Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy… or something like that.
Until 2014, my entire goal in life was to become a successful primary school teacher, but now all of that has changed and since September 2016, I’ve left the classroom to become an independent consultant sharing my knowledge and understanding of computer science with other teachers…
My passion is to share my knowledge and enjoyment of computing science and coding and I am determined to help people one way or another – you can find me at events involving sharing of ideas or else sharing my love of all things Raspberry Pi & micro:bit so please feel free to find me for a chat. I want to make it clear to my fellow teachers that anyone can code and it’s really not as scary because I absolutely love it when I see that spark of excitement for the first time on a teacher’s face! I started from almost no knowledge whatsoever and I’ve found my passion for it so I really want to give that back to others so that they can enjoy it too.
More recently, I’ve been working on projects around mental health, sharing my own experiences with depression and exploring how mental health can affect the teaching world – you can find out more by heading to mentalhealthineducation.com . I think too many educators and people in schools suffer in silence so I’m working to encourage people to share their stories and talk openly about mental health battles so that we can begin to normalise the conversatoin and reduce the stigma.
I’m available for independent work which, in the past, has included working as a facilitator for the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s free CPD, Picademy, as well as working for the National Stem Centre in York and writing resources and articles, which has included a K-5 scheme of work for introducing computer science for a Canadian independent school group, called Maple Bear. As part of my work for Maple Bear, I have spent time in Brazil training teachers in computational thinking and I’ve also delivered training in both Argentina and the US. I have recently finished working on a scheme of work for Kapow Primary where I supported the development and creation of resources for the computing content. I am particularly proud of this content as part of my role was to ensure that the resources were as accessible as possible to non-specialist teachers and feedback from schools has shown that we have been successful in this goal.
I am a Google Certified Trainer & Innovator, Raspberry Pi Certified Educator, CAS Master Teacher and was made an Apple Distinguished Educator in 2015 – I really love thinking about ways to use technology, any technology, to support education and have been particularly enjoying sharing ideas for using G Suite for Education in recent months.
I also work part-time for Crossover Solutions – Going completely freelance with my CPD offerings seemed foolish when Crossover Solutions were keen to offer my services to the schools in their network, enabling them to offer a more rounded service with peer-led training and not just set-up and repair. It was a natural fit, especially since one of the founders is my other-half and I’m looking forward to getting involved with more and more schools on Crossover’s behalf.
If you’d like me to work for you, get in touch by emailing me on cat@crossover.solutions so we can talk over how I can help you!
Please note that all views expressed on this blog are completely my own and in no way reflect any of the companies or agencies I work for!
Cat Lamin 