Mentors+Bios

Mentors, please upload your bios to this page:


 * Theresa Murray** - becoming a business teacher was a career change for me. I had spent 15 years working in pharmaceutical quality assurance when my (then) spouse was offered the opportunity to work in China for two years. We packed up our two small children and moved half way around the world for an amazing opportunity. While there, I worked on my initial master's in the area of quality assurance as I thought it would help explain that huge hole in my resume. Well, plans changed, and when I returned to the States with the kids, the principal at my daughter's school asked me about subbing. One thing lead to another and I was enrolled in a program to get my certification.

Two years of teaching part time while working on my degree and certification requirements, ended in the district cutting all part time positions. I was disheartened but saw an ad in the paper that weekend and applied. The rest is now history as I am still there. I teach at a suburban high school in upstate New York (West Genesee). We have worked to become a comprehensive HS and have four CTE strands approved with NY - two are business and two are technology. I currently teach business law, principles of marketing, business ownership/management, and two semesters of word processing. I have also taught web media and career and financial management here. We have gained articulation agreements for law, marketing and ownership. A majority of my day is spent with juniors and seniors. As a duty, I coordinate our school store and still feel that I need to improve this area of my day.

I found Twitter a couple of years ago and have developed a nice relationship with several educators through this. I attended the first EdCampPhilly last May and was able to put faces with some of the names I only knew through their avatars. This past semester, I served as a mentor for the ECI831 at U of R thanks to the connection to Alec Couros on Twitter and found it a rewarding experience. I am becoming comfortable jumping into conversations and asking for ideas whenever I need something. I have found that there are so many awesome people out there. I have tried many web 2.0 tools and enjoying bringing new things into my classroom. I've started to blog this year but time has started to be at a premium and I am not meeting my goal of one entry per week. Of course, having four new textbooks and three classes for college credit doesn't have anything to do with this!!! What else would you like to know about me - let me know and as others post, I will likely edit this bio.....


 * Heather Laturnas** - Hello! I feel very fortunate to have been invited to be a mentor.

I am a graduate of the Univeristy of Regina's Business Education program. I finished my education degree in 1998 and completed the M. Ed program in 2007. I taught business education courses in Regina at Winston Knoll Collegiate for 7 years before relocating to Alberta with my husband. My first year working in Alberta I taught kindergarten at a school near the joint Canadian/British Military base at Suffield and had a class made up of all British students - I do not feel like I missed my calling as a primary teacher. However, I learned so much from this experience! I have been teaching at Eagle Butte High School in Dunmore, Alberta (5 km east of Medicine Hat) for the last 4 years. Our school serves 400 students from grades 10-12. When I began teaching here my teaching assignment was primarily Information Processing courses. However, this year I started a new position. I am a classroom support teacher/learning coach. I am responsible for providing support to 60 students at our school who have mild to moderate learning disabilities, are gifted, or who are considered to be "at risk." I spend much of my day in conversations with these students and their teachers. I teach one class each semester (Information Processing 10).

I have spent a significant amount of time over the last few years researching and implementing programs that integrate business education courses with other subject areas. My thesis work for my master's program is titled Interdisciplinary Learning in High School Business Education. I currently teach an interdisicplinary course which integrates Information Processing 10 and English 10-2.

On the personal side of things....my husband and I live in Medicine Hat, Alberta with our children. We have 2 1/2 year old twins - Sarah and Owen. They keep us very busy!

I read the information Cyril posted about your classes this semester and I am SO excited about the opportunities you will have. There are so many possibilities to make connections between business education courses and other classes offered in schools. I am really excited to hear about the learning opportunities you create for students!!


 * Ann Kieser **

I am very excited to have the opportunity to work with everyone on this project! It is amazing how easily social applications have made it to connect to individuals separated by great geographic distances.

My journey in business education began a little over 13 years ago when I decided to return to school and pursue my Masters in Business Education with initial teaching certification at Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, PA. I have a bachelor's degree in Economics and prior to returning to school I worked in the finance field for a non-profit organization. Anyway, the decision to leave my job and attend Bloomsburg as a graduate assistant was a choice that has significantly influenced my journey over the past 13 years.

After graduation, I was employed at Mansfield Junior / Senior High school, Mansfield, PA. The school is small school with 500 students, grades 7 -12. I taught business law, marketing, advanced computer applications, computer literacy, computer development, DigiCom, and exploring business. I as active in student activities, serving as the FBLA adviser, yearbook adviser, and class adviser. This year I elected to take and unpaid of leave of absence and am currently employed at Bloomsburg University as the Supervisor of Student Teachers for the Business Education & Information and Technology Management Department. In addition to teaching, I am currently working on my dissertation - which takes up the majority of spare minutes that I have in my day.

I have been active in business education professional organizations, serving on state, regional and national boards. Right now, I am the chairperson of NBEA's Technology Committee - which, if you have not joined NBEAconnect, please do so - @http://nbeaconnect.ning.com/.

I am looking forward to our conversations and to learning from each other in this journey. Here are some of my "digital footprints" that you might find helpful: website: @http://inzpirezone.com/ blog: [] (this blog is just an "infant" - i have decided that if I would like my students to use blogs, I should also). Twitter: akieser

Lindsay Kallas

I actually just graduated from Indiana Unviversity of Pennsylvania in May and I got hired at Glendale Jr. Sr. High School located in Flinton, PA in July! I'm 22 years old so I'm a pretty young teacher, but I'd be more than willing to talk to your students if you need me to. I teach at Glendale School District in Flinton, PA (located right next to Prince Gallitzin State Park). We have a small district with about 850 students, K-12! If you want to check out our website its [|www.gsd1.org]. There is an about me section that will give more background information at the very bottom. I am currently the CFF (Classrooms for the Future) Coach and I teach 2 sections of Word Processing, an Interactive Media class, a Digital Media class, and a Computer Science class. Classrooms for the Future is (typically) a grant based program that certain schools have. What I do when I am "coaching" can be anything from setting up a Smart Board or a Document Camera to helping a teacher with any technology needs. For example, today I helped a teacher make a PowerPoint, I installed software onto a computer for a teacher, I worked with my Superintendent to get pictures taken for posters, and I am about to go help a teacher work with their Smart Board.

Amy Derr

I teach in a comprehensive high school of 1,300 students. Our school is in a suburban community along the shore of Southeastern CT. We have few minority students and those who are minorities are mostly Asian. About 87% of our students continue on to college. We have many A P classes which make our electives-courses that I teach somewhat “less important” to many of our overachieving students and or their parents. The college process is very competitive and many students apply to 6-8 colleges. Due to the economy downturn in the past couple of years, community colleges are a more viable choice for many of our students. The courses that I teach are: Law Work Study Business Management Personal Finance I have been teaching for 19 years and I am our school’s Diversity Team advisor-a school club so to speak. I have a BS in Business Administration and an MS in Vocational Education. Our school website is: http://www.eastlymeschools.org/page.cfm?p=13