Nancy Flanagan

Nancy Flanagan, USA, Primary, Secondary

Nancy Flanagan is a 31-year teaching veteran (K-12 Music) who recently retired from Hartland (MI) Consolidated Schools, and is now pursuing a career as an education consultant, working on diverse projects around teacher leadership, education policy, mentoring new teachers and education blogging.

She was Michigan Teacher of the Year in 1993, a Danforth Teacher Leadership Fellow, and a featured teacher in the Annenberg/PBS Learning Classroom series. From 1994-2001, Nancy co-moderated the State Teacher of the Year online community for the U.S. Department of Education.

Nancy became a National Board Certified Teacher in 1998 (Early Adolescence Generalist) and worked for two years as a Teacher in Residence with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and as a consultant with the Michigan Education Association.

She co-created and taught a Web-based graduate teacher leadership course for Virginia Commonwealth University, and is an active member of the Teacher Leaders Network.

Teacher in a Strange Land - currently offline
A veteran teacher reflects on practice and policy in American schools. Inconsistencies, inspirations, the incomprehensible, immoral and imaginative in education

Theme: teacher leadership, teaching profession, teacher training, professional
development, public education, education policy, music, learning technology,
educational change, 21st century learning

Andrew Fraser

Andrew Fraser, Australia, Primary, Secondary, Teacher Professional Learning

I am an educator with over 25 years as a teacher and leader and am presently a team leader with the Learning Services team of a non-government system of 77 schools in Western Sydney.

I am passionate about learning for both students and teachers and am committed to the strengthening of the teaching profession, and enhancing the capacity of teachers to be leaders for learning in the 21st Century.

My current responsibilities include researching, promoting and developing innovative practices and paradigms for effective learning and teaching, and supporting processes for building teacher capacity.

Prior to this I was a leader with a non-government system of 114 schools in metropolitan Sydney and was a key team member in developing the system’s Learning Framework and Assessment is for Learning statement.

In 2006 I was fortunate to travel on a Churchill Fellowship which took me to Canada, England, Scotland and Germany to examine teacher-led innovation and development to improve professional practice.

A Piece of Me in the World
- Thinking about education today for tomorrow: possibilities and solutions.

Originally started to document a Churchill Fellowship in 2006 studying teacher-led innovation and development to improve professional practice, this blog has developed into a space for musings on 21st Century learning. Of particular interest are creativity and innovation in education, teacher inquiry and knowledge building, developing Next practice, transforming schools and 21st century learning.

My thoughts meander through the philosophical, the pragmatic, the possible and perhaps the impossible!

Theme: 21st Century learning, educational change, educational transformation, educational leadership, innovation, creativity, learning and teaching, teaching profession

Stephanie Sandifer

Stephanie Sandifer, Texas, USA, K-12, Post-Secondary, Education Policy & Innovation

Professionally I am currently serving as a campus-based Literacy/Instructional Coach at an inner-city high school. I have experience teaching at the K-12 and college levels, and have served in the administrative roles of School Improvement Facilitator and Dean of Instruction at the high school level. I am very interested in exploring innovations in education and I firmly believe that the education system in the United States is in desperate need of complete reinvention if we hope to be able to collaborate globally to improve quality of life for citizens of every country.

I am particularly interested in classroom instructional issues, technology integration/infusion, distance education, and education leadership and policy issues. I have been blogging since March of 2006 and can no longer imagine being a professional educator/learner without an online personal learning network. I believe that my role as an educator demands that I be a learner first and that I model my learning for my students and my fellow educators.

Personally I enjoy spending time with family and friends, and I love being with my two newborn twins who have enriched my life dramatically in recent weeks. I strive for a healthy work/life balance that allows me to make a difference in the lives of others through my profession while also being the parent and partner that I need to be for my family.

Change Agency - currently offline
Change Agency covers professional topics in education, education reform & school improvement, technology integration, art education, professional development and leadership for 21st century education, web 2.0 in education, and a variety of other educational innovations.

Theme: school improvement, educational change, education innovation, edtech, instructional technology, web 2.0, art education