About the Author

 

Background

bullet

Kurt Thonnings received his education degree from Kent State University in 1985.  His teaching career currently spans almost 23 years at the following locations

 

  • 11 years (current job) - Westlake City Schools:  Technology Resource Teacher (5-8)

  • 1 year - Cuyahoga Falls City Schools, Ohio:  Industrial Arts Teacher (9-12)

  • 6 years - Rockbridge County Schools, Virginia:  Industrial Arts Teacher (6-8)

  • 1 year - Kent State University: Drafting lab assistant

  • 4 years - Twinsburg City Schools, Ohio:  Industrial Arts Teacher (6-8)

 

Programs and Experience

"New"

bullet

Wikis:  Maintains and helps others use wikis within their classes

bullet

Blogs:  Maintains and helps others

bullet

Designs and creates wide range of instructional videos and print content

bullet

Learning and conducting profession in-service on many types of software, hardware, etc.

bullet

TV Production

bullet

Online databases

bullet

School District Technology plans

bullet

Model Solar Vehicles

bullet

Digital Video and movie-making software

bullet

Digital photography and image software

bullet

Digital audio / podcasting

bullet

iTunes - video and audio content creation

"Old"

bullet

Web pages

bullet

Databases

bullet

Drafting

bullet

Darkroom photography

bullet

Basic Computer Repair

bullet

Electronics

bullet

Aerodynamics

bullet

Model Bridge Building

bullet

Manufacturing

bullet

Desktop publishing

 

 

 

 

Large projects

"New"

bullet

Design and implement profession development dealing with a wide range of technology topics for 3 district buildings with a public school district

bullet

Maintains and builds instructional web pages focusing on helping teachers use technology.  Format includes both print and video format

bullet

Adjunct professor for Ashland University.  Designed and taught classes

bullet

Designed and built a fully operational TV set.  Students gave 'live' broadcasts to the entire school every other day as morning announcements.  Broadcast using ustream

bullet

Broadcast school events 'live' using ustream (band concerts, solar car races, talent shows, etc.)

bullet

Organized and ran Junior Solar Sprint programs at two different schools.  Current program is the entire 6th grade student body:  300+ students and 6 teachers.

bullet

Instituted a grade book program for an entire district

bullet

Instituted teacher web pages at two schools within a district.  Web pages increased from 5% of the faculty to currently over 95%

bullet

Organized and coordinated a whole school field trip to NASA.  Students communicated live with astronauts of the International Space Station.

bullet

Created and ran a two school online voting project (2004)

 

"Old"

bullet

Designed and built a darkroom

bullet

Designed and built a fully operational TV set.  Students gave 'live' broadcasts to the entire school every 2 weeks

bullet

Built and sold modular sheds to the community

bullet

Ran wood toy productions that benefited Christmas Toys for Tots programs at three different schools

bullet

Instituted and in-serviced all teachers in a district on uploading grades to their webpages

bullet

 

Personal

bullet

City Bus Driver for Kent State University (1979-85)

bullet

Tour bus driver for Glacier National Park (1983)

bullet

Tour bus driver for Yellowstone National Park (1985 and 1988)

bullet

Private Pilot

bullet

Three week bicycle tour of Ireland (1994)

 

Contact Information

The best way to reach Kurt is through the following email address: