Meet the Teachers

Al Doyle | Sports for the Mind

What four keywords would you use to describe yourself?
Intense, creative, extroverted, artistic

What four keywords would your students use to describe you?
Cool, kind, creative, helpful

What are you most looking forward to about joining the Q2L community?
I like the idea of being part of something bigger than me; like doing theater or team sports in the sense that it is a shared effort in service to a greater good. I like the opportunity to be ahead of the 'education/technology' curve not behind it. I am looking forward to the adventure into new territory.

What is your all-time favorite game?
Favorite real world game: Basketball (one-on-one or two-on-two). Favorite computer game: Spore.

What was your favorite game when you were in sixth grade?
We used to play "Skelley" which involved bottle caps filled with melted crayon wax and was sort of like marbles but it had a game board painted on the ground in all the Brooklyn playgrounds. It was already ancient and it had an urban/myth mystique attached to it like the Mickey Rourke character in "Rumble Fish" (a movie about a former teen age rebel).

Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
I like to draw cartoons, comics and animation. I also like to play bass guitar and make techno/rock music on my computer using Reason software.

What are you reading and watching right now?
I'm reading about Frank Lloyd Wright, the architect who designed the Guggenheim Museum. The Women by T.C. Boyle is historical fiction based on the wives and mistresses of Frank Lloyd Wright as told through the eyes of one of his student apprentices; I think it will make a great movie script in the near future. • Chunnel.tv is a new web site that offers some really cool videos about music, art, film and the street (all of my favorite things!).



Ross Flatt | Being, Space and Place

What four keywords would you use to describe yourself?
Passionate, multi-faceted, witty, energetic

What four keywords would your students use to describe you?
Consistent, creative, funny, tough

What are you most looking forward to about joining the Q2L community?
I'm looking forward to planning new types of history lessons with game designers.

What was your favorite game when you were in sixth-grade?
In 6th grade, my friends and I started playing a game called "Manhunt" at recess. One team had crooks, the other team had cops, but the cops were always outnumbered by the crooks! Picture the strategy of Capture the Flag combined with the intensity of Tag and the detective work of Hide-and-Seek. Best game ever.

Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
I come from a family of cooking musicians. We like to make food and play instruments, though it gets pretty messy when we do both at the same time.

What are you reading/watching right now?
"Fresh Air" on NPR is constantly playing on my iTunes podcasts, Gordon Ramsay cooking shows are always recording on my DVR, and The Onion is usually loaded on my browser or folded up in my bag. It's a lot to take in at once.



Lara Gerstein | Wellness

What four keywords would you use to describe yourself?
Integrating, interested, intellectual and mommy

What four keywords would your students use to describe you?
Fun, challenging, artistic and caring

What are you most looking forward to about joining the Q2L community?
I feel very lucky that I’ll be interacting with really smart, supportive people of all ages who love to play games and to learn new things.

What is your all-time favorite game?
I have many favorites but I’ll have to say Fictionary because that makes me laugh the most.

What was your favorite game when you were in sixth grade?
Clue, Mastermind, Boggle and a game we invented, called, Tag Without Touching The Sand, in the sand park near my apartment.

Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
I have been a Modern Dance teacher for a long time and am interested in arts and culture from around the world. But I also like to write, travel, talk to people whose lives are different than mine, sing children’s and folk songs, listen to all kinds of music, read, make collages and do crossword puzzles and Sudoku.

What are you reading/watching right now?
I just started reading Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife and I listen to my favorite shows on WNYC as often as I can. I’ve also rediscovered some really great children’s books that I read to my daughter, like Goggles and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.



Alicia Ianucci | Code Worlds

What four keywords would you use to describe yourself?
Creative, organized, compassionate and funny

What four keywords would your students use to describe you?
Fun, fair, exciting and passionate

What are you most looking forward to about joining the Q2L community?
I’m most looking forward to the chance to work in an emerging realm of education, where all learning is truly interconnected. I’m especially excited about working with and exploring mathematics in new ways… ways I never thought I would as a teacher and learner. And of course, I’m thrilled to be working with an amazing staff and bright, eager young students in the fall.

What is your all-time favorite game?
Growing up, I loved board games and puzzles, never mind the fact my parents forbid me from playing video games. My favorite game(s) is a three-way tie: Trouble, Mancala and Trivial Pursuit.

What was your favorite game when you were in sixth grade?
Computers had made their way into our education when I was in elementary school, so they were finally allowing games by the time I reached middle school. My favorite game in sixth grade had to be Oregon Trail, played with a huge (literally) floppy disk and a tiny computer screen. I wasn’t very good, because I kept submerging my oxen in six feet deep water or dying of cholera.

Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
In my spare time, I read, draw and practice my photography skills. I received a Canon Digital EOS for Christmas and have been trying to use is as often as humanly possible.

What are you reading/watching right now?
I finished Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons recently, and have read a few other books that weren’t nearly as good or exciting. I’m currently scouring book stores and my parents’ shelves for more books to read. I’m also becoming addicted to Twitter, so I’m “reading” my friends' tweets every day as well.



Ameer Mourad | The Way Things Work

What four keywords would you use to describe yourself?
Reliant, adventurous, curious and cynical

What four keywords would your students use to describe you?
Respectful, fair, fun and nice

What are you most looking forward to about joining the Q2L community?
I look forward to the opportunity to work with a group of motivated and innovative individuals who like myself, share Q2L’s vision for learning in our ever-evolving digital world.

What is your all-time favorite game?
Tough to pick just one… my favorite board games are Chess, Risk, and Monopoly. Computer games would definitely be StarCraft.

What was your favorite game when you were in sixth grade?
Double Dragon and Battle Toads, SEGA

Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
My interests are vast and varied. I don’t have any specific hobbies, but I love being outdoors, exploring new places, meeting new people and working with my hands.

What are you reading and watching right now?
Last thing I watched was a speech from Dan Ariely on TED, where he was exploring the notion that maybe we do not have as much control over our decisions as we may think… "Are we in control of our own decisions?"
The last thing I read was an article I found on DIGG about the “missing link" but it's actually a BBC article, "Scientists hail stunning fossil."



William Moyet | After School

What four keywords would you use to describe yourself?
Courteous, meticulous, competitive, humorous

What four keywords would your students use to describe you?
Caring, honest, fun, encouraging

What are you most looking forward to about joining the Q2L community?
I’m looking forward to being a part of a groundbreaking school community and working with inventive minds.

What is your all-time favorite game?
Chess

What was your favorite game when you were in sixth grade?
Street fighter, I especially like playing it in the arcades.

Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
Wrestling (folkstyle), boxing, trading cards (MLB, NBA, NFL) and collecting sneakers.

What are you reading/watching right now?
Right now I’m reading a book titled This I Believe, which is a collection of personal essays based on an original NPR radio-news program series. I watch ESPN, Hardball, Countdown and The Rachel Maddow Show nightly on MSNBC.



Lassina Ouattara | Technology Specialist

What four keywords would you use to describe yourself?
Patient, creative, unpredictable and kind

What four keywords would your students use to describe you?
They would most likely use calm, cool, nice and smart.

What are you most looking forward to about joining the Q2L community?
I'm really looking forward to working closely with creative minds; both teachers and students.

What is your all-time favorite game?
Classic Tetris!

What was your favorite game when you were in sixth grade?
Sudoku and Tetris



Ginger Stevens | Learning Strategist

What four keywords would you use to describe yourself?
Curious, active, laughing, loving

What four keywords would your students use to describe you?
Fun, helpful, green, fair

What are you most looking forward to about joining the Q2L community?
I'm most looking forward to meeting the students and other teachers. I think we will build an incredibly exciting learning community.

What is your all-time favorite game?
Running Charades—it combines an improv game and a relay race.

What was your favorite game when you were in sixth grade?
What an interesting question! I remember playing Myst and Prince of Persia on the computer. I also loved to play card games like Spit, B.S., and Rummy with my friends.

Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
I love being outdoors—hiking, backpacking, gardening, and exploring new places. I am also learning to play the guitar.

What are you reading/watching right now?
I'm currently reading a book I've wanted to read for a while: A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn. I enjoy listening to stories about people's lives on the "This American Life" podcast.


Julia Wald | Guidance and Advisory

Your job title sounds intriguing, what will your role be at Quest?
I'm helping coordinate the home base advisory domain, making sure kids' social and emotional needs are met, and staffing the lunch room.

What four keywords would you use to describe yourself?
curious, quirky, humorous, intuitive

What four keywords would your students use to describe you?
Nice, calm, patient, cool

What are you most looking forward to about joining the Q2L community?
I cannot WAIT to meet the kids. I'm looking forward to being in such a unique school community and being part of something so grand and groundbreaking.

What was your favorite game when you were in sixth grade?
It's a tie between Donkey Kong Country for Super Nintendo, which came out the end of that year, and Kick-the-Can, which was a lot of fun to play in the rain.

What do you find most interesting about game-based learning?
Most interesting is that I think people have always learned and developed best through games and social interactions. The psychologist Lev Vygotsky said: "In play, a child is always above his average age, above his daily behavior; in play, it is as though he were a head taller than himself." I love this quote.

Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
Volunteering, exercising, pets (I've had rats and snapping turtles. I once had 4 parakeets who had free range of my house. It got messy despite my efforts to "potty" train them)

What are you reading/watching right now?
Right now, I'm reading When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals, by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas (great book even if you don't like animals!), The Performance of a Lifetime by Fred Newman, Ph.D, always reading Scientific American Mind, cookbooks, and menus).