Celebrating Diversity and Building Community

by Dene Gainey


About Dene

Dene Gainey is an educator and lifelong learner from Orlando, FL with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education (University of Central FL) and a Masters of Education in Instructional Technology (American Intercontinental University) and a current doctoral student. Currently, with eleven years of teaching experience, Dene functions in various capacities in the education world to include: English-Language Arts teacher, Technology teacher, and Gifted teacher. Also, he is the leader and facilitator of two extra-curricular clubs at his current work location: Odyssey of the Mind and Battle of the Books.

Dene has a passion for celebrating diversity, building community, project-based and problem-based learning, as well as the student-driven classroom. As an educator, Dene feels it is his niche to build bridges and fill gaps, not to mention, give meaning to learning experiences and use all of his skills and talents as a means to motivate students to be “more.” As a veteran of the United States Air Force, a singer and songwriter, actor, and author collectively, Dene incorporates various techniques in the classroom to make it inviting for students.

He recently collaborated in EduMatch Snapshot in Education (2016), released in December 2016. He also is a contributing author for the #EduSnap17 edition, as it is a collection of educators in the trenches writing about topics of great interest to them as practitioners. Possessing a genuine love for writing and sharing, he continues to write via his educator blog and will continue to write collaboratively as well as pursuing personal writing projects in the near future. His “one word” that encapsulates his day-to-day role and function in the classroom is “impact.”