speakers
Brad Kelly
Brad is the founder and senior presenter at Cornerstone Teacher Learning. He is a teacher, writer and professional learning coach who has spent over two decades in education as a History and English teacher, holding various middle leadership positions as a department head, Director of Secondary and more recently in professional learning. He is the author of seven textbooks with Cengage and Small Caps publishing, and has had over 1,500 teachers through his courses on writing instruction in the areas of history, English and cross-curricular interventions. Brad is interested in learning how students and teachers learn with a keen interest in literacy and thinking, particularly the role attention plays in schooling.
Dr. Estelle Lazer
Dr Estelle Lazer hails from the University of Sydney and she is one of the most highly respected and loved figures in the Ancient History teaching community. She has spent over three decades working with bones at Pompeii, but equally – and most importantly – she loves sharing her passion about Ancient History with teachers and students who are very much still living and breathing. Dr. Estelle is a co-director of the Pompeii Cast Project and spends her time commuting between Australia and Italy where she can be found digging up bones, leading tours and presenting her research to teachers.
Associate Professor Kathryn Welch
A/Prof Kathryn Welch is an honorary associate professor from the University of Sydney where she taught Ancient History between 1991 and 2021 with an emphasis on the Roman Republic and the early empire. Before that, she spent six years as an Ancient History teacher at Kogarah High School, but she has never lost her connection with students and teachers as a popular presenter at conferences and professional learning days. Dr Kathryn is also co-director of the Pompeii Cast Project with Dr. Estelle Lazer. Her current research interest is in constructing syllabuses and modes of study in order to test the assumptions embedded in the minds of ancients and in our own time.
Dr. Sam Frappell
Dr. Sam Frappell is a senior Modern History teacher with a PhD in History from the University of Sydney. She has written a range of history texts for primary and secondary students, including Civil Rights in the USA (Small Caps, 2022). Her interests include American, Japanese, film, Medieval and Australian history. Sam also leads teacher professional learning tours for Libertas travel and presents courses for Cornerstone on the areas of Civil Rights in the US and Japan.
Garry Hol
Garry Hol has been teaching English to secondary students through eight Prime Ministers, five FIFA World Cups and three NSW Curriculum rewrites – which means he has seen it all. He has also taught and led departments in five NSW high schools (Govt, Catholic and Independent), lectured hundreds of HSC students, written study guides, run courses for English and HSIE teachers and played 120 first grade rugby league games for the Dapto Canaries. These days, Garry’s interest is focused on providing the very best resources and evidence-based teaching strategies to Australian teachers, recognising the hours that are spent by teachers in developing and writing programs and lessons. He currently teaches English and HSIE at St Phillip’s Christian College Port Stephens and has recently returned to Cornerstone after a long Covid absence.