Tim Stahmer
Freelance Educator
Fairfax County Public Schools (Retired)
Educational Leadership
I have been a VSTE member for more than 25 years and have served the organization through my work on various teams, presenting at the conference almost every year, and supporting other smaller events. For the past three years, I have been honored to serve on the Board of Directors and working as part of the Outreach and Advocacy Committees. I was part of the team that renovated the VSTE website to make it more accessible and useful for the membership, and continues to maintain it. In addition, I have been part of the Conference committee for six years, originating and leading the Maker/Playground areas that bring more interaction to the annual event. I have also planned and present events for local, state and national organizations, including ISTE, ASCD, and NSDC.
Vision for VSTE
Over the past three years, the Board has worked to increase VSTE’s role as a vocal advocate for Virginia teachers, ITRTs, school administrators and other education professionals at the state and national level. We must continue and expand this effort to strongly articulate the views of our members on instructional issues related to the use of technology for learning. One way of doing this is by expanding our support of regional and local organizations and their events that help ITRT and teachers become more effective at using technology to improve student learning. We must also continue our efforts to learn and use the art of lobbying, especially in Richmond, so that the Governor, legislators, and other officials clearly understand our message.
Biographical Sketch
For more than 25 years, I was a teacher and Technology Specialist in Fairfax County. During the latter part of my time there, I was privileged to work with the 200 amazing instructional technology trainers (called ITRTs in most parts of Virginia) in our schools, primarily supporting their efforts with middle and high school teachers and students. Prior to that I was one of those trainers, back when one of us served multiple schools at multiple levels. In a life before that, I taught students in middle and high school the beauty and application of mathematics and computer science. On the side, I have been actively blogging for almost 15 years (ancient history in the web timeline) and regularly inflict my thoughts on the web through Twitter, flickr and other channels.
