I'm glad you're here! I've put a lot of time into this site, but the 'about' page isn't somewhere I anticipate most people spending much time. If you're one of my students just wandering about check out the facts generator to learn a few things about your teacher. If you want to learn more 'serious' things, keep reading!

I'm a designer and a design and technology educator. I work at the International School of Nanshan Shenzhen, teaching MYP years 4 and 5, and both DP Design Tech classes. I am and have been a part of a whole range of projects and teams at school, from 5 years of daily video announcements, to writing the AI policy for our network of 13 schools, to leading workshops for teachers as part of our DEIJ committee. I've taught all 5 years of MYP, and served as grade level lead (head teacher/lead teacher equivalent) during the 23-24 and 24-25 school years. This isn't my resume, but I do feel it's important to share a few professional details to make clear that yes, I am a real, actual teacher.

In addition to teaching, I make things. This website is one of those things- well, quite a few things actually. I am deeply curious, and continually learning new things. In the past decade I've meaningfully engaged with carpentry, AI, homelabs, 3D modeling, 3D printing, textiles, leatherworking, bowmaking, masonry, video editing, cameras, electronics, Warhammer, and perhaps a dozen more broad areas. I have ADHD, and while it is not a 'superpower', (quite the opposite), it's probably contributed to the expanding range of projects I've dug into over time. (I think it also helps me to be a better teacher, because I can relate to students who struggle with focus and attention.)

Design Technology is an awesome subject, and has been so much fun to teach. This site is packed with curriculum, tools to help students and teachers, fun projects, and things that blend all these elements together. I first learned HTML hundreds of years ago when I was 11, and came back to web projects many times between then and now. This site is a blend of my own work alongside code created with the assistance of various commercial and locally-run AI tools.

I feel strongly that proper disclosure of AI tool use is essential for teachers, and that attempting to hide our own usage of AI removes any right we have to be outraged or dissapointed by students using it. Obviously there is a wide spectrum of what 'AI use' actually means, and plenty of it is so integrated into modern software already that I hardly mean you should disclose to students that a few sentences of your Powerpoint were auto-completed by CoPilot. This website is a good example of a project that I think absolutely requires a disclaimer, and I think that being upfront with students about how AI was used and why helps to demonstrate how they can use it ethically, and builds trust. I can and will write much more about this on my blog, but as a parting example I'd highlight study guides I've written for tests in DP design. (Not shared on this site). It is very, very easy to ask any LLM to generate a study guide, but if you handed me a hefty guide and I realized AI authored it I'd check out quickly. My study guides are tediously hand-written, refer to specific questions and wonderings from class, make jokes and callbacks, and my students read them in their entirety. I make sure they know that *I* write them, and occasionally share how much of a time committment one was, and that matters.

With all that said, I hope you enjoy exploring this site, and that it helps you in your own learning and teaching. If you have any questions, suggestions, or just want to say hi, please reach out! I love hearing from students, teachers, and fellow makers.