Discover ways to reenergize your teachers this spring and summer.

This free webinar uses a round-table format to share personal stories from school and district administrators. Faced with the challenges of providing opportunities for hands-on learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, these experiences demonstrate how they have provided their teachers with ways to better engage their students. As you plan for a brighter future, we invite you to learn from these stories and from the National Inventors Hall of Fame® (NIHF) about how student learning is enhanced through hands-on discovery.

In this webinar, we will discuss:

• How your district can use CARES Act funding to implement summer programming that is flexible and turnkey.
• Why administrators are looking forward to Camp Invention to rekindle their educators’ love of teaching, and to address learning loss.
• Why children need collaboration and social-emotional learning (SEL) more than ever before.
• How these district educators restored joy and excitement to teaching through safe hands-on learning this school year and in summer school.
• The power of invention education and how you can use its strategies to help your students create and innovate.

Meet our panelists

Christine Girtain

Director of Authentic Science Research at Toms River High Schools South and North

Over the past 26 years, Christine has taught Earth science, biology and research. She was the 2019 New Jersey STEM Educator of the Year. Christine directs Camp Invention, an Army Education Outreach Program (AEOP) and TRSTEM Camp, creating an engineering and biotechnology K-12 STEM pipeline. She has a bachelor of science degree in biology from the College of New Jersey and a master's degree in instruction and curriculum in Earth science from Kean University.

Mags Petkiewicz

Principal, Gardner Academy

Mags entered the field of education after co-directing two separate non-profit organizations, a multi-service center for the homeless in Lowell, Massachusetts and a preventive health children’s education agency in Oaxaca, Mexico. After earning her teaching credential and Masters of Bilingual Education Mags went on to become a two-way immersion teacher and coach followed by a bilingual programs manager for the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and EL Services, Pre-K-5. She currently serves as Principal at Gardner Academy, home to both and English and Two-Way Immersion strand serving a predominantly immigrant and Chicano community in downtown San Jose.

Camille Wallin

Principal, Muscota New School

Camille Wallin has served 10 of her 15 years as a New York City-area principal at the Muscota New School, a Manhattan progressive school serving students in grades K-5. Prior to Muscota, Wallin served as principal of P.S. 42 in Bronx, New York. The success of Wallin and her team at P.S. 42 is captured in Tierney Fairchild’s book “The Turnaround Mindset.” She has mentored more than 10 aspiring principals and currently coaches NYC District 6 new principals. She was a NYC Chancellor Fellow, has facilitated for the NYC Teacher Leadership Program and has participated in the Wallace Principal Pipeline Initiative. She received a bachelor of arts degree from St. Mary’s College in Minnesota and a master of science degree in elementary and early childhood education from Hunter College in New York City.

Davia Madariaga, Ed.D.

Regional Program Development Manager, National Inventors Hall of Fame

Davia joined our team in 2019 as regional program development manager for Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming. Davia’s educational career of over 20 years includes classroom teacher, curriculum writing and professional development facilitator. Previous to education, Davia was an intellectual property paralegal for a well-known international IP law firm in Dallas, Texas, and holds a paralegal certification from the State Bar of Texas. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history and journalism from Texas A&M-Commerce, a master’s degree in educational leadership from Concordia University-Texas and a doctorate in transformational leadership/organizational design from Concordia University-Portland.

Christine Jayo

Regional Program Development Manager, National Inventors Hall of Fame

Christine Jayo joined the NIHF team in 2004. Over the past 17 years, Christine has been a regional program development manager for the western United States. In this capacity, Christine builds and supports relationships with school and district administrators to provide unique solutions to their educational needs. She also supports NIHF’s partners through teacher professional development for both program implementation and with our unique “Innovation Mindset” PD program. She earned bachelor's and master’s degrees in business administration.