Teachers

Melissa Kessler is the Technology Department Head at Valley Catholic and is a Digital Citizenship Certified Educator. Melissa also works with Saturday Academy teaching programming courses for beginners.

Pete Steinfeld is recently retired from IBM after 41 years as a software developer and development manager. He’s practiced Agile Development for over 10 years.

Becka Morgan has a recent (2012) Ph.D. in Computer Science Education — her dissertation: “How does a Collaborative Community Affect Diverse Students’ Engagement with an Open Source Software Project: A Pedagogical Paradigm”.

Susan Hamann is one of OregonASK’s STEM trainers. Ask her about the STEM Mentoring Toolkit, Zero Robotics, and science programs for afterschool and other informal environments.

Chris’ “fairly broad background” in professional, academic and educational fields supports developing interesting curriculum that is relevant to students. He still does occasional development work (making websites, designing financial models, etc.) as well as working on a few secret projects for his classroom.

Wade Sims is a jack of all trades: licensed CTE teacher (9.5 years), science teacher (7.5 years), cabinet builder, finish carpenter, general handyman, fiber optic cable installer. He has a BS in Biology and Special Education, and a Masters in School Administration.

Greg Smith (smith_greg@salkeiz.k12.or.us) is a veteran FIRST(tm) Tech Challenge (FTC) and VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) coach, and a long time teacher with a passion for helping students succeed. Currently, Greg teaches computer science, robotics and engineering courses at West Salem High School, while coaching an active VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) club of five to eight teams. […]

Dale has been a stalwart support on the ORTOP tournament circuit as FTC Judge Advisor and FTC Field Tech Advisor. Dale has been bringing his soft-spoken expertise to ORTOP training seminars and SuperQuest workshops for years.

Jason Galbraith started his career with a Master’s Degree in Artificial Intelligence, but then realized he enjoyed teaching more than research. After getting his teaching degree, he landed a job at Sunset High School, where he has been since 2007.

Chris Winikka always loved computers ever since he wrote his first program in the mid-80s on an Atari 800. Even though he majored in writing, he was drawn back to computers when a friend taught him to code his first website on TextEdit in 1995.