ICT
WELCOME TO OUR NEW MEMBERS OF THE ICT DEPARTMENT
The ICT department would like to warmly welcome the following teachers:
Mr Juan Ospina Leon
My name is Juan, and I'm very glad to be joining this wonderful community in the ICT, Maths, and Languages departments. I have been teaching for a few years having started with VCE Maths and Economics, then teaching Japanese and Science, and now onto Coding, Spanish, and still a bit more of Maths.
I really look forward to teaching Spanish and Coding as Spanish is my native (I’m from Colombia originally), and Coding is something that I really enjoy doing (I was previously a learning specialist in data at another school).
A little bit about me beyond teaching is that I'm an avid runner with a goal this year to break my previous half marathon personal best time of 1h45min. Maybe even try a full marathon next year. Other than that, I watch too much Japanese anime but I have a good excuse as that it is mostly on the treadmill so it becomes good training. Other than that, I enjoy video games and playing the guitar, although should probably spend more time on the latter and less on the former!
Mr Hieu Dang
My name is Hieu Dang. Previously, I was working as a business analyst for an American company for seven years. I moved to Australia in 2019 to pursue a career in teaching, obtained my Master of Teaching from Monash University in 2020 and began teaching in 2021.
My previous schools are Glen Waverley Secondary College and Trinity Grammar School, where I taught both Mathematics and Digital Technologies. I am now teaching these two subjects at McKinnon Secondary College, and I would love to bring my skills and experience into the classroom to teach the next generation. Teaching has brought me much more joy than my previous analyst job, as I find more meaning in what I do every day.
As someone who has lived on three different continents, I love meeting new people of diverse backgrounds and learning about their cultures and customs. I also have a hobby of learning languages, am fluent in Vietnamese and have intermediate knowledge of Spanish, French and Mandarin Chinese.
In my free time, I like to exercise (go to the gym, go swimming, ride a bike) and play board games with others (I have about 30 different ones in my collection).
GROK COMPETITIONS
Grok will again be running a series of competitions this year, starting with the NCSS Challenge which starts on Monday 13 February. This is particularly good for students who have an interest in programming and would like to give it a try or enhance their current interest. It is a great way to challenge themselves and learn to code!
All interest should be directed to hmn@mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au for further information.
Students should continue to check Compass for information on all the Grok competitions that the school will be offering this year.
EXCITING NEW COMPETITION BEGINNING FOR YEAR 7s
As advertised on the Compass newsfeed a new competition aimed at Year 7s is being trialled. McK has been selected to run the first Australian comp. An expression of interest form has been placed on Compass but the deadline date has been extended to Friday 10 February.
The competition is only available to 25 lucky participants and will run afterschool. The lucky 25 will be contacted via email at the weekend (Saturday 11 February), with a planned first meeting on Wednesday 15 February at 3:30pm in room A04.
The EOI form is only accessible for the student to complete.
WHAT IS IT? I HEAR YOU ASK…
Well…according to their site, “AWS GetIT is a fully funded education program and competition designed to inspire 12-14-year-old students, especially girls, to consider a future in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)... a curriculum designed to help students build foundational skills, learn about cloud tech, and design app ideas to solve problems in their communities.” (AWS (n.d)).
Information can be found at AWS or contact me via email.
Mary Ho
ICT Learning Area Manager