Session Presenters

Thank you to all of the presenters who generously volunteered their time and expertise!

Kristen Beland

Kristen Beland has worked in N.K. for 16 years. For the first 6 years she worked as an Integration Specialist through the SMART program. Later she transitioned into a classroom. She's been in fourth grade for the last 9 years. She loves giving students a multitude of opportunities to learn, technology being one, and thinks it is very important for kids to have the opportunity to present their knowledge in many ways.

Christina Broomfield

Christina has been a elementary classroom teacher in North Kingstown for 8 years. She has taught grades 1-4 and served as her school's Technology Lead Teacher where she facilitated school- and district-wide technology based professional development opportunities for teachers and support staff. This year, she is working as a Teacher-in-Residence with the GEMS-Net team at the URI Bay Campus. Her passion for STEM education and blended learning is evident in her professional development workshops and daily classroom culture.

Grafton Bucklin

Grafton has been a teacher at North Kingstown High school for 14 years following a 15-year career in finance and banking. He is currently a math teacher with NK and a Highlander Institute participant. Grafton has been working on integrating technology into the classroom to create a blended learning environment which allows student access to personalized learning.

Mark DeLucia

Mark DeLucia currently serves as the World Language Department Chair and Technology Lead Teacher at NKHS. He has been teaching at the high school since 2005.

Jen deWardener

Jen deWardener has been teaching in North Kingstown for 15+ years. She has been in first grade for the majority of her teaching career. She enjoys collaborating with other teachers on new digital programs and tools.

Jessica Dubois

Jessica DuBois has been a Reading Specialist in the district for over 20 years. For the past 6 years, she has been the District Literacy Curriculum Coordinator at the Elementary level. Jessica is certified in Elementary Education, Reading Specialist/Consultant, Reading Recovery, Orton Gillingham, as well as a trained Literacy Coach at the East Bay Collaborative. This past year, Jessica participated the after school Stony Lane Book Club for grades K-5.

Cathe Franco

Cathe Franco teaches 3rd grade at Forest Park. With 20+ years as a special educator and in the regular classroom, she is always looking for innovative ways to create differentiated learning communities.

Rick Gagnon

Rick has a diverse work experience which includes 12 years teaching High School and Middle School Science and Physics and 10 years running a small business in RI. Having landed in North Kingstown he believes that it's a place in which he can continue to learn every day on how to make his classroom more conducive to learning. He has the passion of sharing his knowledge of how to make "real life" connections to both his students and colleagues. His mantra is to be "peaceful" in whatever is pursued and that there is no rush on anything. He enjoys conversations with colleagues and students and has an open mind to educational reform.

Brian Garrepy

Brian Garrepy is a fifth grade teacher at Forest Park Elementary School. He has taught fifth grade for 14 years. He is also a coach for the NKHS volleyball team and Johnson Wales volleyball team. He also teaches robotics at Forest Park.

Brenda Glover

Trish McAuliffe and Brenda Glover have been teaching first grade since the last ice age, most recently at Forest Park. They have been using technology in their classrooms for several years and each year they toss what wasn't effective, keep what was, and add some new things. They enjoy finding the humor in the crazy chaos of the first grade classroom and moments of authentic learning that occur when you stop trying so hard.

Sophie Goodstein

Sophie is a graduate from NYU Shanghai and has just recently moved to NYC after spending 5 years abroad. She is now the Business Development Manager of the East Coast for SAM Labs where she travels around major cities on the coast trying to make coding accessible for all teachers and students. She was an International Marketing Major but was inspired to join SAM Labs because she didn't possess the digital/coding skills to pursue her major and wanted to be part of a company that provided a solution that would have prevented this issue and also allows kids to be better prepared for the future.

Chris Keefe

Chris Keefe teaches fifth grade at Fishing Cove Elementary. She loves teaching writing, but scribbling out corrections and suggestions? Not so much. Three years ago, she was determined to throw out her red correcting pen and learned how to use Google Classroom to deliver assignments and provide thoughtful feedback to her students. She's happy to share her tips with you.

Linda Law

Linda Law is the Media Specialist at Hamilton Elementary School and Davisville Academy. She has worked as a Media Specialist in five of the seven schools currently in the District (excluding Stony Lane and the NK High School).

Trish McAuliffe

Stephanie McKiernan

Stephanie McKiernan has been an educator in the North Kingstown School Department for 28 years. She taught grades 2, 3, and 4 before becoming a Reading Specialist at Quidnessett Elementary School. In 2016, she was proud to become the Technology Lead Teacher at Quidnessett and enjoys collaborating with her colleagues to integrate technology and literacy into the classrooms.

Andrew Propatier

Andrew has been teaching English at the high school in this district since 2003. He has been “online” since he started teaching and volunteered to be a test Chromebook class and has since gone paperless in his teaching. His favorite author is the graphic novelist, Alan Moore, and favorite character is Paul Atreides from Dune, and his hero, whose example he uses to navigate the world, is Martin Luther King Jr.

Jessica Rodrigues

Jessica is entering her 15th year teaching. Her first 12 were spent in the 7th grade LA classroom. After obtaining her cross endorsement as a Media Specialist, Jessica began working with elementary students in Groton, CT and Warwick, RI. She attended ISTE in Chicago this past summer and is passionate about learning more about technology and collaborating with teachers. Jessica is a Nearpod PioNear and a NewsEla certified educator.

Dina Santos

Dina Santos is a first grade teacher at Quidnessett Elementary school. She has been teaching for 6 years and has experience in special education, 1st, 2nd, 5th grade. She enjoys using digital tools to help differentiate in her classroom.

Darshell Silva

Darshell Silva has been a Teacher Librarian for 13 years and is the new Librarian at Quidnessett Elementary. She participates in a variety of educational organizations as a board member and leader and delivers technology integration and library related professional development. When not working she enjoys scrapbooking, making mixed media art, and spending time with her family.

Stephen Skaggs

Stephen has been an elementary teacher for 21 years. In 2014 he became the technology lead teacher for Stony Lane Elementary. Stephen has wide knowledge of Google Applications for Education and has presented in past summits on Google Sites, Google Slides and Google Forms.

Jenna Smith

Jenna has taught kindergarten at Forest Park for the past 3 years. Prior to that, she worked as an elementary substitute throughout the district. She loves working with kids and enjoys having fun throughout the day with her students!

Richard Sweetman

Rich has been a teacher for 9 years. In 2016 he came to North Kingstown High School to teach science/chemistry for the North Kingstown School Dept. He likes to collaborate with colleagues to develop multiple options for student learning in and across content areas .

Sue Vogel

Susan has been a middle school math teacher for 17 years at Davisville Middle School and 1 year at Wickford Middle School. By regularly attending the Highlander Institute Summits the last several years, she has gained valuable resources that she employs in her math classroom. She is excited to share these tools with her colleagues. Susan has witnessed first hand that blending technology with math instruction promotes personalization, engagement and success for her students.

Dan Weidmann

Dan joined the EVERFI team in 2017 in search for a career in education after spending the past 6 years as an assistant men's basketball coach at Roger Williams University. He currently lives in Bristol, RI and works for EVERFI as an implementation manager, support districts and teachers incorporating EVERFI's digital resources. He is passionate about providing kids the tools necessary to be successful in all areas of life.