealearning, the first web-based learning programme in the UK. My other interests centre on development issues and I am engaged in number of projects in Africa.

You might like to look at www.triplealearning.co.uk, or www.johnbirchall-economist.net or www.virtual school/economics and business.

john_birchall@bsc.biblio.net

[Andy Garner]

Hello. I am Andy Garner, and I teach History to students aged 11 - 19. I began teaching in Cheshire, but moved to Suffolk to be a Head of Department. I am STILL a Head of Department!

I am compiler/author of the British Historical Statistics database and student guide for the SECOS set of programs.

I was an examiner, but gave that up a decade ago in order to do a Masters Degree.

I also have a major stake in teacher trade unionism.

[mlj]

I am head of English at Coombe Dean School in Plymouth, England. I have taught for 15 years and i welcome any opportunity to open up dialogue with colleagues, both near and far.

[Dafydd Humphreys]

Hi I am Head of Humanities and History at Stanley Technical School in south London. I own Learnhistory.org.uk which is a member of the ATW and the School History Forum. I am interested in making accessible online materials for less able students at KS3 and KS4.

I've been teaching for 6 years and am a bit of old-pro when it comes to school inspections, having enjoyed 4 OFSTEDS and 3 HMIs in my short career so far!

[Kerry Dixon]

Hi there,

My name's Kerry Dixon and I teach German and some French at an 11-18 comp with technology college status in North Yorkshire. I'm in my sixth year of teaching.

As well as languages, I amd also assistant head of Year 11, and also produce and direct whole school musicals every two years!

[Paul Willetts]

Hi

I am Paul Willetts Network and Communications Manager at Haybridge High School in Worcestershire.

Into computers and Amateur Radio.

Radio from 1963 and computers from 1980, it was easier to type to someone and take my time replying, when maybe I didn’t understand what they were saying.

Not much to say other than I try to provide the tools for the teachers to do their job.

Edited August 29, 2004 by Paul Willetts

[Jan Fagan]

My name is Jan Fagan from Tamworth, NSW Australia. I taught History and English at the Secondary level for many years and then changed course to teach Special Education to Primary children. I became involved with senior studies again as my daughter completed fer final year of schooling Higher School Certificate (HSC) and have taken on a group of students to tutor. This is a group of 6 boys who struggle with the demands of the modern English syllabus. Thank you to those who have already given me ideas for teaching The Tempest to reluctant readers!

[Eric Perlberg]

Hi All,

I'm Eric Perlberg, Founding Director of ASW2, A School Without Walls (www.ASW2.net), an online school offering A levels and IB. I began my career in rural New York State (in a small town between Kripplebush and Krumville!) teaching primary school and after 12 years I moved to Basel Switzerland to start the International School of Basel's high school programme. During that time I had the dual career of teaching almost all subjects through to and including GCSE and even some A levels while consulting on desktop publishing and doing the graphic design work for printed publications for one of Basel's multinational pharmaceutical firms.

I was recruited to teach in London in 1996 with the goal of creating a top IT programme as well as teaching ITGS, the IT programme for the International Baccalaureate.

My early years of teaching primary school were a good foundation for me as I believe that education is about people and not subjects. I also believe that real learning is an intrinsically enjoyable activity (but not necessarily *fun*) and schooling is one of the worst enemies of real learning for most people. I spent most of my years in Basel teaching in a one room multi-age school environment. Despite the fact that we were resource poor (we literally sat around a coal fire with blankets on our laps to keep warm in winter) and the fact that our cohort of students in the class ranged in age from 12 to 16, these were the best teaching years of my life. All of these students have done quite well and most are still in touch and believe that that multi-age classroom was one of the magic times in their lives. Fortunately we weren't trapped in the paper game and a typical week might include formal lessons in the classroom, visiting museums, wandering the streets in Basel talking about its history and spending time at the Cafe des Artes discussing contemporary painting. We took frequent trips around France and Germany, ate lunch on the Rhine and visited the ateliers of my Basel artist friends. It was a magical time.

In London I began to develop ideas for extending my teaching using online tools like discussion boards, content management, polls, etc which led to coming up with the idea of starting an online school. Through the encouragement and support of the adminsitration at Southbank International School I was able to hire a talented programming group called Runtime-Collective and designed an online learning environment programmed in Java and running on an Oracle 8i database. Today I am a big believer in the power of online learning and trying to move the discussion away from the better than/not as good as dialog and try to find ways to innovate in a field that I feel has lost its way.

[Dr. Phil Brown]

My Webpage Dr Phil Brown, ex Head of Chemistry, Whitby Community College, England who hopes "Doc Brown's Chemistry Clinic" will help any student around the world and is affiliated to the UNESCO project "Ray of Hope". It's a free to use, non-commercial, 'nuts and bolts' revision web site for CHEMISTRY. It is constantly evolving and expanding with a wide range of revision notes, quizzes and word-fills that were initially designed to support (1) UK KS3 chemistry (equivalent to USA grades 6-8), (2) any UK based KS4/GCSE/IGCSE syllabus containing any chemistry (equivalent to USA grades 8-10) and (3) UK based GCE Advanced Level AS-A2 chemistry (equivalent to USA grades 11-12).

My main site is at www.wpbschoolhouse.btinternet.co.uk

[Chris Gardner]

Hello, I'm Chris Gardner and I'm working at Cadbury Sixth Form College in Birmingham, where I teach AS and A Level Sociology to students in a mutlicultural environment. We use IT a lot in our department, and I have put together materials for my students at Sociology Learning Support http://www.chrisgardner.clara.net/ . This consists mostly of self-assessment exercises for students to check their understanding and receive feedback. I have also co-authored a CD Rom for AS Sociology students with two other teachers from the ATSS for Sociology teachers - Janis Griffiths and Mary Morgan.

I'm looking forward to being involved in discussions of Social Science on this forum and seeing what other people are doing in this area.

[Don Henson]

Hello,

I'm Don Henson, Education Officer of the Council for British Archaeology. I have a background in researching British prehistory and have published books on Anglo-Saxon history.

My teaching background is in adult education - tutor for Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds Universities over many years. I currently teach on MA courses at Newcastle, York, University College London and Birkbeck College.

I spent 6 years as a museum and art gallery education officer dealing with primary and secondary schools as well as comunity outreach.

My CBA job covers the whole education spectrum from key stage 1 to higher education over the whole of the UK. I sit on various education committees for bodies like the AQA exam board, the Specialist Schools Trust, the Learning and Teaching Support Network for HE. I chair the CBA/BUFVC Committee for Audio-Visual Education in archaeology.

I run a biennial archaeology and education conference in York (next in 2005) and various one-day seminars every year. I have edited a book 'Education and the historic environment' which is being published by Routledge this month.

My interests lie in the use of archaeological resources in the widest sense across alla reas of the curriculum, and in the wider teaching of all aspects of Britain's past within history at all ages.

Don Henson

[Pauline Crawford]

Hi, I am Pauline Crawford, a secondary teacher from Adelaide, South Australia. Having taught a range of subjects for the last 22 years, I am now at the Australian Science and Maths School in Bedford Park. We are a secondary school within the state system in a joint project with Flinders University.

Our brief is to reform Science and Maths teaching an interdisciplinary curriculum that is ICT rich. This involves writing, delivering and evaluating curriculum for students in their 10th, 11th and 12th year of schooling in preparation for tertiary study. It also involves working with teachers from across the state.

My love is the teaching of English and I enjoy incorporating Information Literacy skills into curriculum areas other than English. As a teacher librarian, I am a amazed at the wealth of information available electronically. My challenge is to assist teachers and students to turn this into knowledge.

I am excited at the prospect of sharing with educators internationally.