School: Peabody Charter School

Email address: aikens@peabodycharter.org

Linnie Aikens-Avila has been teaching 20 years in Santa Barbara, all grades K-5, specializing in integrated, authentic curriculum design, writing, art, technology and year-long-planning. She is always searching for ways to bring learning alive and help students relate on a deeper level by connecting personally, and thus, more meaningfully. Teaching responsibility and accountability threads throughout all of her units. She founded and teaches Young Masters Art Studio and Young Authors & Illustrators, two after school classes for gifted students in art and writing. In addition to teaching and curriculum writing, she mentors new teachers and assists in staff development.

Victoria Blossom

School: Crestview Elementary School

E-mail address: blossomt@lusd.org

Victoria Blossom currently teaches second grade in Lompoc Unified School District.

School: Ida Redmond Taylor Elementary

E-mail address: Kburke@smbsd.k12.ca.us

Kristen L. Burke has taught in Santa Barbara County for the Santa Maria-Bonita School District since 1997.  Her experience includes teaching first through third grade.

School: Montecito Union School

jcompton@montecitou.org

Judy C. Compton, Ed.D., is a second grade teacher at Montecito Union School in Santa Barbara County. She is a graduate of Ohio University and received the Master of Education and Doctor of Education degrees from the University of Southern California. Dr. Compton is a Mentor Teacher and a fellow of the South Coast Writing Project at the University of California Santa Barbara. She has served as an instructor in the Graduate School of Education at UCSB offering classes in Children's Literature and Reading. She is a member of the Montecito Union School District educational technology committee and works to promote the use of technology in the classroom.

School: Kermit McKenzie Jr. High, Guadalupe, CA

E-mail address: jfoote@sbceo.org

Christian Garfield

School: Cold Springs Elementary School

E-mail address: cgarfield@coldspringschool.net

Christian began the tech program at CSS a seven years ago, transferred to Crane Country Day School to develop a tech program there, and is now in his second year back at CSS. With the launch of a 1:1 laptop program in the 3-6 Grade, teaching computers has become more exciting than ever. Students are using laptops on a daily basis and are becomming increasingly more computer literate. With students more comfortable using computers, Mr Garfield is able to be more creative.

School: La Honda Elementary School

E-mail addresses: hamnerk@lompoc.k12.ca.us, kjhamner@netscape.net

Karen Hamner teaches a 4/5 combination class at La Honda Elementary in Lompoc, CA, a small agrarian community just outside Vandenberg Air force Base. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a master’s degree in Elementary Education from Chapman University. She is currently completing a GATE certification also from UCSB.

Karen also teaches the Yearbook/Photography club and a computer mini-class at her school. She is a trainer for the District’s adopted writing program, Write from the Beginning, and for the Houghton Mifflin Language Arts adoption. In addition she is a School Site Council grade level representative, science task force member, and site computer mentor teacher. She won the La Honda PTA’s Honorary Service Award for the 2002-3 school year.

Karen loves her job and helping her students attain new levels of learning through the use of her mini-in-class-computer-lab of fifteen computers. Her objective for technology in the classroom is to have a computer for each of her students to use in the classroom.

Stacey Hansen has been teaching elementary school on the Central California coast for eighteen years.  She loves technology and has been a CTAP mentor for the Santa Barbara County for the last year. She enjoys spreading the intrigue of technology with her colleges and provides regular training sessions.  She is an artist and enjoys oil painting,digital video editing, taking photographs, and digital imaging. She enjoys integrating the arts into her curriculum.

Danielle Helmer

School: Juan Pacifico Ontiveros School

Email Address: dhelmer@smbsd.net

Danielle has been an elementary school teacher for ten years. She began her career in Anaheim, teaching fifth grade and first grade. She relocated to the Central Coast in 2005, where's she's taught in the Santa Maria Bonita School District since. There, she's taught second grade, a 1/2 combination class, and a 2/3 combination class. Danielle has been a Master Teacher and BTSA Support Provider. She holds a Masters Degree in Education, with a specialization in Educational Technology.

School: Brandon Elementary School

Email Address: shughes@sbceo.org

Susan Hughes is currently a six grade teacher at Brandon School in Goleta, California. She has been teaching for 8 years and has been involved in educational technology even before she became a classroom teacher. She has two degrees in Computer Science and published "Tools for the Students, A K-6 Computer Curriculum". For the last 5 years she has been involved with the "Computer for Families Program" and has been able to place over 60 computers with internet access with families that did not have access to this important technology. She uses e-mail and electronic class letters to keep in close contact with her students and their families. She is really looking forward to the 2003-2004 school year with Brandon TV, A weekly television show about Brandon School produced by the sixth grade students.

School: El Camino Junior High School

Email Address: mrlaurie@mac.com

Luke Laurie is a teacher at El Camino Junior High in Santa Maria. He works with the MESA Program, directs the regional robotics outreach program called RoboChallenge, and teaches a special Robotics Science class to 8th grade students. His honors include the Crystal Apple Award, the Amgen Award for Science Teaching Excellence and Santa Barbara County Teacher of the Year. He also spent a year working on education and environmental policy in the U.S. House of Representatives as an Albert Einstein Distinguished Science Educator Fellow.

School: Aliso Elementary School

Email Address: mmcintyre@cusd.net

About the teacher: Martha McIntyre is a fifth grade teacher at Aliso Elementary School in Carpinteria, California. She has taught in the Carpinteria Unified School District for twenty-eight years, eleven as a special education teacher. Martha is a former a Santa Barbara County CTAP Technology Mentor. She has a master’s degree in educational technology.

School: Goleta Valley Junior High School

Email Address: kmiller@sbsdk12.org

Kim Miller has taught science and math in the Santa Barbara High School District for the past 16 years. She graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in biology, and earned her single-subject teaching credential in science, math, and English through U.C.S.B. She is grateful for her experiences with research at Hopkins Marine Station and in Yosemite National Park for enriching her lessons on the scientific method. Miller has been piloting astronomy projects with the Las Cumbres Global Telescope Network, and hopes to continue original astronomical research with her students as they use remote, research-grade robotic telescopes.

School: Benjamin Foxen Elementary

Email Addresses: cspence@sbceo.org or vmitchell@sbceo.org

Mrs. Mitchell and Mrs. Spence are both seasoned teachers who are deeply interested in sharing new ideas with their primary aged students. They both seek to show their students a connection between curriculum and the real world around them. The two teachers enjoy working together, supporting each other, and strive to give their small-town students a wide variety of experiences.

School: El Camino Junior High School

Email Address: Mikenannie@charter.net

Ann D'Angelo Orton is a teacher at El Camino Junior High School, in the Santa Maria-Bonita School District, in Santa Maria, California. In her efforts to support beginning teachers, Ann has been a BTSA (California Beginning Teacher Mentor), and a CTAP (California Technology Mentor). Ann and her husband, Michael, authored an integrated technology unit posted with the Telemation Project. The unit, entitled "Eruptions," provides students with opportunities to form email buddies and communicate online with volcanologists. Ann is presently teaching health to seventh grade students in a class called, "Skills for Adolescence." You can reach her at Mikenannie@charter.net .

School: Fesler Junior High School

Email: mikenannie@charter.net

Mike Orton has been a 7th and 8th grade teacher in the Santa Maria-Bonita School District, on the beautiful central coast of California since 1991.

He received his degree in social science at U.C. Irvine, completed his credentials at Cal. Poly. San Luis Obispo, and earned a Masters in Teaching from Grand Canyon University. Having been an actor before a teacher, Mike enjoys bringing his talents as a performer into the classroom. He believes an active and positive classroom climate is the means to curriculum mastery, so play it up and have some fun!

School: Ida Redmond Taylor

Email: jrivera@gw.smbsd.k12.ca.us

Jessica N. Rivera has been teaching in Santa Barbara County for The Santa Maria-Bonita School District since 1989. Her experience includes teaching kindergarten through third grade.

She earned her first teaching degree in México where she taught for a year before moving to the US. Later she earned an A.A. degree in Bilingual Cross–Cultural Studies at Ventura college, a B.A. in Art Studio at UCSB, a Bilingual Cross-Cultural Multiple Subject credential with emphasis in Spanish at UCSB, and most recently a master's degree in Educational Technology at Pepperdine University

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School: Crestview Elementary School

Email: severancej@lusd.org

Jenee Severance is a Third Grade Teacher at Crestview Elementary School on Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California. She has taught for 13 years grades first through fifth. She thoroughly enjoys challenging and encouraging her students to always give 100% and to reach for the stars!

Rosemary Soares

School: Dos Pueblos High School

Email: RSoares@dphs.org

Rosemary Soares has been a Spanish teacher at Dos Pueblos High for 12 years. She has taught all levels from 1-2 to AP and MA and BA in Spanish Language . She maintains a site that is very useful at http://listen.to/ms.soares. She is currently the foreign language department chair. She was recently acknowledged as a Technology Ambassador for the Santa Barbara School District and is a member of Student Study Team. She attends conferences for California Language Teachers Association; computer conferences, Equity in Education All Kinds Of Minds-Schools Attuned. She also does simultaneous interpretation at school meetings and is an advisor to clubs such as fiber arts, Junior Statesman of America (JSA) and Animal Rights Club (ARC).

School: Carpinteria Middle School

Email: psperry@cusd.net

Paul Sperry has been a 7th and 8th grade science teacher at Carpinteria Middle School for three years, previously having taught 9th grade science at the Zurich International School, Switzerland. He is a graduate of Humboldt State University in Arcata, California with a B.S. in Biology and received his M.Ed. and teaching credentials from the University of California, Santa Barbara. An explorer at heart, Paul’s motivation for outdoor adventure and academic learning is one and the same. His goal in the classroom is to spread this passion in the context of understanding the beautiful complexity that is our world.

School: Los Olivos School

Email: squiressue@excite.com

Suzanne has taught seventh and eighth grade science, physical education, computer applications, agriculture and art since 1996. She has Level 2 CTAP and CLAD certification and coaches boys and girls volleyball at Los Olivos School. Serving as a facilitator for the UCSB projects Science Partnership for School Innovation and Beyond The Classroom for six years helped her develop several key units using standards and t3echnololgy. She is a Distinguished Educator for the County of Santa Barbara for 2003 and 2004.

Email: tsturgell@smbsd.k12.ca.us

Tracy Sturgell  is currently a Teacher On Special Assignment for Technology in the Santa Maria-Bonita School District in Santa Maria, California, as well as a Santa Barbara County CTAP Technology Mentor.   She has worked in her district for 19 years as an educator in grades 1-6.  Tracy has served as a tech leader in her district since 1984.

School: Joe Nightingale Elementary

Email: tsudyka@orcutt-schools.net

Tracee Sudyka currently teaches third grade at Joe Nightingale Elementary School in the Orcutt Union School District. Tracee has been a classroom teacher for seventeen years, and has taught grades three though six. Tracee has a strong interest in using technology as a tool for learning. Using technology, her students create variety of student-centered projects each school year.

Shawn Tracht

School: Righetti High School

Shawn Tracht lives by the motto, "inspiration is a circle." Whether you are inspiring others or inspiring yourself, inspired work and excitement for the things you do breeds inspiration, which flows in all directions from itself, creating good on the roads one may then travel.

Emailt: stracht@smjuhsd.org

Email: jwright@orcutt-schools.net

Jennifer Wright has been a fifth grade teacher in the Orcutt Union School District for ten years. She was the first Internet Club Leader and in that capacity, went to every school and worked with students to create each school's first web page. She is currently on leave to care for her two children.