Heather Hanks

Background

About Heather Hanks

Launching big ideas in education Started a districtwide esports league and elective in esports, and worked with key players in STEM & scholastic esports to bring together large districts in Florida for a statewide league Started the state’s first social media class, working with district supervisors to write curriculum & launch in other schools, and presenting and sharing with others statewide Started a college level AP photography course, allowing over half of students who were first-time AP students to earn college credit with a 97% pass rate all-time Launched AP Computer Science Principles districtwide, developing curriculum to integrate industry certification, earning student acceleration & online course credit, generating more school FTE, and providing professional development for teachers across the state of Florida leveraging partnerships as a Code.org facilitator with the Tampa Bay STEM Network Created a student run Genius Bar course, enabling students to pilot 1:1 devices in the district while allowing them to have an IT internship, also working with the FLDOE to update the state benchmarks for the course pathway Started EdCamp Hillsborough, bringing together over 200 educators from Tampa Bay for an unconference experience in pedagogy & edtech, and creating a student-run makerspace to share STEM, 3D printing & robotic technologies with K-12 educators Founded a 501(c)3 non-profit to raise over for classrooms & student scholarships by building partnerships with other local non-profits, running two successful Honorary Mayor of Brandon campaigns Revived the photography contests for the Florida Scholastic Press Association by digitizing them, providing unique opportunities for new contests, and working with professional photojournalists to provide judging & feedback to students Launched a new hybrid coaching role for the district, improving professional development experiences for teachers working in partnership with UF Lastinger Center as a Florida Teacher Leader Fellow and writing for ASCD about the experience as an ASCD Emerging Leader Created a new digital photography course and curriculum for the district, Digital Art Imaging Created microcredentials on LGBTQ+ students and staff for NEA in partnership with Learning Forward and Digital Promise to help train educators across the country Developed four school apps for schools to communicate more effectively with families, and consulted with schools on communications and social media usage Let’s make big ideas happen for kids.