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Hilleary Drake has taught fifth grade for six years in Riverton, Wyoming. Growing up in Texas during the initial wave of the “testing craze” she understands just how harmful it can be when testing drives instruction. She earned her undergraduate degree from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and her Master’s degree from the University of Iowa. While at Iowa she worked with Iowa Testing Progams as a graduate assistant, gaining behind-the-scene knowledge of the testing industry.

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Clair "Tuffy" Reason attended the University of Toledo, where he received his bachelor's degree in education and was a Mid-American Conference Champion Division I basketball player. In the Army, Tuffy was a member of the Border Patrol in West Germany and served as a reporter for the Stars and Stripes military newspaper. After college and the army, he worked in commercial radio as a sportscaster, news writer, and talk show interviewer at stations in Ohio and Michigan.

Kathryn P. Haydon has been an advocate for early second language learning, and has taught and developed curriculum for preschool and elementary school Spanish programs. She has also worked extensively with high-school aged Hispanic students as a college essay writing coach.

Olivia Gutierrez Bolaños is the Coordinator of Curriculum and Instruction in the Santa Maria-Bonita School District where one of her responsibilities is overseeing the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) Program. She taught bilingual education for 11 years and was a principal for 12 years. Olivia comes from a family very similar to the students she has worked with.

Gina M. Estrada Danley has been a teacher of gifted and talented students since 1997. She taught junior high English for 11 years and has served as district GATE resource teacher in the Santa Maria-Bonita School District for 4 years.

Jolene’s experiences came from the fact that she was a “young, naïve teacher with little writing instruction and experience.” The remedy: she became involved in the first writing project in Pennsylvania in the summer of 1980 when she attended the six-week summer writing institute. For the next 15 years she was the co-director of the project with Dr. Robert Weiss at West Chester University.

Dick’s interest in writing and visualizing goes back to his college days at Penn State University when he was a writing major with a minor in photography. After graduation, he traveled the country in a Kerouac-mode working as a photographer. From Maine to Colorado to Florida and every state in between, he met the people of the country and heard their stories. Returning from “the road” he began teaching English in the Athens Area School District in Athens, Pennsylvania.

Stephanie taught first and second grade where creative writing was a part of the language arts curriculum. She encouraged her students to be storytellers and write their stories down; not just Stephanie, but also her students and school community heard and saw the power of their stories through their authorship. Years later, Stephanie was offered a position as a reading specialist in a public school in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Dr. Martin R. Sheehan, integrates a background in research psychology, Direct Instruction, special education, and media development. He is the owner of Double S Instructional Systems and has received federal funding for over 10 National Institutes of Health Small Business grant projects.

Robin Thompson is curriculum coordinator for Manatee High School. Prior to this position, she served as reading coach and an intensive reading teacher at the high school, and taught various elementary and middle school grades. Thompson enjoys the process of designing, building, and launching professional learning networks. Her degree is in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in literacy, and she is especially interested struggling adolescent readers.

A graduate of the University of Florida in educational technology, I lean towards the concept of connectivism when it comes to educating adolescent and adult learners alike. In today’s digital environment it is more important than ever to explore the biology of the human mind as well as the tools that exist outside the human mind that aid in learning. I have experience teaching both English and reading in grades 6-12.