In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

The Engine Room
70 View Street
Bendigo, Victoria, 3550
Australia

Alison Ward

Alison had an established and successful career as an Interior Decorator, Artist and Kitchen Design for 15 years. In 2008, she decided to pursue a career in Teaching. After experiencing the ethos of various secondary colleges, she was enthusiastically employed at McClelland College actively teaching and mentoring all year levels (7-VCE) across five subject areas, (Art, Media, Studio Art, Visual Communication and History). Alison also works alongside other industry trained staff to facilitate students from all academic levels in the McClelland College Academy Program. She is passionate in allowing students to engage in real industry work experience through this vehicle, as this allows for inclusivity for all students at McClelland.

Ben Gallagher

Ben Gallagher thinks big when it comes fostering a fascination with maths amongst his students. He creates a sense of excitement and exploration in the classroom where maths-rich digital games, challenges and technologies help curious young minds thrive. He also ran a School Film Festival -hosted by none other than Academy Award Winning Animator, Adam Elliot, where student-created stop motion Lego videos were screened at the local cinema. Whilst fun is a key to success, Ben is serious about the teamwork, strategy, coding and problem-solving skills that students gain along the way. Ben is a Leading Teacher of Innovative Learning Design and ICT and was ICTEV’s Educator of the Year in 2012 and a finalist in the VEEA Outstanding Primary School Teacher Category in 2015. Ben is also a Vice-president of Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria, with a his focus on students and community.

Bill Thomas

Bill Thomas has led the development and installation of many sustainable projects at his college over this time and his efforts have seen the college being recognised at state, national and international levels as an exemplar of best practice in sustainability. He recently led the construction of a purpose built Meditation and Indigenous Culture Centre within the Moorooboon Wetland to support the college Mindfulness Meditation and Positive Education Wellbeing Program. Bill has been personally recognized for his work in many different forums. In 2012 he was awarded United Nations of Australia World Environment Day Individual Award for Outstanding Service to the Environment as well as the prestigious Winston Churchill Fellowship, allowing him to travel extensively through Scandinavia in 2013 researching sustainability education.

Chantelle Morrison

Chantelle Morrison is a teacher at Immanuel Primary School in Adelaide, SA and a founding member of Innovated SA. Since specialising in students with literacy and numeracy difficulties at The University of Canberra, Chantelle has taught primary students in both public and independent education systems. With over a decade of teaching and leadership experience, she has worked closely with The Learning Federation, IB Federation, ABC Splash, ALEA, ELH, MYSA, ISTE, Reflect Growth and Sydney Centre for Innovation in Learning to develop innovative education initiatives. Her mission is to develop initiatives that harness information systems to differentiate learning and develop student-direction, ownership, critical thinking, empathy and inquiry. Chantelle has presented about her passion for innovative education at conferences around Australia and the US as well as key-note speaking in Hong Kong.

Jodie Parsons

Originally a Scottish research scientist, Yvonne started work as a teacher of mathematics and science at Sunshine College in 2007. It was here that she and fellow teacher Jodie Parsons started to develop and trial various ways to improve student outcomes in mathematics. At Sunshine College they revolutionised the mathematics curriculum by doing away with the text books and developing lessons which were fully inclusive and differentiated. Both Yvonne and Jodie have co‐authored several papers and have presented at many conferences in Australia and around the world, and recently picked up an award at the ACER Excellence in Professional Practice Conference for outstanding conference presentation.They also recently were winners of two awards from the Victorian Education Excellence Awards - Outstanding School Advancement Award and the Lindsay Thompson Award for Excellence in Education.

Jonathon Walter

Jonathan Walter is the Principal of Woodleigh School, a contemporary, holistic Foundation to Year 12 co-educational independent school on the Mornington Peninsula, Melbourne, Australia, with an enrolment of over 1,000 students across three campuses. Jonathan has over 25 years of experience, gained from a career in co-educational independent schools working as an Outdoor Educator, classroom teacher and educational administrator. He is regarded as a specialist in experiential education and has a history of developing innovative learning programs for students which engage them in active learning, targeted at responding to their individual learning needs.

Kim Martin

Kim is as an educator with over 20 years experience, who has specialised in professional learning, special education, assistive technology and digital technology. She’s a Google Certified Innovator and Apple Distinguished Educator. Her passion and enthusiasm for technologies enabling differentiation for all learners and empowering young people to be responsible global citizens is clearly apparent through her work since the 1990s.

Laura Molan

Laura is the Art Domain and FLIP (Future Learners Inquiry Program) Leader. Laura began her career as a secondary art teacher 13 years ago and since then she has seen her focus shift from teaching in an art classroom to teaching literacy across the curriculum. She is a school leader in the teaching of literacy and inquiry based learning, and along with peers has developed FLIP for her school, which combines these two areas. She has run professional development on Writing To Learn strategies, deep learning and curriculum development. She has taken a lead role in the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning initiative and has been responsible for significant develop of teaching and learning at UYSC.

Liana Gooch

Liana is passionate about supporting the development of STEAM skills and knowledge in girls’ education. Liana has held numerous leadership roles related to curriculum development. Originally from New Zealand, Liana has experience as an acting Head of Faculty in Humanities and deputy Head of Faculty. Liana has held the position of the Director of Learning, Teaching and Innovation at Toorak College for the past three years. Prior to this role, she was also the Academic Enhancement Coordinator. She has worked as part of a team to develop a successful Makerspace the DIGIZone in her school to support STEAM thinking skills. Liana is also focused on developing the framework of professional learning, pedagogy and curriculum development and innovative programs with curriculum leaders and their teams to embed STEAM thinking, skills, entrepreneurship, application of digital tools and opportunities to interface with industry to best prepare girls for this world of work.

Monique Rohr

Monique is a passionate and enthusiastic History teacher at Upper Yarra Secondary College. Monique has been the head of the Humanities Department for 6 years, before recently taking on the role of Director of Curriculum and has been responsible for significant develop of teaching and learning at UYSC. Monique’s focus is on whole school improvement, with a particular focus on the teaching of literacy and improving pedagogy across the school. She was part of a team that implemented an integrated, inquiry based learning program at years 7 and 8 that aims to improve student skills and engagement through the explicit teaching of transferable learning skills and providing choice for students to follow their interests.

Phil Carew

Phil is Head of eLearning position at Toorak College . Phil’s specialty area of study is Media from Years 9 to 12. He is proficient in the use of a range of technology tools to support the teaching and learning in and out of the classroom, which he shares with colleagues and students in order to gain the best outcomes with a focus on digital technologies, reporting and assessment. He recently led a team of staff to develop a Makerspace for students from ELC to Year 12 to use. This is an exciting new space where all members of the learning community can engage in technologies, creativity and innovative practices that relate to real world challenges and future thinking.

Stephen Elford

Stephen is a passionate secondary Maths/Science teacher of over 10 years. He has been working on integrating 3D printing into the curriculum at his school for the last 3 years. He is the designer of a Braille Periodic Table that has been shipped around the world to assist vision impaired students to learn the chemistry of the elements in the same way as sighted students. He has also designed braille dice and an educational DNA model. Stephen Spoke at SPEVI in 2015 about how 3D printing can enable schools to better meet the needs of vision impaired students. Stephen has presented at sxswEDU, Microsoft’s inaugural Minecraft in Education Symposium and Minecon as a guest educator for Microsoft. He has also presented recently for the Queensland Department of Education on how to integrate Minecraft into classrooms and link it to curriculum.

Yvonne Reilly

Originally a Scottish research scientist, Yvonne started work as a teacher of mathematics and science at Sunshine College in 2007. It was here that she and fellow teacher Jodie Parsons started to develop and trial various ways to improve student outcomes in mathematics. At Sunshine College they revolutionised the mathematics curriculum by doing away with the text books and developing lessons which were fully inclusive and differentiated. Both Yvonne and Jodie have co‐authored several papers and have presented at many conferences in Australia and around the world, and recently picked up an award at the ACER Excellence in Professional Practice Conference for outstanding conference presentation.They also recently were winners of two awards from the Victorian Education Excellence Awards - Outstanding School Advancement Award and the Lindsay Thompson Award for Excellence in Education.