Bios

=Janice D. Mertes= Innovation, Creation and Engagement is the motto of 21st century teaching that inspires Janice D. Mertes at Sun Prairie High School. Janice is a National Board Certified Social Studies teacher and James Madison Fellowship Constitutional Scholar who has spent the last 17 years in the Sun Prairie School District. In addition to teaching Advanced Placement US Government, Legal Studies, US History and International Global Realities for part of the day, Janice serves as the district Moodle coordinator, tech integrator and virtual learning integrator focusing on technology professional development and on demand learning resources. Janice created a student technology mentor group at Sun Prairie High School called the student SMART*ies (integrators for excellent schools) to help merge our teen digital natives with our staff digital immigrants.She was awarded the Wisconsin Kohl Fellowship Award, was recognized as a member of the USA Today Teacher Team and received the Wisconsin nominee for the National Education Association I Can Learn Award. In that past five years, Janice has been selected to attend the Microsoft Innovative Teacher Forums twice and was the recipient of the Liberty Mutual National award for technology integration professional work. Janice has been awarded over $10,000 in technology and innovation grants and is currently serving as the Sun Prairie School District Morgridge WTI Lighthouse grant coordinator. Janice has a M.A. K-12 Technology Integration Specialist degree from Nova Southern University, an online teaching certificate and is currently working on her Instructional Technology Coordinator Degree. She has presented at multiple conferences related to 21st Century Teaching and Learning, Innovative Technology Integration and Digital Equity and Access. She currently serves as a national teacher representative for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's iCivics team studying the effects of gaming in education. Janice's next focus on student-centered technology integration will be the leveraging of Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD)/mobile devices and the age of the Digital Interactive Classroom 24/7 to maximize the use of digital resources, collaborative learning and preparation for the global world of work.

=Beth Clarke=

Beth Clarke is a dynamic teacher of students, coach of staff, and professor of adult learners. With 18 years of teaching experience from pre-school to adult, in areas of art, gifted and talented, and technology, Beth promotes an enriching and innovative learning space where successful connections are prevalent. She earned a BA: Art Education from the University of Whitewater-Wisconsin and a MA: Instructional Technology also from the University of Whitewater-Wisconsin. Beth collaborated with a team from Microsoft to create an online high/technical school curriculum for web design, created online lessons for Microsoft's Expression Design, and continues to judge student web sites created for the education department of Microsoft. She is a Thinkfinity, Intel:Project-based Learning, SMART Certified trainer for teachers in Wisconsin. For the past 12 years, Beth designed technology and 21st Century skills curriculum for graduate course studies for Cardinal Stritch University and Viterbo University. Beth presented at the Midwest Education Technology, WEMTA, and SLATE conferences focusing on technology coaching, student achievement and integration of 21st Century skills. Currently, Beth is leading staff development of interactive tools, such as SMART, for the School District of Janesville; as the district is a recipient of a Wisconsin Technology Initiative Morgridge Lighthouse grant. Beth's future endeavors include closing the achievement gap by facilitating 21st Century skills and implementation of mobile devices in education.