Dave Sanders:

Dave Sanders enjoyed fifteen years as a classroom teacher and has spent another ten years working for the Austin school district in areas of technology support. He is currently the Director of Educational Technology, which is part of the Curriculum Department. His team's job is to facilitate the integration of technology into the core content supporting Austin's 80,000 students and 6,000 teachers on approximately 100 campuses.

Gayle Short:

Originally from San Antonio, Northside ISD, Gayle has been secretary to the Director of Educational Technology and support to the Technology Facilitators for the past eight years. Prior to ET she worked for two years in Language Arts at CAC. She manages the distribution of the technology allotment purchases and provides support to campuses regarding purchasing technology items.

Jennifer Tovar:

Jennifer left us in 2006 to pursue the medical field after completing her certification as a Medical Assistant. We welcomed her back in late 2008 and she enjoys working in the Educational Technology Department and helps out wherever she can by assisting all staff. Jennifer also has a beautiful and happy little girl name Sierra!!!

Larry Gerulis:

Larry has been with Educational Technology for more than ten years. He enjoys assisting teachers with the integration of technology into every day curriculum.

 

Arturo Guajardo:

Arturo is an Educational Technology facilitator for the Austin Independent School District specializing in emerging technologies and the use of digital media with ELL/Bilingual students. He has developed and led numerous Educational Technology staff development sessions and has presented at various conferences including the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC), Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA), Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC)and at the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE).

An experienced educator, he taught third, fourth and fifth grade bilingual students for ten years in Austin ISD. In 1999, he was honored as the Mollie Dawson Teacher of the Year and was a semi-finalist for AISD Teacher of the Year.

Diane Gustafson:

Diane is a graduate of Southwestern University with a Master's of Math Education from the University of Texas. She is undoubtedly the most energetic of all ET staff. Diane's experience includes working as a primary classroom teacher, a stint with IBM, and raising two gorgeous daughters. Currently Diane is working closely with the High School Redesign initiative.

Josie Hughes:

Prior to joining the Educational Technology team, Josie served as a bilingual teacher and a pre-kindergarten to fifth grade campus Instructional Coach and Technology Specialist. She also served as an Instructional Facilitator for bilingual teachers in the Education Certification Program at the Education Service Center Region XIII.

Josie has provided professional development to educators PreK-12 since 1998. She is an Intel Teach Master Teacher, a Discovery Star Educator, and a cofounder of the Austin Student Digital Film Festival.

Vanessa Jones:

Vanessa Jones is an Educational Technology Facilitator for the Austin Independent School District. She is a Senior Trainer for the Intel Teach Program, a PBS Teacherline online facilitator and a Discovery Educator Network “Star Educator.”

She has always been a lifelong learner and an innovator of curriculum. She continues to strive to make sure both students and teachers learn, succeed and apply essential 21st Century skills to their everyday lives. She enjoys creating a cohesive learning community in which everyone shares ideas, applies knowledge, gives feedback and makes reflections on their learning experiences. Her goal is to continue to develop a community of learners.

Howard Martin:

Howard works tirelessly to bring technology support to the classroom. Working with teachers and students, he brings his level of expertise with blogs, wikis, and Web 2.0 apps and his classroom experience to help develop a rich curriculum-centered classroom that takes good advantage of technology.

As a published educator, member of the Austin Student Digital Film Festival, committee member for the TCEA 2009 Student Film Festival, national conference presenter and father to the two greatest elementary students in Austin, Howard is committed to bringing technology training to the teachers and campuses his works with.

Juan Orozco:

Juan Orozco is an Educational Technology Facilitator for the Austin Independent School District and has been an educator for 13 years. Juan is also an Intel Teach Master Teacher, PBS Teacherline facilitator, and Discovery Star Educator.

Education- Bachelor's degree in education from Hunter College of the City University of New York. Master's degree in Educational Technology through a two-year distance learning, online program from the University of North Texas, and a Masters in Educational Administration from Texas State.

"On demand professional's development, or online learning allows individuals to work with other professionals from all over the world and takes into consideration the time and distance dilemma we all face when considering professional development."

Hanneke Portier:

Hanneke (pronounced like the Jewish Holiday) came to AISD in 2001 after a 5 year career as a video producer at the Texas Education Agency. Currently, in addition to producing classroom video for Professional Development purposes, Hanneke is the webmaster of the Bureau of Curriculum. Hanneke has 2 sons, Jesse and Louk.

Scott Robuck:

Scott is the Video conference coordinator for the Austin ISD. Scott began his career as a Physics teacher at Bowie High School. Scott then moved to the Educational Technology Department where he supported the integration of Technology for all AISD High Schools. He then took on the daunting task of constructing a distance-learning lab at each high school in the district. Not only was Scott successful in building a lab at each high school he also provided distant learning opportunities for middle and elementary school students as well.

Diane Sidoroff:

Working in education for 20 years, Diane Sidoroff has taught students in mathematics, reading, business, and technology at the secondary level. In addition, Diane has completed her principal certification at Texas A&M - Kingsville and is currently working on her doctorate in educational leadership at Texas A&M - Corpus Christi. Having moved to the Austin area in September to start her position as an Educational Technology Facilitator, she is enjoying finding out about all the area has to offer. Recently, Diane has purchased her first home in the Pflugerville area and is enjoying decorating it.

Marc Thrall:

Marc was found in a basket on the steps of Ridgetop Elementary in 1993. He has been with the district since. He spent 7 years in the classroom before being spirited off to a cubicle in the Educational Technology department in October 2001. Turn ons are multimedia and audio-video production. Turn offs are mean people. Marc lives in North Central Austin with is wife, teenaged son, two dogs and his imaginary friend Bosco the Wonder Ferret.