October
22, 2008 • Pearson Scott Foresman • Glenview, IL2008
Speakers Jay Brandon
Curriculum Analyst
for the Curriculum Instructional Management System
Chicago Public Schools Jay
Brandon, a curriculum analyst for the Curriculum Instructional Management system
at Chicago Public Schools, works with teachers to increase their knowledge of
how to use technology and data to improve instruction. He has 12 years of experience
in education, serving the children of Chicago as a classroom teacher, reading
specialist, and now curriculum analyst. Along with facilitating professional development,
Jay has worked directly with publishers to load content materials into the CIM
system. In addition to education, Jay's interests include spending time with his
family, reading and sports. Beau Clark
Vice President, Product Line Development
Follett Digital Resources Beau
Clark joined Follett Digital Resources in 2008, bringing extensive knowledge of
K-12 eLearning design, development and execution. Studying how teachers consume
curriculum, as well as how publishers increase the overall value of their product
offerings, has given Beau the unique perspective needed to help FDR develop products
to energize K-12 learners. Beau came to FDR from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt where
he was responsible for all aspects of the eLearning enterprise including conceptualizing
and introducing new product models for curriculum management utilizing Web 2.0
technology. Prior to joining HMH, Beau was the manager of eLearning Strategy and
Development at Holt, Rinehart and Winston. In that role, he was directly responsible
for eLearning systems development, working with executive teams to define and
execute a company vision for elearning.
John Connolly
Director of the Curriculum & Instructional Management
System
Chicago Public Schools John Connolly is the director of the Curriculum
& Instructional Management system at Chicago Public Schools. He has 8 years
experience with enterprise wide technology solutions and served as a consultant
for Cleveland, Columbus, and Wichita school districts prior to joining E-Learning.
John has played a key role for CPS in the roll out of CIM and the use of data
to inform instruction. He has been instrumental with the loading of reading digital
content for K-5 teachers at CPS. His innovations and organization of the digital
content have proved to be major achievements for the development of 21st century
skills in the district. John is an avid sports fan and enjoys outdoor activities. 
Sari
Follansbee
President
EdTech Design Associates Sari
Follansbee is an innovator in instructional design, research, and curriculum development.
Her focus is applying digital capacities to product and market expansion with
core expertise in literacy development and learning disabilities. She has held
leadership positions in large and small K-12 companies and educational not-for-profits.
As publisher, evaluator, business developer, and business owner of EdTech Design
Associates she enables increased reach and impact for digital savvy organizations.
Sari has pioneered the creation of products that support and engage students
with diverse backgrounds, abilities/disabilities, and learning styles. She was
instrumental in the unfolding of Universal Design for Learning during her 12-year
tenure at CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology), which included heading
multi-million dollar development collaborations with Scholastic and Harcourt School.
One of Sari’s recent areas of focus is the digital conversion of curriculum
for accessibility and custom publishing. As VP Publisher at AGS Publishing, she
initiated digital editions of print textbook programs.
Sari has demonstrated
efficacy in online practice, heading national and government funded research projects
with Scholastic Network/the Council of Greater City Schools and WebCT. She built
business models instituting subscription partners at Family Education Network
and content licensing partners for JASON Project’s real-life multimedia
science assets.
Sari has taught at all levels from elementary school
and vocational high school to graduate courses and workshops across the country.
She received her B.Ed. from University of Toronto and Masters and Ed.D. from Harvard
Graduate School of Education.
Tim Frick
President
Mightybytes Tim Frick has provided creative
media services to an extensive client list since the early 1990s. His work has
received design, video and interactive awards and has appeared in many publications,
web sites, and television broadcasts as well as at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary
Art. Tim's company Mightybytes has been creating design-driven media solutions
for a wide variety of corporate, education, arts, and not-for-profit clients since
1998. He was an instructor for several years in Columbia College Chicago's interactive
media department and has been teaching classes for Ascend Training on various
design, animation and interactive topics since 1998. He has held positions on
the board of the Association for Multimedia Communications (AMC), as well as on
advisory committees for the Illinois Institute of Art's Animation and Interactive
Media Departments and the Interactive Media Departments of Columbia College Chicago
and Westwood College. Tim is also the author of Managing Interactive Media Projects
from Cengage Learning (formerly Thomson-Delmar Learning).
Jason Fried
Co-founder and President
37signals Jason Fried is
the co-founder and President of 37signals, a privately-held Chicago-based company
committed to building the best web-based tools possible with the least number
of features necessary. 37signals' products include Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack,
Campfire, Ta-da List, and Writeboard. 37signals also developed and open-sourced
the Ruby on Rails programming framework. 37signals' products do less than the
competition - intentionally. Jason believes there's real value and beauty in the
basics. Elegance, respect for people's desire to simply get stuff done, and honest
ease of use are the hallmarks of 37signals products.
Kim
Kleeman
President
Shakespeare Squared Kim Kleeman is president
of Shakespeare Squared, the innovative, full-service educational development company
that provides editorial services to both textbook and trade book publishers. As
“the educated choice,” Shakespeare Squared meets its clients’
individual needs.
Kleeman graduated from Loyola University of Chicago
with a bachelor’s degree in English and a 6–12 teaching certificate.
Before co-founding Shakespeare Squared, she spent five years instructing elementary
and secondary school students.
Inc. magazine identified
Shakespeare Squared as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the United
States. Working Mother Media also recognized it as one of the 25 Best Small Companies
for working parents.
Kleeman continues to develop unique ways to support
education. She recently founded UpGrade Education, a publisher of multimedia educational
products, and the Shakespeare Squared Foundation, a not-for-profit that offers
student teaching scholarships. For these reasons and more, Kleeman is an agent
of change in education and in educational publishing. Patrick
Riley
Director
Rand McNally Education Pat Riley has been a visible
member of the publishing industry for over 30 years. Presently, he is the Director
of Rand McNally Education. He has been a manager with Rand McNally for the last
19 years and led that division for the last 8 years. Prior to that time his publishing
experiences included a sales vice-presidency with Scribner-Laidlaw Publishing,
the Director of Marketing for Laidlaw Brothers Publishing Company and sales and
management experiences with Ginn & Company, A Xerox Education Company and
Prentice-Hall's Junior College textbook division. Mr. Riley is a graduate
of Wright Junior College and North Park University, both of Chicago, Illinois
with a Bachelors Degree in Speech-Theatre. He holds a Masters Degree from Northern
Illinois University in Adult and Continuing Education from their School of Educational
Leadership and Policy. He is a certified classroom instructor in the State of
Illinois where he taught before entering the publishing field. He is an
elected member of the Board of Directors of the Geographic Society of Chicago
and is an appointed member of the Board of Directors of the Regional Transportation
Authority of Northeast Illinois. He is an honorably discharged veteran of the
United States Coast Guard.
Gladys Rosa-Mendoza
Owner
rosa+wesley, inc. Gladys Rosa-Mendoza is the owner of rosa+wesley,
inc., a book packaging company based outside of Chicago. For over 20 year rosa+wesley,
inc. has produced over 500 books and publications for the top publishers like
McGraw-Hill and Pearson Educational, DK, Readers Digest, and corporations like
American Family Insurance and Banco Popular. Her work in the Latino community
has won her numerous awards from organizations like the Pan American Chamber of
Commerce, the Latin American Chamber of Commerce, and the Puerto Rican Chamber
of Commerce. Gladys Rosa-Mendoza is also the author and publisher of the
English Spanish Foundation Series. The number one bilingual children's board book
series in the country. Her series has won 5 Latino Literacy Awards, the Benjamin
Franklin Award, Book//Media award, and 7 Writer's Digest Certificates of Merit.
If you have any questions about the AEP Midwest Seminar, please
contact Jo-Ann McDevitt at
856-241-7772.
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