PAECT in PA

Kristen Strong Albright is a K-5 STEM teacher for the State College Area School District. She has been a cllassroom teacher, librarian, gifted teacher, and technology coach. She is a National Board Certified Teacher. In 2017, Ms. Albright was awarded the Innovative Teacher of the Year award by the PSBO. Kristen Strong Albright was named PAECT's Outstanding Teacher of the Year for 2021, and she has served as the PAECT Regional Director for the North Central Region. Ms. Albright has presented at ISTE, FETC, KTI, and PAECT, and was a featured speaker in Ghana, Africa at the Tarkwa Teacher Symposium.

Sue is an Instructional Technology Specialist in the Hempfield School District, Landisville, Pennsylvania. She also serves at the South Central Regional Director of PAECT and as a Lead Learner for the KTI Summit 2023.

Kristine Barnes has been a teacher for the past nine years. Eight as a 2nd grade teacher and one in K/1 learning support. This is her first year teaching Explorations K-5. The course combines K-5 classroom standards with STEM with inquiry and project based learning. In addition to being in the classroom she created and manages a STEM backpack lending library and a makerspace in her school.

An experienced educator, Mrs. Colangelo has worked with students of all types throughout her 28 years in education. Mrs. Colangelo earned her bachelor's of science from Geneva College and was named a presidential scholar from California University of Pennsylvania when her earned her masters in Technology Education and Curriculum Design. In addition to working with students, she has worked as an independent curriculum and professional development consultant and educator trainer for companies such as Robomatter, Inc, VEX Robotics, Best Robotics, and Editstock and well as conducted several robotics camps at Penn State Beaver, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Hall Davidson served education for 40 years. In the classroom, he taught on an Emmy-winning mathematics series, while performing improv in Los Angeles. An administrator, he led a county media technology consortium serving 400,000 students. He served on the boards of ISTE, California-affiliate CUE, and state task forces, and students through the nation’s oldest student media festival. He is president of an educational media foundation serving a million students. He has keynoted conferences internationally. He currently serves as Senior Director of Global Learning Initiatives for Discovery Education, serving more than half the schools in the US and countries on four continents.

Patti Duncan is an educator, scientist, technology integration specialist, and professional development trainer. She taught MS and HS science for twelve years, spent 14 years at Discovery Education and currently serves the educational community as the Director of Advocacy & Engagement for Breakout EDU. Patti has over 25 years experience presenting on the local, state, and national level at conferences such as New Jersey Science Teachers Association, NJEA, NJSC, NSTA, Chem-Ed, PASTA, BCCE, PETE &C, FETC, TCEA, ASCD and ISTE. Patti also volunteers as the Marketing Committee Chair for PAECT, the PA ISTE affiliate group.

Megan Foster has worked for Discovery Education for 5 years, supporting Pennsylvania Intermediate Units. Prior to DE, she taught 3rd and 4th grade in Denver Public Schools.

Melissa-Ann is a former high school ELA teacher who now serves schools in the IU12 footprint delivering professional development in literacy, instructional coaching, curriculum, bullying prevention, and assistive technology among others. She holds a BA in English, an M.Ed. in English Education, a Graduate Certificate in Literacy, and is completing coursework for an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction. She is passionate about digital literacy and citizenship and modeling effective practices and best practices for all learners.

Zee Poerio, K-8 Computer/STREAM teacher and advisor for the Student Technology Team at a private school in Pittsburgh, PA, has been teaching for 26 years and serves on multiple educational technology committees, is a teacher ambassador for ed tech companies, and loves presenting at conferences including TRETC, PETE&C, CUE, NYSCATE, and ISTE. Zee was honored as the 2014 PAECT (Pennsylvania Association for Educational Communications and Technology) Teacher of the Year, a 2014 Keystone Technology Innovator, a recipient of a 2016 National Catholic Education Association LLP Teacher Excellence Award, and as the 2020 Carnegie Science Award Middle Level Educator of the Year.

Scott is a 30-year educator. He began his career teaching high school students as an ELA teacher. He's spent the last 8 years as a consultant for a regional service agency (CAIU #15), focusing on coaching, blended learning, technology integration, and diagnostic testing.

Jennifer Toney is a #PAProudEducator and member of the Keystones Technology Innovators Star: Class of 2019 who teaches in Western Pennsylvania. She is a third grade English Language Arts teacher where she focuses on digital and analog blended learning approaches to all things literacy in her departmentalized, gamified workshop classroom. Her scholarly interests include multimodal composition in the elementary classroom, blended learning approaches to literacy workshops with young learners, and English Language Arts curriculum development in the K-5 setting. Learn more about Jennifer by visiting her website: https://sites.google.com/view/jennifertoney/biography or contacting her on Twitter: @JENTONEY.

Eric Verno is 6th grade math and science teacher at Dallastown Area Intermediate School in York, PA. He has been teaching for over 20 years. He also serves as the Vice President of PAECT, an ISTE Affiliate. He is a Microsoft Innovative Expert and Google Certified Teacher. He is continually looking for ways to be creative in his classroom. He has most recently been involved in starting a Lego Robotics Team and incorporating Minecraft EDU into his curriculum.