I have to say that teaching to me is the best profession I have ever had (previous jobs of mine include professional photographer, desktop publishing, computer courses)

I enjoy working with the students, my fellow teachers (both online and off) and I enjoy the excitement that each day brings. Even though I am relatively new to the profession (I am 46 and I am now in my fifth year of teaching) I have found that being in the classroom is "where the action is". By that I mean, I feel I am having a greater impact on the future of our world by working with that future, the students of today. They are my inspiration and my motivation!

As for technology, well to me, teaching students how to use technology to help them learn is of utmost importance. The world is a totally different place than it was even a short ten years ago. The tools we use every day are different, and so it should be in the classroom. I began teaching at De Wadden Primary School in my hometown of Haarlem, The Netherlands in the fall of 1997. When I began I was hired as a classroom teacher, nothing more. I immediately began integrating technology into the curriculum of my classroom. However, to do that I had to bring the technology to school from my own home, because my school did not have up-to-date computers. I felt it was important to help my students connect with the outside world and I knew the Internet would be the tool to do that. My school did not have Internet access, therefore I used my home dial-up connection as well. Every day I brought my computer back and forth. But it was worth it!

When I was a student teacher in the school year of 1996-1997, I joined those students in a collaborative online project called "The Trees and Forest Project" (hosted by Elanora Heights Elem. School, Sydney, Australia) My students used the Internet to work together with other students on this project and I decided then that it was a great way to learn and that it would be what I would do when I had my own class. So, in the Fall of 1997, when I began teaching at De Wadden, I collaborated with a teacher from the USA, Joan Goble, and we began the project called TENAN: The ENdangered ANimals of the World (http://www.tenan.vuurwerk.nl). It was a success and continues to be...it is an ongoing project for five years now! It involves students from all over the world researching animals endangered or threatened in their area, writing up reports on this and what can be done to try to save them from extinction. In fact, this project now involves students from 77 schools from all over the world. This project gave my students the opportunity to be ambassadors for my school and my community. It showed them that they do have an impact on the world, that they do have a voice and they can make a difference.

TENAN sort of "gave birth" the following year to TESAN: The Endangered Species and Nature of the World (http://www.tesan.vuurwerk.nl) and the following year to Animal Diaries (http://www.tesan.vuurwerk.nl/diaries) which I also cohost with Joan. Both TENAN and TESAN have earned high honors, including Global Schoolhouse Cyberfair awards (1998 and 1999 ). TENAN and Animal Diaries have each won a Childnet International Award. (1998 -TENAN: http://www.childnet-int.org/awards/winners/special/index.html  and 2001 - Animal Diaries: http://www.childnet-int.org/awards/winners/index.html  )

Both Joan and I feel that showing our students how easy it is to work with others, not just from our own schools but from other schools worldwide is getting our students ready for their future because this is a global society and they need to be thinking in global terms. Therefore we continue these online projects, and have even begun a new one called City Quest ( http://www.pabohaarlem.nl/cityquest/project/indexe.html  ), which involves students everywhere reporting on what makes their city or town special. This also gives the students a feeling of pride for their homeland and a way to share the story of their homeland with everyone everywhere! That is what makes the Internet such a strong educational tool for this generation. It is giving them a way to learn and share their learning. A way that has had no equal to it in the past or present! No telling what the future holds!

I am not one to keep all of this excitement to myself. :-) I have, along with fellow online educators, given many workshops and presentations on how to incorporate the new educational technologies, in particular the Internet, into the educational curriculum. A summary of some of them are:
 

• LPC Conferences - The Netherlands, December 1999 and December 2000
• Europees Platform Conference - Rotterdam, The Netherlands, April 2000
• Conference supported by Ministry of Education - The Netherlands, June 2000
• Global Learning Conference - Copenhagen, Denmark, Fall of 1998
• New Frontiers in Learning Conference - Brighton, England, Fall of 1999
• Indiana Computer Educators' Conference - Indianapolis, Indiana USA January 1999, 2000, 2001, and January 2002.
• Childnet International Presentation - Washington D.C., USA, April 2001 (Myself and two of my students met with Joan Goble and two of her students there for an award and we presented to teachers and students there.)
• Millennium International Children's Conference on the Environment - Eastbourne, England, May 2001 (Again, myself and several of my students met up with Joan Goble and several of her students there. Our students presented TENAN to a crowd of over 1000 students and over 500 adults from schools worldwide, 110 countries!)

I have been a member of the Global Educator Team ( http://www.get.vuurwerk.nl  ) for several years now. In early Spring of 2001 I was one of a delegation of the GET team to go to Beijing, China. There I, along with the other GET delegates, met and spoke with Chinese educators about the ideas of collaboration with the use of the Internet. This was especially moving to me, because I found these people to be so very open and hungry for making connections with the world outside of China.

I also am a member of several educational listservs. I believe in lifelong learning, and I have found that listservs offer me another way to keep up with what is happening in the world as far as ICT goes and it also gives me a great network of people to rely on and work with and even give advice to when I can.

I am now the ICT coordinator for my school as well as a sixth grade classroom teacher. (http://www.wadden.vuurwerk.nl). I also teach my colleagues software applications and help them getting the certificates for the European Computer Driving License for Education. As ICT coordinator I have organized several technology projects for my school, including several Internet projects that my colleagues have joined in. For an overview of these, visit my school website at: http://www.wadden.vuurwerk.nl/project.htm

I am very honored to have received this nomination for Global Schoolhouse Teacher Shared Learning Award. If you have any further questions about me or my work, please do not hesitate to ask me more information if you want to have that.

Thanks for the nomination ;-)

Rene de Vries
Primary School De Wadden
Haarlem, The Netherlands