Hi! My name is Katie Newray. I work at Silver Creek High School in San Jose, California. In the past 13 years of teaching. I have been: ELD department chair, English department chair, Turnitin.com Site Lead, teacher consultant for San Jose Area Writing Project, AVID teacher, AP Literature teacher, and one of the first ERWC instructors. I am also the Site Vice President for our union. Recently, I accepted the Journalism Advisor position.

The district and school I work for are Title 1 schools.  My school's population is predominantly English Language Learners.  Silver Creek High School and East Side Union High School District are great places to work.  I love the kids and the adults.  There is a supportive environment, especially from my principal, to continue to grow and test new ideas.  She continually pushes us all to try new ideas and attend new trainings.

In joining the Turnitin Educator Network Forum, I am hoping to expose myself to new ideas.  I believe that good teachers are always looking for new and exciting ways to engage their students.  I am also hoping to gain an even better understanding of EVERYTHING that Turnitin has to offer teachers.  Right now, only 1/4 of the teachers at my site use Turnitin.  I would like to get that number up each school year until we have 100% participation with the tool.

My favorite move is The Princess Bride.  No matter how many times I see it, it is still hysterical.  It provides never ending entertainment, including memes to describe 2020.

My name is Stacey Bergeson and I am coming from  the wonderful Cowboy State--Wyoming. I have played many roles on the path to my current assignment. I started at an alternative school, moved on to juvenile corrections where I was an instructor, district librarian, and English chairman. We moved to Wyoming where I first taught regular old high school English (is there such a thing) to juniors and seniors. I then moved to another high school in the district, where I taught freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Later, I moved to the library, completed a second masters, and began teaching concurrent English to high school seniors. I have covered Yearbook, Journalism, Life-skills, and other miscellaneous classes. Last year, I moved back into the classroom and now teach junior English and the concurrent English composition and literature classes. I also coach the Speech and Debate team. 

Our district is made up of three high schools--one in 'town' and two outlying, rural schools. In total, we have eight high school English teachers, half of which also teach at the middle school level. I have had the opportunity to work in all three high schools and know that we serve a very different clientele at each school. During my 7-year time with the district, I have served under eight different principals. As a department, the three schools work very well together, sharing and collaborating to meet the different needs of our students.

It was in my first masters program where I was introduced to Turn It In as a tool. When I began teaching the concurrent classes, I had access to it for my students through the college. When classes began offering more and more online options, I asked my principal for access to the program. He was very supportive and two of the three schools jumped on board. I am taking this class because, very recently, I was exposed to a small glimpse of how much more Turn It In offers teachers and students. I am hoping to gain some insight and experience in using these tools to make our lives a little less burdened with the plethora of daunting tasks we face each day. My concerns are less about how we, as a district, will use it and share it, and more about whether or not I know enough to actually be here. 

When it comes to movies, I am awful! My students lovingly dubbed me the 3-Second Movie Watcher. While I have grown in this area, I still struggle. So, probably the one movie I go back to again and again--for fun--is True Lies.  I can't even tell you why I enjoy it so much!   

Hi.  My name is Terri Bennett.  I am the K-12 librarian at a small, rural school in western Kansas.  Kansas schools are in the middle of Redesign, and our district is one of seven lead schools in this process.  I just finished my 36th year in education.  My undergraduate and graduate degrees are in elementary education, but I have taught jr. high reading and English, and I currently teach a couple of Entrepreneurship classes in our high school in addition to teaching library skills at all levels.    

I have been a strong advocate for the use of Turnitin for several years now.  My problem is getting teachers wholly on board. We have hosted webinars with Turnitin team members, and a few years ago we had two teachers from a neighboring district show us how they use Turnitin in their English classrooms, but nothing sticks.  I have a few teachers who dabble, but the English teachers do not have buy in for a variety of reasons.  One of those teachers is retiring, so it is my hope to get the new English teacher to realize the depth of this tool.  The teachers using Turnitin are not utilizing it to its full potential.  Upon completion of this course I hope to have acquired the skills to inspire our district teachers to take advantage of this robust tool.

As for my favorite movie, I love anything with Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, or Grace Kelly and all things Disney...especially Mulan.  I love the message behind her character.  

Hi.  My name is Margaret Gregory.  I work at a small Chrisitian school in southern San Diego.  I am the school librarian as well as the Honors English teacher and ELL resource teacher.  I will be training teachers to use TurnItIn next year. I look forward to sharpening and expanding my skills during this summer forum.  Hmmm, not a huge movie fan.  I am currently reading Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.

Greetings and salutations!

I'm Kim Huff, and I currently teach English at Central R-III High School in rural Missouri (about an hour south of St. Louis). This past year was my 7th in the district and my 15th in teaching. I am the Turnitin coordinator and administrator for my school, and the sponsor of National Honor Society and our Gay-Straight Alliance club. I also have plans to start my Master's in Library Science this fall. 

Our high school enrollment is about 600 and is largely made up of students who live below the poverty threshold. Our high school has been recognized by various organizations and platforms for innovation and excellence, but it has also had its share of controversial news. One negative (in my personal opinion) hallmark of our school is that our mascot is STILL the Confederate rebel man, which also means some students frequently fly the Confederate flag as a sign of "school spirit." Especially in light of the recent news events and the fact that we only have 1-3 African-American students in each grade level, it is difficult to feel even slightly ok with our mascot. Otherwise, it is the best place I have ever worked: students are incredibly well-behaved and respectful, we have access to most of the tools that we ask for, and it's small enough to form deep and meaningful connections with students and faculty/staff. 

My broader challenge with sharing information with faculty and staff is the time constraints, but I'm hopeful we can squeeze this in at the beginning of the year. Right now, only our ELA teachers utilize the program, which is unfortunate.

I hope to gain a deeper understanding of the program and, ultimately, to be able to share that with all of my colleagues in the most concise and effective way.

I don't have a favorite movie, but my favorite TV show is a tie between Alias with Jennifer Garner, Seinfeld, and Big City Greens on Disney. Who doesn't like a little espionage disguise among a convoluted end-game and absurd laughter via ridiculous characters? :) 

Greetings!

My name is Michelle Wooding and I have been teaching English at Londonderry High School in southern New Hampshire since 2002. I am a member of our district's technology committee and also help run our college and career center. My school is suburban and serves about 1400 students. One of the challenges I have faced in my district is the lack of technology support. Until recently, our network was unreliable and many teachers did not have regular access to computers for their students. We are making progress, though, and this year teachers finally received their own devices. One of the biggest problems we have with sharing our knowledge of useful platforms like Turnitin is a lack of common professional development time. I hope to use this forum and course to develop a streamlined and concise way of sharing Turnitin with my colleagues (especially new hires) as well as to make sure that I am using everything the platform has to offer my students. I am embarrassed to admit this, but my favorite movie is Titanic.  

Hi!  I'm Jenai Sheffels from Redmond, Washington.  I teach at Tesla STEM High School.  We are a public choice school, which means any student across the district can attend.  It's lottery-based and we are located in a somewhat affluent suburb of Seattle in the second largest district in the state.  I have an incredibly supportive administration, even if as a STEM-focused school, humanities is not always the focus.  We are a Microsoft showcase school (so no Google here).  Since we began 7 years ago, I've taught sophomore English and AP Lang.  This year, I am transitioning to teaching all seniors for Current World Problems and Genocide Studies.  I've served as Technology Integration Facilitator for my building and teacher leader for our Culturally Responsive Teaching and ELL strategies (we use SIOP).  I also serve as a district leader for Holocaust education and am a teacher ambassador and fellow at our local Holocaust center.

Although you would think at a STEM school that we'd be very forward-thinking with technology, my staff gets very stuck in what they've always used.  It is very difficult to get them to envision how they can do something they've always done using new technology or programs. The quarantine has been good to force some of them to try new platforms (even Turnitin!) in order to continue teaching this spring.  We're expecting to start the fall this way, too, although nothing has been announced.

I'm hoping to get new tricks of the trade from Autumn and the team and from fellow educators.  There are some things, like peer reviews, that I continue to struggle with.  I am eager to hear how others might be using the platform that I haven't even thought about.

Favorite movie, hands down, is Top Gun.  I'm so excited for the sequel!!

Hi! My name is Kelly Dolin. I teach in a small, Christian school in Augusta, Georgia. I taught for many years, took a long hiatus to raise four children, and reentered the classroom 5 or 6 years ago. A little thing called the Internet came about during my absence. Needless to say, research, communication, grading, and so many other items are handled differently. I concur with an earlier poster who noted that busy teachers often don't have time to overcome barriers to entry when it comes to yet another platform, no matter how helpful that platform might prove to be. Quarantine has given many of us a crash course in how to deliver meaningful, personal education using new methods. I hope to make Turn It In both accessible and helpful to more of my colleagues. 

Favorite movie? The King's Speech -- a smart, witty story of perseverance under pressure. But I love The Princess Bride! No more rhyming and I mean it! Does anybody have a  peanut?