Instructors

Alan November is an American educator and educational consultant. He currently lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Alan November is notable in that he is believed to be the first major educator to embrace modern web technologies commonly referred to as Web 2.0 in elementary, middle, and high schools. Alan was one of the initial five Christa McAuliffe Educators, co-founded the Institute for education leadership and technology at Stanford, and is the author of Empowering Students with Technology.

Dan Pink is the author of A Whole New Mind, Why Right-Brainers will rule the future. Dan held his last real job in the White House, where he served from 1995 to 1997 as chief speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore. He also worked as an aide to U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich and in other positions in politics and government.

David Parker and Marcia Wells are practicing public educators with a combined classroom teaching experience of over 40 years, the last 12 of these years spent team-teaching together in a multiage Grade 3/4 classroom at the Newfane Elementary School in Newfane, Vermont.  During this time they have given presentations at national conferences, written articles for publication, and facilitated numerous professional development workshops/seminars for New England educators and community members covering a wide range of subjects, from multiage education and school reform to integrating the teaching of mathematics and inquiry science.

Elizabeth Van Cleef has served as a classroom teacher, math coach and Title I specialist in several schools, including the Multicultural Magnet School in New London, Connecticut. More recently, she has been a Senior Research and Development Specialist for the highly regarded curriculum, Investigations in Number, Data, and Space at TERC, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is a workshop leader for Developing Mathematical Ideas (DMI) and has presented this course for several school districts in the northeast US, receiving very high evaluations.

Erica Denman is a literacy consultant who works with teachers and administrators to help them develop and build their reading and writing workshops, strengthen their teaching of reading and writing practices, and instill independence in their students. Erica specializes in providing teachers with both the "big picture" and practical ideas in the classroom. In addition to working with teachers during the summer and school year, Erica has served as an instructor at The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Summer Institutes founded by Lucy Calkins.

Jane Wilde is a self proclaimed computer geek. She thoroughly enjoys technology and loves to teach people how to use it. Having the rare combination of technical skills and the ability to speak English (rather than computerese) she can show you how to engage your students and enrich your curriculum with computers, cameras, the internet, and multimedia materials. Having begun her teaching career in Special Education, Jane enjoys working with even the most computer challenged student.

Janine Manninen is the Coordinator for Math and Science Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment for the Windham Central Supervisory Union. She teaches research-based math and science lessons in 10 district schools in K-12 classes. Janine is the chair of the Professional Development Committee and is presently in the Doctoral Education Program in Math and Science Education at the University of Massachusetts.

Joey Hawkins has been a classroom teacher at the middle school level for well over 20 years. She has been a writing network leader for the state of Vermont since the inception of the program, and has worked as a writing specialist for Vermont's Department of Education and Vermont Institutes. In addition, Joey has worked with teachers in writing at all grade levels around Vermont, and taught several graduate courses. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College, has a Master's Degree from Dartmouth College, and has worked as a consultant to Harcourt and Measured Progress to help create and review the New Standards Reference Exam (ELA), the Vermont GEs, and the NECAP. Joey has worked extensively with Vermont's writing program at every grade level for many years. She has presented at several national and regional conferences, including ASCD and NEERO. Joey is a member of the Vermont Writing Collaborative and is a co-author of a forthcoming book (May, 2008), Writing for Understanding.

John Tapper is completing a PhD in Teaching and Learning at New York University. His research includes teaching methods that support struggling math learners and the effects of poverty and race on mathematics learning. Before coming to New York, John was the Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment for Barre, Vermont. In the 1990s, he co-founded the nationally recognized Westminster Primary Program, an innovative non-graded public school in southern Vermont. John has provided professional development on topics ranging from mathematics learning to multiage teaching throughout the U.S., as well as in Eastern Europe, and Japan.  

Laura Robertson has taught in the public schools for over 14 years and holds a Master of Arts in Teaching degree with a reading specialist endorsement. She has been a classroom teacher of a single-grade or multi-age classroom in second-fourth grades and is currently a Title One/Reading Recovery teacher in Windham Central Supervisory Union.

Loree Silvis is an experienced primary-grade teacher who left the classroom several years ago to delve into the cognitive research on how young children construct understanding of important foundational mathematical concepts. She led the development of two graduate level courses which focus on number and additive reasoning and she facilitates these courses throughout Vermont. Currently she is exploring the parallels between how children construct an understanding of language and how they construct number sense. Loree recently completed her fourth year as the Primary Level Mathematics Specialist with the Vermont Mathematics Partnership at The Vermont Institutes in Montpelier and has begun a new consulting business, Cornerstone Mathematics Consulting, offering a range of professional development opportunities for primary and elementary educators.

Maxine Minkoff, Ed. D., MPA has been a consultant with Research for Better Teaching for the past eight years. During her 35-year career as an educator, she has been a high school and middle school mathematics teacher, a housemaster at an alternative public school, a deputy superintendent, and a superintendent. She has also done research on educational policy at the state level. Her consulting work includes topics such as instructional strategies, curriculum development, effective assessment practices, school change, school leadership, supervision and evaluation and organization development.

Mollie S. Burke is a Vermont state certified art teacher and painter listed in the Vermont Arts Council directory of juried artists. She currently teaches art at Hilltop Montessori School in Brattleboro, and works as an artist-in-residence in various Vermont schools. She has also presented a number of workshops for teachers at the Vermont Alliance for Arts Education annual conferences. She has an MFA degree in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.

Shelley Vermilya, Ed.D. has been on the faculty at Goddard College for twenty years working in low residency undergraduate and graduate programs. She will be teaching Contemporary Issues in Parenting and substituting in Race and Contemporary Issues this fall in Burlington. The Challenges of Multiculturalism is one of her favorite classes and hopefully you'll feel the same!

Tom McGuire was a middle and high school teacher for 16 years, an elementary principal for six, and a college professor who has taught graduate classes at Antioch and Keene State for over 15 years. He is now is the Director of the Principal Residency Network at the Upper Valley Teacher Institute. He has been an active member of the Coalition of Essential Schools for over 17 years. For the past several years Tom has incorporated the study of the effects of poverty on students and schools and two years ago held a large conference on the subject at Keene State College. Through the many experiences of teaching, creating, and leading Tom sees the Principal Residency Network as the most pure and effective teaching and learning he has witnessed in almost 30 years of professional experiences. The Principal Residency Network began under the guidance of Dr. Dennis Littky. It's foundations are built on developing school leaders and schools based upon social justice and equity for all school community members.