Leadership Team

Janice began her career as a middle school science teacher, transitioned to Computers in Education mid-career and finally landed in mathematics education where she directed the Leadership Program in Discrete Mathematics Program at Rutgers University until her retirement in 2009.

She was one of the founders and the volunteer director of Rhode Island Students of the Future project (for over 18 years) bringing robotics and engineering design to K-8 teachers and students statewide and beyond. In collaboration with the MIT Media Lab and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, she lead the pilot for the Learning through Engineering, Art and Design (LEAD) project. She also served as adjunct faculty at both Salve Regina and Lesley University.

Post Rutgers retirement – she was a facilitator for RIDE helping to roll-out the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics and was the assistant to the director of the RISTEAM center at Rhode Island College until 2013.

Presently, working in partnership with CS4RI, she serves as the Director of the Creative Computing with Scratch (CCS) and as a Computer Science Fundamentals facilitator for Code.org. In 2018, Janice was the recipient of Rhode Island’s Jefferson Award for accomplishments in the area of STEAM education and was recognized as a one of Newport Life Magazine’s Top 10 Groundbreakers. Follow her on Twitter @JaniceKowal and follow the CCS project @RIScratch.

Jennifer is a Teacher Librarian at Thompson Middle School in the Newport Public Schools, Rhode Island, U.S. She is a member of the Digital Literacy Leadership Team in NPS. This team collaborated with Dr. Renee Hobbs, facilitator, and NPS colleagues from 2014-2017 to integrate digital literacy in grades K-12; their work continues. She is a FuseRI Newport Early Adopter Teacher and works with Fuse Fellows and the Newport team to integrate blended and personalized learning. She is a Cohort One Member of Newport County’s Creative Coding with Scratch (CCS) initiative, facilitated by FabNewport.

​Jennifer earned her BA in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Northern Colorado (1994), her MA in Library and Information Studies from the University of Rhode Island (1998), and her Graduate Certificate in Digital Literacy from the University of Rhode Island (2016). She is a National Board Certified Teacher (2011) and was named Newport Public Schools Teacher of the Year in 2016. Follow her on Twitter @tmsjen and subscribe to her intermittent PD/DigiLit musings on YouTube @tmsjen.

Amie Shinego is an eight year veteran of the Newport Public School district. She began her journey in Technology Education in 2013 after being a 5th grade ELA teacher for three years. In her five years as the Tech Ed teacher for grade 6-8, Amie has formed numerous community partnerships and piloted programs to bring meaningful experiences to her students. She was an original member of Cohort 1 for Creative Computing in Scratch, and has since worked with fellow teachers to help them bring creative computing into their classrooms. She enjoys utilizing Scratch in her classroom as a means to allow her students to express their knowledge creatively, while gaining the necessary skills to pursue their computer science interests in high school and beyond. In future years, Amie plans to continue her work on bringing the art of Scratch and creative computing to more classrooms and subject areas beyond CS.

Rebekah Gendron has been working in education for 35 years. She began her career teaching Math and Technology Education. For 23 years she was a Technology Education teacher at Riverside Middle School in East Providence. Much of that time was spent teaching Educational Robotics to her middle school students and piloting and teaching Scratch when it first was offered to schools. Rebekah is currently the Director of Instructional Technology for the East Providence School Department but still manages to find time to get back into the classroom. She has been an adjunct professor at Rhode Island College and Lesley University and Salve Regina University.. Additionally, she teaches workshops and offers professional development on a variety of classroom technologies as well as Robotics and Scratch.

​​Rebekah currently serves as the president of the board of the Rhode Island Students of the Future (RISF) and is the Operational Partner for the Rhode Island FIRST LEGO League Robotics program.

Josie is the Director of Instruction at FabNewport, a makerspace in Newport, Rhode Island. Josie teaches workshops and courses both in the makerspace and throughout schools and libraries in Rhode Island. She is the technology teacher for the middle school students at All Saints Academy in Middletown, Rhode Island, a STEAM school, where students learn coding, physical computing and digital design and manufacturing through project challenges. She also teaches Advanced Placement Computer Science at the Providence Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center and Newport Area Career and Technical Center students. In this course, students can earn four college credits through University of Rhode Island while gaining an overview of computer science, coding and potential career pathways in the field. Josie also is a coach for PVD Young Makers, an initiative of the Providence Mayor’s Office to implement makerspaces in all the Providence Community Libraries and the Providence Public Library. In the latest interation of this project, Josie is working with Young Voices to train Providence youth to run the makerspaces in each library.

Ann began her teaching career in 1989 in Montgomery County, Maryland, teaching a self-contained 6th grade class. The highlight of that first teaching experience was jumping into the Jason Project as a new college graduate and introducing her students to a middle school science curriculum project founded by Dr. Robert Ballard (discoverer of the Titanic wreckage). A few years ago, the PBL spark that had been ignited in MD received new energy when Janice and Tom Kowalczyk introduced her to Scratch and she has been hooked ever since. As a Cohort One member of Newport County’s Creative Coding with Scratch (CCS) initiative, Ann uses all platforms of Scratch to teach her students elements of Literature and Writing and Religion at All Saints STEAM Academy. She believes coding in all languages provides an excellent tool for her students to develop skills in problem solving, collaboration, and perseverance. She teaches her classes using PBL and encourages her students to express themselves and their mastery of content using creativity with Scratch.

Ann and her husband Bill have 4 children and 1 grandson. They share a passion for lacrosse and own Team Real Lacrosse, a club dedicated to growing the sport of lacrosse, particularly girls lacrosse, in Rhode Island.

Kristen is currently a 4th grade teacher at Claiborne Pell Elementary School in Newport RI. She began her Scratch journey when she was introduced to it around 2011 by going to monthly educator meetups. Since then she has held Scratch workshops for both children and local educators in collaboration with FabNewport. In her previous job as a 1st grade teacher, she was introduced to Scratch Jr. and used it to enhance her school curriculum. She joined the Creative Computing with Scratch team, as a lead teacher for the K-2 program. She has developed and facilitated workshops for early childhood educators from throughout Rhode Island. The attendees of the workshop learned how to integrate Scratch Jr. and Dash and Dot robotics into their curriculum. Follow her on Twitter @KLKowalczyk.