Katie Bercury
I studied liberal arts in a Great Books program, majored in English and Philosophy, later studied writing and teaching reading and writing for a masters degree. Taught history, psychology, and English for about ten years, grades 6-12, becoming more and more convinced of the need for education reform and working always self-conscious of teaching history with an accent, as an immigrant to history from my native English & philosophy roots. Found this lead to productive cross-pollination of teaching practices from one discipline to another, and began doing PD as the read/write web emerged. Did literacy coaching and tech integration for a short time, studied organizational management for an education degree, learned web design, and presently direct a TAH project with aggressive technology goals for participants, which I enjoy designing and leading. Here again having a different perspective from most TAH directors and participants, working in history but with more of a technology and curriculum design priority than history content focus. I try to be involved in work that improves the quality of what happens in K-12 classrooms. That's my goal in my professional life. Outside of that, I'm still riding old loves of 20th century poetry, modernist novels, and film but spend more time learning technology than doing sustained thinking/reading.