Teacher Tech Summit 2021

Building on his career in education that has focused on various initiatives that focus on strengthening the teaching profession, at the beginning of the pandemic, Vikas brought together friends with the specific purpose of helping teachers and schools navigate the ’new normal’ more effectively. 

These efforts have resulted in T4 becoming an online global community of teachers and schools supported by a wide range of influential organisations and leaders who have joined hands to ensure all children can fulfil their potential.

Vikas serves on the following boards:

Trustee, Artists in Residence

Member, Global Future Council for Education & Skills, World Economic Forum

Member, High-Level Steering Group, The Education Outcomes Fund

Member, Advisory Board, Educate Girls

Member, Advisory Board for Africa, Teach for All

Learn more and connect with Vikas on LinkedIn.

Follow Vikas on Twitter: @VikasPota

A teacher since 1993, Ross created the Teacher Toolkit website in 2007 which was largely hidden away from the world until he switched to a Twitter account in 2010, sharing blog posts and classroom resources. Soon, the demand for his teaching and learning ideas spread rapidly across social media, reaching over 14 million people in 190 countries around the world.

Ross empowers all teachers to reduce their workload and become more effective in their classroom. With over 2,500 blog posts on the site, there is no aspect of school life untouched…

In November 2020, Ross was listed as one of 10 LinkedIn Top Voices in Education. In 2015, Ross was nominated as one of the ‘500 Most Influential People in Britain’ by The Sunday Times. Ross Morrison McGill, also known as @TeacherToolkit, is the ‘most followed educator on social media in the UK’.

He works with pupils, teachers and school leaders all over the world, supporting teaching and learning, workload and mental health. His website has been accessed by 13.5 million teachers.

A former deputy headteacher, Ross has been teaching for 27 years working in some of the most challenging secondary schools in London. Today, Ross is working on his 8th teaching book, studying for his EdD at Cambridge University and training teachers across the world.

Follow Ross on Twitter: @RossMcGill

Matthew Granados leads the Semi-Formal Curriculum Pathway in the primary department for Swiss Cottage School, Development and Research Centre. Matthew shapes approaches for developing learner independence, and is passionate about the way technology is used to extend these learning opportunities from school into the home environment.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @MattGranados1

Theresa “Tree” Martus has worked for over 15 years with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library (Charlotte, North Carolina, United States) and has held many positions within this organization.  She possesses a MA in Children’s Literature from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and an MLIS from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  She has provided library workshops and training for educators and other librarians and has taught courses at both UNC-Charlotte as part of the English Department and for UNC-Greensboro’s MLIS program. She currently works as a Senior Library Assistant at the Mint Hill Branch Library in Mint Hill, North Carolina providing library services for children and teens as well as programming for teens and adults with special needs and those struggling with dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Carla Aerts is the Founder of Refracted! an online global inter-disciplinary learning and education community, Carla, an inter-disciplinarian and change-maker, mentor and is often involved in the reinvention of education programmes. An EdTech thought leader and learning scientist, she recently ran a global EdTech catalyst and Think Tank: the Tmrw Institute bringing international education stakeholders together: from policymakers, EdTech start-ups to learners. She also ran the Next Billion EdTech Prize for start-ups in the Global South and resource-poor contexts.

Carla was Director of Futures at UCL – Institute of Education in London, where she developed new strategic initiatives and ran an EdTech start-up programme that mentored 250 start-ups in impact evidencing and research as well as strategic and product development. Prior to this role, Carla was Global Digital Director of Education at Cambridge University Press. She has led on EdTech product developments and ran digital education programmes across Europe, India, Japan, Korea. She has provided advisory input for education reform and policy programmes.

She has mentored over 100 start-ups and non-profit organisations, an activity she enjoys hugely.

Most recently Carla mentored non-profit organisations working in refugee camps and socio-economic deprived contexts, affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Carla speaks and moderates at international conferences appears on podcasts and is a member of the WEF Expert Network on AI and Childhood. She also sits on a number of boards and advisory boards. She is a governor at her local rural primary school.

Follow Carla on Twitter: @underthebanyan

Dr Sara Hennessy is a Reader in Teacher Development and Pedagogical Innovation in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK. She is a Research Director of the EdTech Hub, investigating the potential for using educational technology to raise outcomes for marginalised learners in low- and middle-income countries. Her particular focus is on teacher development including producing open, multimedia professional learning resources supporting technology use in sub-Saharan African schools (oer4schools.org) and classroom inquiry into educational dialogue (bit.ly/T-SEDA). 

Follow Sara on Twitter: @SaraHennessy7

Michael Hernandez (website) is an award-winning cinema and journalism teacher in Los Angeles whose work focuses on digital storytelling, media literacy and social justice.  As an author, speaker and consultant, he helps educators empower students to find passion and purpose in their learning so that they can make a positive impact in their communities.  Michael believes in the transformative potential of technology in the classroom, and fosters an innovative mindset based on student curiosity, creativity, and passion. His presentations at conferences in the U.S. and abroad for ISTE, SXSW EDU and Apple Education focus on tech integration and innovative teaching and learning strategies. He also leads students and teachers on documentary trips to Asia and Latin America as part of an experiential learning program.

Michael was recently selected by National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions as a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow for 2021. He is an Apple Distinguished Educator, Adobe Education Leader, and PBS Digital Innovator. 

Follow Michael on Twitter: @cinehead

Dr Sara Hennessy is a Reader in Teacher Development and Pedagogical Innovation in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK. She is a Research Director of the EdTech Hub, investigating the potential for using educational technology to raise outcomes for marginalised learners in low- and middle-income countries. Her particular focus is on teacher development including producing open, multimedia professional learning resources supporting technology use in sub-Saharan African schools (oer4schools.org) and classroom inquiry into educational dialogue (bit.ly/T-SEDA). 

Follow Sara on Twitter: @SaraHennessy7

Elissa Aoun is a Lebanese KG1 preschool English and Math teacher at Saint Joseph School, Cornet Chahwan, Lebanon. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Education: School Management and Educational Leadership. Elissa holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education and a Teaching Diploma in Education both from Notre Dame University, Lebanon.

Lama Nassif is a Lebanese Educator and is a KG 1 preschool teacher at Saint Joseph School, Cornet Chahwan, Lebanon. She teaches English and Pre-math. Previously, she was also a grade 3 and 4 teacher. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education and a Teaching Diploma both from the University of Balamand, Lebanon.

Panchali Dutta is a Physics and Mathematics teacher in India. After her initial teaching experience, she joined Avanti, an NGO which uses technology to help learners in government schools excel in mathematics and science. She has led a project in 59 schools that have now been scaled to over 240 schools in the state of Haryana in India

Andrew Jack is global education editor at the Financial Times, writing and overseeing its business education coverage and its free schools access programme. He has been a journalist at the FT since 1990, including as Paris correspondent, Moscow bureau chief, pharmaceuticals correspondent and head of curation. He is the author of the books Inside Putin’s Russia and The French Exception. He received an MA (Hons) from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, was the Joseph Hodges Choate Memorial Fellow at Harvard, and a Visiting Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford.

Follow Andrew on Twitter: @AJack

Andreas Schleicher is Director for Education and Skills at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He initiated and oversees the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and other international instruments that have created a global platform for policy-makers, researchers and educators across nations and cultures to innovate and transform educational policies and practices.

He has worked for over 20 years with ministers and education leaders around the world to improve quality and equity in education. Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that Schleicher “understands the global issues and challenges as well as or better than anyone I’ve met, and he tells me the truth” (The Atlantic, July 11). Former UK Secretary of State Michael Gove called Schleicher “the most important man in English education” – even though he is German and lives in France.

Before joining the OECD, he was Director for Analysis at the International Association for Educational Achievement (IEA). He studied Physics in Germany and received a degree in Mathematics and Statistics in Australia. He is the recipient of numerous honours and awards, including the “Theodor Heuss” prize, awarded in the name of the first president of the Federal Republic of Germany for “exemplary democratic engagement”.  He holds an honorary Professorship at the University of Heidelberg.

Follow Andreas on Twitter @SchleicherOECD

Tackling big social problems and working alongside fantastic people is what keeps me going. I am inspired every day by changemakers – real people who put the interests of their community first.

As a São Paulo native and CEO of the Lemann Foundation, I work through the Foundation every day in pursuit of a future where far more Brazilians are given the opportunity to succeed.

We believe deeply that it is only by advancing Brazil’s talent and investing in whatever it takes to help people reach their full potential will we advance as a country. To do that, we invest in two crucial areas: improving public education and supporting social leaders who are dedicating their lives to positively impacting our country.

Since 2002, we have worked within local communities and collaborated with national decision-makers, policymakers and international partners to create real impact: 860k students have benefited from our “management for learning” program; 26,000 teachers and educational managers have been trained by our programs; 40 million people have used the education technology solutions we support; more than 500 of Brazil’s most ambitious leaders have joined our international fellowship program; and dozens of leaders in the health, education and public sectors have benefitted from development programs and networks we support.

Before joining the Lemann Foundation, I founded the Sou da Paz (I Am for Peace) campaign in 1997 to reduce gun violence in Brazil. In my 12 years as Sou da Paz’s executive director, I contributed to the drafting and approval of the Disarmament Statute, a globally recognized legislative act regulating guns. Sou da Paz’s violence-prevention projects were instrumental to the 80-per cent reduction in homicides that took place in São Paulo over the last decade, as well as to the introduction of crime prevention initiatives at the national level. I continue my work with Sou da Paz today as chairman of its board.

Andria Zafirakou, a teacher at Alperton Community School in Brent, won $1 million when she was crowned the best teacher in the world by the Varkey Foundation.

Andria was born in northwest London to Greek-Cypriot parents and state-educated in Brent and Camden.

She is an art and textiles teacher in Brent on the outskirts of London, one of the world’s most ethnically diverse places. She is passionate about education and changing the lives of young people and underserved communities through creativity.

She has worked her entire teaching career of 14 years at Alperton Community School and was promoted to Deputy Head of Art within a year of her arrival. She is now Associate Deputy Headteacher leading on staff professional development.

Using the prize money awarded by the Global Teacher prize, Andria founded a charity called Artists in Residence (AiR) with an aim to improve arts education in schools.  

Andria has also been named in the top ten of The Evening Standard’s 1000 Londoners List, a list of the most influential people in London. She is a Culture Leader for the World Economic Forum’s as well as a member of their Global Future Leaders Council. 

 Andria sits on the Advisory board for the Cultural Leaders Alliance.

Follow Andria on Twitter: @Andriazaf

Lenovo Director driving Global Education Strategy & Solutions.

Follow Richard on Twitter: @richeducations