A student of political science and education, I graduated from St. Olaf College and started teaching 7th, 9th and 10th graders in 1993. (Scary that I am about to finish my 18th year in the Social Studies classroom!) Now I serve as the Technology Integration Specialist for Totino-Grace High School and teach 12th grade US Government and Constitutional & Criminal Law.
When I started teaching, there were a couple of computers in the library, and I don’t think, for the first three years of my teaching, I took students to the computer lab (I don’t think I could have?). During my second year at Totino-Grace High School (TG), we got a computer lab with Internet access. I never looked back.
In 2003, I completed my MA in Educational Technology and teaching adults through the University of Phoenix. It was an amazing two years and it really opened my eyes to the potential of the internet in education.
Since earning my MA, I have given presentations on educational technology at the MN Social Studies Conference, the MN eLearning Summit (2006, 2008), and for the MN Historical Society (2006-present), facilitated round-table discussions for Technology & Learning’s TechForum in Chicago (2007-2010), presented at area high schools on technology in education and web 2.0 tools (ongoing), created and filled a new position as Educational Technology Specialist for TG, teach classes for St. Mary’s University (Twin Cities campus), and started a consulting business, etl: education, technology & learning.
Beyond consulting, in the summer of 2007, I started working with EMC Publishing in St. Paul, MN. I wrote a Constitution Workbook (see pages 25-32 for a sample), PowerPoint lectures for eight chapters of their American Government textbook (Chapters 16-23 plus the multimedia slides in other chapters), and wrote and designed four animated tutorials (you can see one if you take the interactive tour then view the “Animated Tutorial) on the branches of the government and the elastic clause. I also designing PowerPoint games for their Literature program, Mirrors and Windows and I continue to be a consultant to EMC on special projects. Publishing has been quite an interesting endeavor.
What else? Oh, I love sailing, reading Vince Flynn, baseball (go Twins!) working in the yard, camping, the BWCA, days that are 75 & sunny, spending time with friends and family and always, Tim.
No Time to Sleep 
Went to Concordia in Moorhead many years ago. I like what you have set out to do with your students. Would be good to catch up once I get back to MN. I’m in Astana, Kazakhstan right now. You can tell your students that there is a land of Kazakhstan with great mystery and powerful history and that it REALLY exists. I love the people here in this not so familiar land!!!
Look out for the national cheese! 😉 ww
Any suggestions for an easy to learn animation program for world language teachers?